First we'd like to congratulate newly retired Dennis Burkett on having the new football field at Marlboro named in his honor.  Dennis was the Iron Dukes' outstanding head coach from 1974-86, compiling an impressive record of 83 wins, 37 losses and 1 tie.  During that tenure his teams won a UCAL crown and three consecutive MHAL championships.  He was also the Marlboro athletic director and  a memorable teacher. He's a good friend of many and a good man.  Dennis has left his mark on many lives.  Now his name has been given to that dandy new gridiron he helped bring to reality.

The regular season wraps up this weekend simultaneously with the playoff semi-finals in classes AA, A, B and C. In Class D Eldred and Chester will go directly to the sectional title game (again) after each play a regular season finale this week. But before we get to Week Nine, let’s take a look back at Week Eight with our SigStats and Quotes. We’ll start out with some significant stats gleaned from all our various sources:

RUSHING: Tyree Smallwood (Corn) 23 x 310 x 5 TD … Dan Scalo (MW) 17 x 229 x 2 TD … Travis Mann (Chest) 30 x 234 x 3 TD … Andrew Haelen (MV) 27 x 183 x 4 TD … Errol Evans (FDR) 25 x 168 x 2 TD … Clayton Pinnock (Mill) 145 x 1 TD … Latti Rabii (SW) 5 x 130 … Scott Bolstad (High) 15 x 122 x 1 TD … Nick Osenni (VC) 16 x 122 x 1 TD … Dave Hollingsworth (Mill) 122 x 1 TD … Logan Peterson (NP) 18 x 119 x 2 TD … Doug Lewis (Ell) 24 x 114 … Tim Crown (PJ) 19 x 112 x 2 TD … Jovaughen Clark (Lib) 4 x 105 x 1 TD … Barry Surrett (NFA) 101 x 2 TD … Kairi Alston (High) 14 x 99 x 1 TD … T.J. Henderson (Marl) 16 x 91 x 1 TD … Church Pfeil 12 x 90 x 1 TD … Doug Murphy (SW) 17 x 84 x 1 TD … Rian White (War) 16 x 65 x 4 TD … Willie Valk (Saug) 3 TD … Ian Halloran 3 TD … Bryan Henry 2 TD … Akeem Granum (Lib) 2 TD … Fred Locklary (NFA) 2 TD.

PASSING: Rian White (War) 19 x 31 x 267 yards x 1 TD … Kevin Freeman (MV) 10 x 17 x 200 x 1 TD … Mike Wunder (Gosh) 11 x 24 x 200 x 1 TD … Marshon Williams (Lib) 3 x 5 x 148 x 1 TD … Aaron Kilner (O’Neill) 7 x 15 x 138 x 2 TD … Shane McNamara (VC) 5 x 13 x 115 x 1 TD … Pete Dimilia (TV) 3 x 6 x 104 x 1 TD.

RECEIVING: John Babin (War) 10 x 142 ... Jesse Valenti 6 x 126 x 1 TD … Zach Adler (VC) 3 x 109 x 1 TD … Sam Careccia (War) 3 x 52 x 1 TD … Church Pfeil (O’N) 3 x 25 … Brendan Moore (TV) 2 x 96 x 1 TD … Mitch McKearn (O’N) 2 x 63.

SPECIALS: Dan Marggraff (War) 89-yard TD kickoff return … Errol Evans (FDR) 85-yard TD kickoff return … Mike McGrath (King) 74-yard TD kickoff return … J. Ignacio Rios (TV) averaged 44.3 yards on punts (long 55 yards) ... Chris Van Dunk (PJ) averaged 39.5 yards on 4 punts (long 54 yards) ... Sam Brown (War) blocked Minisink’s first PAT attempt (ultimately, the margin of victory).

KICKING: Ken Kirshner (Corn) 7 x 7 PAT … Pat Laird (MW) 5 x 7 PAT (foul weather stops streak at 47) …  Jon Hindes (Saug) 32 FG … Scott Bolstad (High) 32 FG … Matt Clark (O’N) 23-yard FG.

