BUFFALO — Avon quarterback Evan Blye scrambled left and rolled the dice.
Throwing into double-coverage? Never a good idea. Throwing into double-coverage near Mac Capen? Turn out the lights.
Capen did what he does best, following blockers and dodging tacklers. He started with 92 yards in front of him, but had the last 60 to himself.
The Newfane star finished with six total touchdowns, with five coming on the ground. Capen ran for 161 yards and accounted for 250 total.
Capen may have been the lynchpin, but the night was about Newfane. The party that started in the Class D Far West Regional Friday in the stands of All High Stadium is moving east to Syracuse.
The Panthers bulldozed to 597 yards of offense and set a new program record in points with a 75-12 avalanche over Section V champion Avon.
A week after winning its first Section VI championship in school history, Newfane is headed to the state semifinals for the first time. And they get Tioga at 3 p.m. Nov. 28 at Cicero-North Syracuse High School.
“It means everything,” Newfane head coach Chuck Nagel said. “Every win since the league title and the sectional title and now the Far West, they just get better and better so it means the world to me.”
The Panthers did not have to wait long to set the tone. In fact all it took was their second play of the game for Camlo Flowers — who finished with 90 yards on 10 carries — to flip the field with a 30-yard run to bring the ball down to the Avon 21-yard line.
“At that point I knew I just had to keep doing what I had to do and I mean it was working so just keep my legs moving,” Flowers said.
Avon didn’t seem deterred by the early hole, methodically responding. The River Hawks moved the ball to the Newfane 8-yard line in eight plays, highlighted by a third-and-10 conversion from Blye to Brice Ballew. Before the Capen pick six flipped the script of the game.
The Panthers forced a three-and-out on the ensuing drive and turned it into a 3-yard touchdown run by Capen, using a 74-yard drive to take a 20-0 lead. Newfane ballooned its lead 24 by halftime and lead 51-12 entering the fourth quarter.
“That’s such a momentum-changer in the game, back-to-back drives like that and get a touchdown on both of them,” Capen said. “Especially on that pick. That just took the momentum right away.”
Capen and most of the starters were taken out midway through the third quarter. But Capen was not the only Panther to put up big numbers, especially on the ground.
Camryn Stover had 138 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries, while sophomore Jayson Cole had three carries for 98 yards and a score.
“That was not our intention to run the score up but … we pulled our starters after three quarters,” Nagel said.
“They kept their starters in and then our young bucks are hungry. It’s hard to tell them to get in there and take a knee or not score. They’re kids and this is a dream come true for them.”
The kids who grew up tossing the ball around at recess are now tossing it around at the state tournament, as they play for a town of 3,600 people in stadiums that could seat the entire town with plenty of room to spare.
The first order of business for this group was to win the program’s first playoff game in 32 years. They accomplished that. Now it’s all about being the best in the state and they are on their way to doing that by outscoring their opponents 197-32.
“Any time you win, especially at this level, it takes care of a lot of recruiting,” Nagel said.
“We know a lot of kids in Newfane want to come out and play football. They like the vibe. They like watching what happens on Friday nights. We’re an emotional, exciting group of coaches and I think it’s a fun group to be around from top to bottom.”