Adam Hoover might have put his mark on the Oneonta High football program a little quicker than expected.

Off to a 2-1 start _ including a 31-22 victory over Unatego this past Friday _ Hoover seemingly has the Yellowjackets buying into his system. The team has steadily improved each week, showing patience and cool while trying to rally from deficits.

The defining moment of this OHS season might have happened Friday night.

Hoover watched his team fall behind, 22-20, after jumping to a 20-0 lead in the first half. What he didn’t see, though, were heads hanging on his sideline. Nobody panicked, nobody complained and nobody seemed worried.

"It didn’t get us down," OHS running back Mike Hopkins said. "We just wanted to keep putting points on the board."

It didn’t seem to matter to Oneonta when Unatego scored the go-ahead points with 10 minutes, 9 seconds left in the third period. OHS took the field and executed eight rushes during a nine-play scoring drive to take back the lead.

A Hoover running the ball should come as no shock at all. Adam’s father is Section Four’s all-time winningest coach, Walton’s Jim Hoover, who had a system of smash-mouth, hard-running football in place before most of his son’s players were born.

Jim Hoover was among the estimated 1,200 fans Friday and watched his son’s comeback, which had black and orange all over it. Mike Seroka got 7 yards on the first play of the decisive drive before Mike Hopkins shot through the middle for a 26-yard gain. Brendan Pidgeon ran for 2 yards on the next play, followed by runs of 6 and 5 yards by Seroka.

"They’d bounce off and run down field," Unatego coach John Mushtare said. "They broke a slew of tackles."

Hoover tried to sneak in a pass, but Brandon Southard’s attempt fell incomplete.[an error occurred while processing this directive]

So, it was back to the running game. Hopkins got 5 yards, setting up Seroka for runs of 3 and 11, the latter for a touchdown. Hopkins followed with a successful conversion run for a 28-22 OHS lead.

"We tried to open it up on the first play," Adam Hoover said about the go-ahead drive. "Then we started to pound the ball. Our line did a great job, and hopefully we can build on that."

{"Body Text Bold"/}ONE BIG KICK: Trailing, 22-20, Saturday against Delhi, Sidney faced a fourth-and-10 before Parker Umbra’s pass went off the pads of Delhi defender Nate Rockefeller and into the hands of Andy Foote. The 19-yard reception set up a first down at Delhi’s 34.

At that point, Sidney’s plan was to move the ball up to the 20. That would have given Sidney a decent chance to win with former soccer player Andy Foote preparing to kick a field goal.

"We had to come up with the plays to keep some time on the clock for us," Sidney coach Jeff Matthews said. "We practice no-huddle all the time. It’s not like it’s a foreign thing. I think that was important _ our preparation and being ready for something like that."

Sidney made it to the 23, which turned out to be plenty of distance for Foote. He slipped a 40-yard field goal inside the left upright, giving the Warriors a come-from-behind victory with 45 seconds to play. Umbra, who passed for 236 yards, served as the holder on the winning kick.

Sidney (3-0) had no timeouts, either, but Matthews said he wouldn’t have used one anyway.

"I don’t want the snapper (Aubrey Wood) to think about it or the holder (Umbra) to think about it," Matthews said. "I don’t want anybody to think about it _ I just want them doing it. I think that was important that they just went out there and did what they were doing."

{"Body Text Bold"/}ON THE MOVE: Bainbridge-Guilford (3-0) made its way into the state rankings this week, debuting at No. 14 in Class D. Delhi (2-1) dropped from No. 2 in Class D to No. 3 following Saturday’s loss to Sidney, which remained the top-ranked Class C team in the state.

Walton (Class D, 2-1) and Unatego (Class C, 2-1) are honorable mentions. The Spartans were ranked No. 12 last week.

{"Body Text Bold"/}IF YOU CAN GET TO ONE GAME THIS WEEK: Head to Walton at 1:30 p.m. Saturday to see them host Sidney. Walton was the only team in 2005 to beat Sidney, which won its first Class C state championship in football last fall.

{"Body Text Bold"/}ALSO THIS WEEKEND: Delhi visits Bainbridge-Guilford at 7 p.m. Friday, when Unatego (2-1) travels to Greene (3-0) and Seton Catholic Central (1-2) visits Unadilla Valley/Edmeston (0-3).

Oneonta visits Chenango Valley (3-0) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

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{"Body Text Italic"/}P.J. Harmer covers high school football for The Daily Star. E-mail him at mailto:pharmer@thedailystar.com">pharmer@thedailystar.com.