Last season, South Lewis made it within a win of a more than 75-mile trip to the Carrier Dome for the Section III eight-man championship. In 2015, the Falcons didn’t win a game. In 2016, they didn’t field a team. But the first year in eight-man football brought a winning record to South Lewis, and the Falcons want more.

Senior running back Andrew Hoffman, standing less that 20 feet away from defending champs Bishop Grimes at Section III Media Day, summed up the goal this season: “Let’s go get them.”

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Here’s The Daily Orange’s preview of South Lewis for the 2018 season.

2017 record: 4-3

Head coach: Michael Absolom, fifth year as head coach

Driving distance from SU: 78 miles

Players from last year’s team who graduated: Graduated nine seniors, including running back Aquan Moultrie and center Adam Wright

Notable returners:

• Jared Makuch: Senior, TE/ LB, 6’2”, 230 pounds; 455 yards receiving in 2017
• Andrew Hoffman: Senior, RB/LB 6’o”, 165 pounds
• Brady Vosburgh: Junior, QB 5’10”, 190 pounds; 980 yards rushing, 11 TD, 515 yards passing, 5 TDs last year
• Gage Marlof: Sophomore, DE/OL 6’3”, 250 pounds

Opening game: TBD; The eight-man division added teams and the schedule is being altered

Key storyline:

• How will the Falcons match up with teams that are moving to the division for this year

What they’re saying:

Head coach Michael Absolom: “We emphasized getting in shape, making sure you’re always conditioning, running every single day. So when the season starts we can focus more on football rather than the conditioning aspect.”

Absolom: “More comfortable with (eight-man football). As a coaching staff, we’ve talked about what we need to improve on. The players know, those that played last year, they know what to expect … There’s more interest in the school because it is fun. We can score points. Everybody wants to score points.”

Jared Makuch: “Anything can happen. We were against a team, we were down 16 with 5 minutes left and we just came back. So anything’s possible. In eight-man, it’s not who’s better really. It’s just a game.”

Makuch: “I played as a freshman and I didn’t play much and we lost every game. Then we didn’t have a team my sophomore year. Then last year we come back and we come back with a winning record. We were one game away from going to the Dome. So this year we definitely have a good chance. That’s our goal this year, is make it to the Dome.”

Andrew Hoffman: “To have fans, parents, friends come out and watch you win games, nothing better really … Let’s go get them. Always gotta be hungry. Got to want to win.”

Published on August 21, 2018 at 7:53 pm

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3