NOW FOR QUOTES YOU LOVE FROM THE FOLKS YOU LOVE:

“I didn’t see anything (to my left). Most of their coverage was over there. Sam (Careccia) was open on the other side and …” -- Warwick QB Rian White on his game-winning pass for two points.

“That was Rian being Rian White.” -- Warwick coach James Sciarra.

“I know he makes some gutsy calls, but …” -- White on his coach.

“Really, it came down to one play. I’m glad I’ve got #12 on my team.” -- Sciarra on #12.

“We didn’t think it was going to rain. It was supposed to be colder. Then we come out here and it’s pouring. The first few drives showed it, but then we bounced back (to outscore Minisink, 43-42).” -- White (#12).

“Andrew Haelen is an awesome back. He reads. He cuts. He runs with authority.” --Minisink Valley coach Kevin Gallagher.

“We’ve been teaching Tyree (Smallwood) to run hard, hit seams and keep running through tackles and he’ll break them. He had a couple like that tonight.” -- Cornwall coach Marcus Hughes on his star junior’s big night against Wallkill.

“They’re a really tough team. They’re physical. We just have to be prepared for it and come out sharp like we did for this game.” -- Cornwall junior QB Tyler Lawlor on his team’s Class A semi-final opponent Saugerties.

“We did a much better job blocking and running the football in the second half. I put (Scott) Bolstad in at halfback and he did the job (15 carries, 122 yards). Our defense also rose to the occasion and shut them out the last two quarters.” -- Highland’s Carl Relyea who had just enjoyed his 120^th win as a varsity head coach.

“You realize we haven't finished a season undefeated since 1971, that was when I was a senior. It's been a long time. It seems like we've had some really good teams but we always managed to drop one ballgame, either one in the middle or one right at the end, to have that one blemish.” -- Relyea

“It was raining so I caught the pitch and made sure I had it. I started for the sideline, saw about three or four kids making their angles to the sideline, so I cut it back, Mike Forte made a big block on the cut-back and it was open field from there.” -- Scott Bolstad on a sweep that led to a Husky TD.

“Now we have to get focused and be ready for New Paltz (in a Class B semi-final). Their fullback (Logan) Peterson is a tough nut to crack.” -- O’Neill coach Tim Hendershot whose Raiders lost by two points in their first meeting with the Huguenots.

“I can’t play tonight (against Port Jervis), but I’m cleared to play next week against O’Neill.” -- New Paltz junior and sparkplug QB-DB Jon Diaz said before Friday’s game. After suffering a concussion. Diaz missed his team’s last two regular season games.

“The last few weeks their effort has been tremendous. They work hard in practice all week and they play hard. We wanted to go into the playoffs with this kind of energy. We started the season at 0-3 and we knew that we had three tough games right out of the chute.” -- Liberty’s new head coach John Wilhelm after clinching the third seed in Class C.

“We’ve been waiting for this for all three years on varsity, waiting to have a great senior year. We always knew we’d have it.” -- Liberty lineman Darren Klein.

“We just played solid defense.” -- Millbrook coach Sean Keenan, citing Corey Bilyeu, Josh Rose and Max Wilson his leading defenders in the Pine Plains victory.

"We're glad to be in the playoffs after all the injuries we've had this year. We've started 5 different quarterbacks this year. Ellenville is a great team that deserves to be the #1 seed. We're going to practice hard all week and prepare for a physical game against a great team." -- Keenan on this upcoming weekend’s daunting task.

“It was really a 22-19 game. (Sullivan West) scored an add-on touchdown with about five-minutes left … (Latti) Rabii ran that jet sweep well for them … I’m proud of our kids, though. They showed a lot of heart today. They left it all out on the field. Our young kids are coming around.” -- Tri-Valley coach John Rusin whose Bears led the Bulldogs, 19-14, going into the fourth quarter of a game played in the pouring rain.

“Bogota is a smaller school like us, but they’ve got some big kids … We’ll be ready to go against Highland (in a Class B playoff). The game should be a little different than the first one because they have some injuries. But we’ve got to do something up front (against them) this time.” -- Marlboro coach Bob Koonz.