QUEST COMPLETE

One season after falling a game short of the state final, Orchard Park followed through –and then some –with a fantastic finish

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The News is paying tribute to the Section VI's state-record four football champions with color poster pages this week:

How Orchard Park got there

1.Section VI championship: Orchard Park’s defense held North Tonawanda scoreless in the second half despite three trips inside the OP 30 and Jeff Tundo’s third touchdown, a 53-yarder with 1:38 left, clinched the Quakers’ 28-13 win and their fifth straight title.

2. Far West Regionals: The Quakers took a 14-0 lead in the opening 2:48 and ran for 324 yards in powering past Gates-Chili, 34-12. Jeff Tundo ran for 210 yards and three touchdowns on 29 carries while Kyle Hoppy ran for 99 yards and a score. The victory closed a best-ever 4-for-5 performance by Section VI against Section V (Rochester area) in the regional round.

3. State semifinals: On the same Paetec Park turf where its 2007 season ended with a loss to eventual state champion West Genesee, the Quakers turned in a state championship-caliber performance to earn the right to play for one as they earned a 37-21 win over Binghamton and its lethal offense. Jeff Tundo ran for four touchdowns and Cameron Hicks blocked three punts.

4. State final: In a season in which it rarely trailed, Orchard Park was down, 17-0, at halftime to a program that was playing its fourth straight final at the Carrier Dome. Then came a second half that will be talked about in OP for a long time. Three highlight-reel touchdown runs – two by game MVP Kyle Hoppy and one by Jeff Tundo – and a championship defensive performance added up to Orchard Park 21, Monroe-Woodbury 17.

Perfection / Game-by-game to 13-0

Regular season

Sept. 5 Kenmore West, W, 44-6
Sept. 13 at Jamestown, W, 25-0
Sept. 19 West Seneca West, W, 28-0
Sept. 27 at Clarence, W, 48-0
Oct. 3 at Frontier, W, 14-12
Oct. 11 Lancaster, W, 34-0
Oct. 18 at Niagara-Wheatfield, W, 47-6

Section VI quarterfinal Oct. 24 vs. Niagara-Wheatfield, W, 70-13

Section VI semifinal Oct. 31 vs. Kenmore West, W, 28-13

Section VI championship at Ralph Wilson Stadium Nov. 7 vs. North Tonawanda, W, 28-13

Far West Regional at UB Stadium Nov. 15 vs. V-Gates-Chili, W, 34-12

State semifinal at Paetec Park, Rochester Nov. 22 vs. III-Binghamton, W, 37-21

State championship at Carrier Dome, Syracuse Nov. 30 vs. IX-Monroe-Woodbury, W, 21-17

Quakers roster

5 Nathan Longbine, RB/DE

7 Kyle Robinson, WR/DB

8 Kyle Hoppy, QB/DB 9 Brendan Nuessle, LB/FB

10 David Goltz, WR/DB 11 David Janca, QB/LB

12 Nicholas Price, QB 15 Alec Witkowski, WR/EB

19 Sean Neaverth, WR/DB 20 Cameron Hicks, LB

21 Daniel Nesci, WR/DB 22 Kyle Perla, WR/DB

24 Jeffrey Tundo, RB 25 Alexander Korzaniewski, WR/DB

26 Kevin Collins, RB 27 Luke Nowakowski, WR/DB

28 Paul Leavell, DB 30 Nick Ilardi, RB

31 Nicholas Lewandowski, G/DL

32 Steven Sisson, WR/DB

33 Okoya Anderson, RB 35 Alexander Jordan, DL

39 Zachary Price, DL 40 Gary Davies, RB/LB

41 Andrew Skinner, DL 44 Philip Lauria TE/LB

49 Emerson Miller, DL 50 Brendan McLaughlin, G/DL

51 Glen Smith, LB 55 Pat Moran, OL/DL

57 Jeff Baker, DL 60 Thomas Lehsten, OL/DL 61 Christopher Bernas, DL

62 JordanOtt, C 63 Alexander Dimitrievski, DL

66 Justin Mesi, G/DL 70 Mike Fischer, OL/DL

71 ZacharyEye, T 72 Nick Bonaquisti, T/DL

73 Brian Barnes, DL 74 Ed Cartwright, T/DL

75 KevinBurkhardt, C 78 Cody Gorman, OL/DL

79 JosephBoyd, T 80 Matthew Nowakowski, WR/DB

81 Matthew Cardinal, WR/DB 82 Connor Stalker, WR/DB

83 David Michael, LB 84 Robert Kugler, TE/DE

85 Kenneth Selby, TE/DE 86 Daniel Selby, TE/DE

87 RyanCole, K 88 Corey Harrison, WR/DB

89 Shawn Griffin, DT 99 Andrew Heinen, DL

Head coach: Gene Tundo Assistant coaches: Steve Ferrentino, Bob Ferrentino, Will Thiel, Dave Bonaquisti

A. D.: James R. Higgins Jr. Principal: Jon Wolf Superintendent: Joan Thomas

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