ARLINGTON – Rye’s victory last week against Somers was a season-defining statement. The Garnets took down one of the best teams in the state en route to their first Class A section championship since 2019.
The next question for Rye fans was simple: Would the Garnets’ domination of the section carry over into regional competition?
It took less than one half of football to get the answer, as Rye (12-0) made quick work of previously undefeated Minisink Valley (10-1) in a 42-14 bludgeoning Friday.
“We probably played one of our best overall games today,” said Rye coach Dino Garr. “Everybody stepped up, so I’m very pleased … but it’s not gonna get easy.”
That may be true, but it doesn’t appear to be getting more difficult, either. Rye scored the game’s first six touchdowns to take a 42-0 lead against Minisink Valley. After beating the Section 9 champions, the Garnets’ state semifinal opponent is Cornwall Central, the Section 9 runner-up who Minisink Valley beat the week before.
Multiple fumble recoveries in Warrior territory helped set the Garnets up for success Friday. Senior quarterback (and now, cornerback) Carson Miller tracked down a fumble recovery on Minisink Valley’s opening drive before firing a pass to junior Luke Denvir for his first career score.
On the ensuing kickoff, running back and special teams senior Ben Stigliano recovered a squib kick by senior Henry Shoemaker that tumbled through the legs of a Warrior return man, setting up the Garnets at the 5-yard line before senior Charlie Garnett ran the ball in.
Garnett added a 30-yard rushing touchdown in the second quarter, and Stigliano’s second touchdown of the season made it 28-0 Garnets at halftime.
Minisnik Valley couldn’t get anything done on offense, failing to reach the red zone through the entire first half, which was a surprise for a team that came into Friday averaging 36 points.
Rye opened the second half with two more scores – Denvir’s second touchdown of the game and Shoemaker’s 17th receiving touchdown this season – before the Warriors got on the board.
“I think everyone was just really locked in tonight,” said Denvir, who became the third Rye receiver to record multiple TDs in a single game this season, along with Shoemaker and senior Sebastian Lewis. “We’re just taking things one game at a time. We’re obviously thinking about the dome, but we need to keep winning.”
Rye, four-time Class B state champions, is now two wins away from the school’s first Class A football championship. If the Garnets handle Cornwall Central (9-2) next Friday at Middletown, they’ll advance to the title game Dec. 5 at Syracuse’s JMA Wireless Dome.
With a 12-0 start, the Garnets are one win away from tying the single-season school record set by the 2008 state championship squad. They’ve defeated their four postseason opponents by an average of 22.5 points and have now scored more than 500 points total this season.
Miller and Shoemaker are rewriting the individual record books as well. A week after setting the Section 1 single-game record with 221 receiving yards, Shoemaker added 132 yards Friday. His 1,548 receiving yards this season rank fourth in state history. He needs just 64 more yards to break the single-season section record set in 2015 by Luke Timm, who had 1,611 yards for Our Lady of Lourdes.
With 2,962 passing yards this season, Miller already set a Rye High School record and needs just 67 yards to surpass Dean Rotger’s section record (3,029 yards for the same 2015 Lourdes team Timm played on).
State tournament opponents are typically unfamiliar foes, but Rye has played Cornwall Central twice in the past six seasons. Rye lost to the Dragons 45-34 in 2019 and beat them 41-22 in 2022. The 2019 loss came in the Class A state semifinals, the same round the teams will meet in Friday.
Anything can happen in the postseason, but Rye is peaking at the right time. While looking to keep history from repeating itself against the Dragons, the Garnets may continue to make more history of their own.
