SECTION IV FOOTBALL: POWERHOUSE CHENANGO FORKS ROLLS TO CLASS C TITLE; TOPS WAVERLY, 50-19 (22 PHOTOS) (2026-11-14)

By TIM BIRNEY
Valley Sports Report
BINGHAMTON — Chenango Forks is the state's top-ranked Class C team and showed why Saturday afternoon in a dominating 50-19 win over sixth-ranked Waverly in the Section IV, Class C championship game here at Alumni Stadium.

 
"It's humbling. you put so much into it. You come into the game thinking 'yeah, we can we can compete," said Waverly coach Jason Miller  "And, you know, that's the beauty of this game, no matter how hard you work, there are outcomes that you're not gonna be happy with, and that's just the truth."

The Blue Devils' punishing ground game amassed 426 yards on 44 carries, with the final six carries from the second team accounting for minus-1 yard on six attempts.

Junior tailback Brysen Fry had 176 yards and two TDs on 19 carries, and senior QB Sam Paske added 159 yards and three TDs on 10 carries.

"Sam Paske is playing his fifth year of varsity, and this is Brycen Fry's fourth year, they've been the demise of us for several years now," said Miller.

"(Forks) is just a really, really good football team," he noted. "We had a good plan, and a great week of practice.

"I am proud of the kids. We put a lot into this, and it's a disappointing end to an otherwise exceptional year," added Miller. "They were just a lot better than us today."

Forks won the pre-game coin toss and kicked to Waverly after deferring its choice to the second half.

Senior Bryce LaForest gained eight yards on the game's first play from scrimmage, then picked up an apparent first down, but a holding call put the Wolverines in a second-and-12 hole. Two plays later, Waverly punted.

"You can't make those kinds of mistakes against a team like (Forks)," said Miller. "You just can't get behind the sticks against them."

Forks' first possession was a 14-play beauty that covered 69 yards, overcoming a pair of 10-yard holding penalties on the way, that milked nearly eight minutes off the game clock.

Fry picked up 69 yards on nine carries in the scoring drive, and Devon Curtis added a 14-yard run.

The Wolverines made the Blue Devils work for their initial score with Paske punching the ball in on fourth-and-goal at the 1, after Frye had been stuffed on third down.

Waverly senior Chase Wheeler picked off the pass for conversion and Forks led 6-0 with 2:12 remaining in the first quarter.

The Wolverines answered with a quick scoring drive on the ensuing possession.

Sophomore QB Cooper Chrystie hooked up with Wheeler for a 5-yard gain on third-and-four, then found his twin brother Carter Chrystie wide open after the defender had fallen down for a 64-yard TD pass with 2 seconds remaining in the opening stanza to tie the game at 6-6.

The remainder of the game was nearly all Forks.

"We got off to a sold start," said Miller. "I thought we were pretty good for the first quarter-and-a-half.

"(Forks) is always a lot better on the field than what you see on film," noted Miller. "They're smothering on defense, and they're disciplined on defense.

"Offensively, they just pound you, pound you, pound you, eventually you're gonna get out of position, or eventually you're gonna miss a tackle. Or eventually, their speed to the outside is gonna get you.

"The are just a very, very good football team," added Miller.

Forks answered Waverly's score immediately with a five-play, 59-yard scoring drive to take the lead for good.

On the fourth play of the possession, Paske busted loose on a 53-yard run to the Waverly 3, and Fry found paydirt on the next play. Elias Scofield connected with Conner Dunagan on the conversion to give the Blue Devils a 14-6 lead with 9:48 remaining in the half.

The Wolverines found themselves in an immediate hole when one of their receivers was flagged for an offensive face-mask call. 

Waverly set up to punt the ball away three plays later, but the punter, LaForest, ended up chasing down a high snap in his end zone, then alertly tried to throw a pass, but it fell incomplete, and the Blue Devils took over at the Wolverine 26.

Five plays later, Lucas Sutton scored on a 4-yard run with 4:59 left in the half. Scofield again found Dunagan on the conversion to make it 22-6.

After an exchange of punts, with Chenango Forks' being just the third by the first-string offense this season, Waverly had the ball at its own 18 with 1:40 left until the halftime intermission.

Three plays resulted in one yard, and Forks took over at the Waverly 44 with 40 seconds remaining in the half.

