On Friday night, the Elmira Falcons football team played their last home game of the season, losing a tough battle 14-21 against the Woodburn Bulldogs.
The stands were full with students, families and other fans. Six seniors were honored for their time playing football at Elmira High School: Beau Koffler, Ian Drago, Corey Hecker, Troy Anderson, James Evans and Ruben Fox. Each player was escorted by their family and friends and cheered on by the crowd. They gave advice for their teammates, thank yous for coaches and parents, and described their plans for the future.
”I thought they did a great job,” head coach Justin Peeler said. “I thought they fought hard and they left everything out there, and that’s all I could ever ask for.”
Peeler added that the Falcons played tough, although there were struggles.
”Definitely up and down. We started off pretty solid, had some great things happen to us in the first half,” he said. “The second half we couldn’t get out of our own way, though, a little bit.”
The first half ended with the Falcons up by 7, but the Bulldogs stepped up the pressure.
Several players racked up great highlights. Elmira had 89 yards rushing and 180 yards passing. Seth Drago had 10 carries for 37 yards. Anderson and Hecker were the leaders in yardage. Anderson had four catches for 95 yards, and Hecker had six catches for 87 yards.
”I thought we did a much better job this year getting our passing game going,” coach Peeler said. ”I think Troy had 95 yards passing, and I think Corey had 89, so we had two guys with almost 100 yards passing.”
Overall, the Elmira vs. Woodburn football game was a good way to end the 2021 season.
