Troy High football pulls away in second half in Class A semifinal

Troy

Troy football coach Bob Burns entered Friday's Class A semifinal contest expecting a physical battle against Ballston Spa and the Scotties sure engaged the Flying Horses in a defensive tussle through one half.

Over the final 24 minutes, however, Troy managed to maintain its excellence on defense and stepped up on offense. Led by a pair of 22-yard touchdown passes from junior quarterback Alex Wolfe to senior receiver Makai Cruel and the two-way exploits from junior star Xavier Leigh, Troy produced a solid 23-13 victory over the Scotties to advance to the Class A Super Bowl.

"We have some kids that we challenged to raise their level," Burns said. "We are down to the nitty gritty where you have to play well to win. I think they did that tonight."

Troy led just 2-0 at halftime. Ballston Spa (6-3) possessed the ball for nearly eight minutes on its opening drive of the third quarter, but had the march stall on downs. Troy proceeded to drive 67 yards in five plays, the first four runs by Leigh (112 yards, one touchdown), with Cruel making a brilliant diving catch in the end zone to culminate the series and then adding a two-point conversion catch for a 10-0 lead.

"We talked (at halftime) about keep pounding them and keep playing defense," said Leigh, who contributed five tackles (three for loss) and a strip sack. "We got the ball back for the offense."

"We made a couple of adjustments at halftime. We had opportunities in the first half that we just didn't take advantage of," Burns said. "We had a couple of pass plays where we thought we could get something and had a couple of drops. The adjustments worked well and I thought the kids played harder in the second half."

The Flying Horses (9-0) will make their fourth Super Bowl appearance in five years since Burns became...