After runs of 27 yards by Paske and 16 by Fry, Sutton scored on a 1-yard run with 12 seconds remaining. Caden Clark's PAT kick made it 29-6 at the halftime break. Sutton ended the game with 78 yards and two TDs on eight carries.

It got worse for the Wolverines as the Blue Devils scored on a quick three-play, 63-yard drive to start the second half. Paske capped the drive with a 30-yard TD run just 83 seconds after the intermission to make it 36-6.

"We had the bad snap on the punt and that was a killer," said Miller. 

"Even the possession before that, we had a penalty on a nice play — an offensive face mask for 15 yards," he said. "It put us behind the chains, and those are the kind of things you can't do. 

"(Forks) got momentum from that, and the game turned quickly in their favor," noted Miller.

"Then, it was critical that we stopped them in that first possession after the half, and we didn't," added Miller. "We just couldn't turn things around."

Two plays after the ensuing kickoff, Carter Chrystie made an acrobatic catch for a 42-yard gain to the Forks 22, and four plays later, on fourth-and-two, Cooper Chrystie scrambled around left end and just got in the end zone on a 14-yard run to close the gap to 36-12 with 8:06 left in the third quarter.

Frye scored on a 19-yard run on Chenango Forks' ensuing possession with 4:51 remaining in the third quarter to make it 43-12, and Paske capped the Blue Devils' scoring with a 62-yard run on a QB draw to make it 50-12 with 2 seconds left in the third quarter.

Cooper Chrystie completed three passes for 43 yards — all to Wheeler — on Waverly's ensuing possession, and LaForest gained 28 yards on four carries. Cooper Chrystie capped the 10-play, 69-yard drive with a 1-yard TD run with 7:23 left in the contest.

Junior Jesse Lantz added the PAT kick to provide the final margin.

Cooper Chrystie completed 9 of 19 passes for 173 yards and one TD, with one interception.

Wheeler led Waverly with four receptions for 54 yards, while Carter Chrystie had three grabs for 109 yards and one TD, and junior Sam Cheresnowsky added two receptions for 11 yards.

Waverly was held to 81 rushing yards on 24 carries. Cooper Chrystie, who was sacked three times for minus-9 yards, had 29 yards and two TDs on 11 carries, and LaForest led Waverly with 42 yards on seven carries.

Miller said Saturday's loss did nothing to diminish Waverly's 8-3 season, which included four wins over state-ranked opponents — all four in larger classifications, including a win over Port Jervis, which won the Section IX, Class B title Saturday.

"It's been a really good year," said Miller.

"It's been a long process, and it's been fascinating to watch," noted Miller. "We had a lot of questions about this team coming into this season, and these kids stepped up and answered almost all of them."

"Another thing you measure yourself by is results," added Miller. "And, we won some very big games against some really good football teams this season."

The Wolverines will graduate 15 seniors from this team.

"Some of them — Ben (Shaw), Matthias (Welles), and Carson (Rockwell) have been with us for four and five years on varsity," said Miller. "They've won a lot of football games, and were such an integral part of our program. They are irreplaceable at this point.


"Up front, Brandon Bennett had an incredible year. I mean, he was such a question mark at the beginning of last year," noted Miller. "We knew he was going to be our center, but we didn't know what we were going to get from him.. What a tremendous season he had ... he just made himself so much better.

"Logan Streeter, at 170 pounds, just had a tremendous year at guard.

"Matt Trudeau has been playing on a torn MCL since week one, and had a tremendous year," said Miller.


"Those guys have been heart-and-soul of this program. The have continued to set a standard. They did as good as anybody, and doing that, again, through the process," added Miller. "It's going be difficult to replace them, but that's what you do, you move on, and somebody else has to step up."

Miller said the "cupboard is not bare," but it's "time for a fresh start."


"We've got some younger kids that are sophomores that I really like and they seem to have a tremendous work ethic," he noted. "This week, those guys gave us the best they possibly could in practice, knowing they probably weren't getting in the game unless it was a situation like this.
"As painful as it is to lose guys that have contributed and devoted so much to this program, it's always exciting to start over again," said Miller. 


"Quinn Lyons is back, Liam Arnold, Brooks Lathrop, and John Montgomery are back," added Miller. "There are some dudes here who are coming back that will be competitive, and they'll get after it."

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IN TOP PHOTO: Waverly's Carter Chrystie hauls in a TD pass. IN BOTTOM PHOTO: Waverly senior Rhylee Stotler with a tackle. ... PHOTOS BY TIM BIRNEY.