BY PAUL WAGER
The Leader-Herald
JOHNSTOWN — In their first meeting since 2018, Gloversville and Johnstown renewed their rivalry Friday at Knox Field.
The Huskies won the 92nd meeting between the rivals 34-0 to regain the Gloversville Lions Club Trophy.
Senior quarterback Garrett Dooling scored on runs of 12 and 18 yards for Gloversville, while Kyle Robare and John Heimer scored on runs of 8 yards and 1 yard, respectively. Dom Dorman hauled in a 25-yard touchdown pass from Dooling to round out the Huskies’ scoring.
Though he played in the game in high school, Gloversville coach Jim Robare was taking part in his first Gloversville-Johnstown game as head coach.
“It never gets old. You always have butterflies getting ready for this game,” Jim Robare said. “I’ve been nervous since they announced it.”
The return of the game was welcomed by both communities as a sizeable crowd turned out for the contest.
“It was great for the communities to be able to come out and watch a football game,” first-year Johnstown coach Paul Furman said. “There was a big, energetic crowd. It was what I thought it was going to be.”
Kyle Robare finished with 12 carries for 65 yards for Gloversville, while Heimer had 18 carries for 63 yards. Dooling added eight carries for 32 yards. He also completed 10 of 15 passes for 130 yards. Gio Glionna hauled in six passes for 81 yards for the Huskies.
“We made some big, big plays tonight,” Jim Robare said. “Gio [Glionna] and Dom [Dorman] made some great catches for us.”
Andrew Lake had nine carries for 42 yards for Johnstown and Brodie Loucks added seven carries for 35 yards.
Gloversville got out of the gates quickly, scoring on its first two possessions to take a 12-0 lead. Kyle Robare opened the scoring with an 8-yard touchdown run to cap an eight-play 73-yard opening drive. Heimer scored on a 1-yard run to end the Huskies’ next possession to make it 12-0 after one quarter.
Gloversville got second-quarter touchdowns from Dorman and Dooling to take a 28-0 halftime lead.
The Gloversville defense held Johnstown without a first down in the opening half. The Sir Bills mustered just 4 total yards on 10 first-half plays.
“We’ve been working really, really hard to get ready for the season,” Jim Robare said. “We gave up plenty of points in the Fall II season, and fixing that something we focused on. I’m proud of what we did on defense tonight. We did a great job.”
After the break, Johnstown moved the ball better than it did in the first half, but the Huskies kept the Sir Bills out of the end zone, intercepting two passes and recovering a fumble in the second half.
“This isn’t the way we wanted it to go,” Furman said. “Mistakes killed us tonight. “As a coaching staff, we have to go back to the drawing board and get back to basics. We need to keep coaching them up. They didn’t give up and kept battling until the end.”
After nearly two years without a fall football game, Jim Robare was happy to be back on the sidelines, especially against a rival.
“It brings both communities together and everybody got to come out an enjoy a little bit of normalcy,” he said. “It was fun to be able to be playing a game on a beautiful Friday night under the lights.”
With Friday’s win, the Huskies avenged their 35-27 loss at Husky Field to Johnstown in 2018. Gloversville now leads the all-time series 45-40-7.
The lone blemish for the Huskies in an otherwise solid effort were their nine penalties.
“We’ve got to clean some things up, but overall, I’m happy with our effort tonight,” coach Robare said. “We’re going to get back to work on Sunday and get ready for Lansingburgh next week.”
Gloversville (1-0 overall) is slated to travel to Lansingburgh next Friday for a 7 p.m. game. Johnstown (0-1 overall) is scheduled to travel to Section IV’s Norwich on Friday for a 7 p.m. non-league contest.
Gloversville 12 16 0 6 — 34
Johnstown 0 0 0 0 — 0
G — Robare 8 run (kick failed)
G — Heimer 1 run (kick blocked)
G — Dooling 12 run (pass to Bruce)
G — Dorman 25 pass from Dooling (pass to Glionna)
G — Dooling 18 run (kick failed)
