Burnt Hills went into the Friday night football game against Averill Park as the underdog, but the Spartans came out on top 17-7. We said it in the pregame preview: If I were a football team in Section II, I would not want to see Burnt Hills at this point in the postseason.

For the first time in a very long time, the Spartans were on the road for the first round of the playoffs. They came out like a different team and really established the run game on Friday.

Burnt Hills was up 10-0 at the half. Head Coach Matt Shell said coming out of the locker room that it was one of the best halves his team has played in quite some time. He also said his team needed to make tackles on defense.

In the second half, they did just that. Averill Park scored one touchdown, but the Burnt Hills defense played very well the entire game.

One player who really stood out was Matt Seidel. He was an offense of lineman for Burnt Hills last year, but Shell moved him to wing-back this season because they needed him to fill a void. This was his best game this season at that position.

Another interesting player for Burnt Hills this week was their senior quarterback Ryan Salisbury, who returned in this game. Salisbury broke his leg five weeks ago. Amazingly, he returned to Friday's game. For the players and coaching staff, it was “a shot of adrenaline,” according to Shell, to see Salisbury back out there.

Before the game, Averill Park Head Coach Zach Gobel said his teams played in a lot of games, won some of them, but now needed to be more consistent in big games.

This was not the night for Averill Park, but the Warriors have really established themselves over the last four or five years. I expect that will continue.

The season advances for Burnt Hills as it gets the winner of LaSalle/Queensbury.