ELDRED –– Eldred was abuzz on Friday night; in addition to hosting the unbeaten Onteora Eagle football team, it was Homecoming night, and the school also honored long time Yellowjacket teacher and coach Frank Kean before the game.

Coach Kean was not only honored for his 36 plus years of service as a teacher and a coach for the school, but for the indelible mark that he made on the lives of everyone he touched during his tenure.

The successes as a coach speak for themselves; in 2009, he led the football team to the class D state semi-finals after capturing the section 9 crown. In 1988 he was an assistant coach on the Tammi Reiss led team that won the state championship.

What also spoke for itself, was the outpouring of love and respect his former players, students and the entire community have for him-as was said by many of the 100 plus alumni who were in attendance; he made a difference in their lives.

During the festivities, Coach Kean seemed overcome by emotion but kept  hi composure, knowing that the memory of this night would be with him long after he left the field; and look back with pride and gratitude to the Eldred school and community, for letting him be a part of their story.

As the football game began Onteora took their first possession and marched down the field to score, an abrupt awakening for the Yellowjackets who quickly halted the 2-point conversion.  Connor Ranaudo, successfully scored the first touchdown for the Yellowjackets,

taking the lead on a successful 2-point conversion.

But Onteora is not undefeated by accident, they showed the home team what tournament caliber football looks like by scoring on their next two possessions, one of them made possible by converting on a fourth and seven, making the score 8–20 for the Eagles. 

Eldred came back swinging, showing their own determination, to score on their next two possessions, including a touchdown pass from Koen McGill to James Deyermond, and a QB keeper from McGill, taking a 22–20 over the visiting team. 

In the last minutes of the first half, Onteora was again able to score on a counter play that had been working all day. As the whistle ended the first half, the Eagles had regained a 22 to 26 lead.

On Eldred’s first play from scrimmage in the second half,  McGill showed his speed by running 47 yards into the endzone to take back the lead for the Yellowjackets. They followed that with a great stop on defense and another touchdown by Jayson Banach who ran it in from the 16. On another 2-point conversion, the home team led 36 to 26.

On the ensuing kickoff, Onteora thought they had returned the kick for a touchdown, only to have it called back because of a blocking from behind penalty. Unable to keep their drive going they punted to Eldred.  The Yellowjackets scored a 14-yard run by McGill to finish the drive. With another successful 2-point conversion, the Yellowjackets lead grew to 44–26.

The Eagles managed to score on a long 27-yard run from their QB, to come within ten points of Eldred’s lead.

Eldred focused on the ground game on the next play. Conner Ranaudo would score again for the ‘jackets, strategically running the clock down during the offesnsive drive. Onteora was showing itself to be incredibly resilient, their final drive ,though ended on a long pass broken up by Trai Kaufmann, and losing the ball on downs.  Eldred killed the clock on several smart runs by McGill, and they were able to finish the game in victory formation.

Eldred coach Sean McAveney still had concerns despite the win, “Our defense still has to get a lot better. We got a lot of guys injured or playing out of position, hopefully we can clean these things up and in 2 weeks get these guys healthy.

 Onteora is a fabulous football team, well coached, and they don’t give up, they keep fighting for the whole 48 minutes. They have some tough and talented players on that team, (# 24 Jameer Maize, RB/DB, Chase Matteson, QB/LB. # 8 Kyle Berryann, WR/DB). It was a good game for getting us ready for playoff football.”