The Red Storm will look to even their record at 2-2 when they take their longest trip of the Champlain Valley Athletic Conference season to face the Ticonderoga Sentinels, who no doubt, are hungry for their first victory this fall.

The Lumberjacks are taking their first of four long trips as a new member Central New York’s 8-man football league that is mostly comprised of Section III teams. In fact, the Lumberjacks will be immersed in football over the weekend. After taking on Morrisville-Eaton, the team willl stay in a hotel and then head to the Carrier Dome on Saturday to attend the Syracuse-UConn game.

After starting off the season with two shutout losses on the road, Saranac Lake won its home-opener a week ago and improved to 1-2 with a 27-14 victory over AuSable Valley. The game played out on the newly renamed Wilson-Raymond field, and featured a second half that may be talked about for some time to come. Trailing 14-0 at halftime, Saranac Lake rallied with 27 unanswered points, including 21 in the third quarter.

Red Storm head coach Eric Bennett quipped that John Raymond, Saranac Lake’s late legendary coach, may have had a role in the second-half comeback, which was fueled by some amazing plays turned in by a whole slew of Red Storm underclassmen.

Tupper Lake senior quarterback Noah Cordes takes a snap from center while Brayden McCottery blocks along the line in last week’s game at home. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

Bennett hopes the Red Storm can carry some confidence from their first victory into the matchup with the Sentinels, but warned that his team can’t start off the way it did a week ago when it turned the ball over four times in the opening half.

“It was the first game on Wilson-Raymond field and maybe coach Raymond did have something to do with it,” Bennett said. “The fact that we could win and have four turnovers like that was just incredible. I think our kids gained a little confidence and realized if you keep plugging along, good things can happen.”

A big concern for the Red Storm tonight with be the lack of depth. Bennett said only 18 or 19 players will be dressed for the matchup.

“We’ll be really simplified in our offensive and defensive schemes,” Bennett said. “We have a whole bunch of kids playing in different positions. Most of our guys are new to varsity, they’re learning every week, they’re improving every week. As they gain more experience, the game slows down for them. We’re seeing that.”

Bennett expects one of Ticonderoga’s strengths to be a physical group of linemen.

“They’ve played some tough teams already, and they have some tough kids,” Bennett said. “I don’t think it’s a secret. They’re going to come right at us with a solid front. On defense, we’re going to have to load up on the line of scrimmage and stop the run. We’ll try to get to the perimeter on them offensively.”

The Sentinels are coming off a 42-12 loss to rival Moriah in a game that saw the Vikings lead 20-12 at the half. Quarterback Terrence Benedict and receiver Michael DuShane accounted for Ticonderoga’s points on touchdown connections of 19 and 75 yards. DuShane finished with three catches for 100 yards in the loss.

Juniors Braden Ryan and Jeff LaVair had two touchdown’s each in Saranac Lake’s victory over the Patriots. LaVair had scoring catches of 60 and 18 yards, Ryan grabbed a 6-yard touchdown pass and also ran 79 yards for a touchdown. Red Storm sophomore quarterback Rhett Darrah completed his final 11 pass attempts in a row a week ago and finished with 156 passing yards and three touchdowns.

Good news for Saranac Lake’s depth-challegned team is the return of senior Ryan Meyer, a two-way starter who was out injured in week No. 3.

The opening kickoff in Ticonderoga is slated for 7 p.m.

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Tupper Lake at Morrisville-Eaton, 5 p.m.

After making history by playing its first official 8-man football game last week at home, Tupper Lake will embark on a three or so hour ride today for its first 8-man league game on the road.

The Lumberjacks fell 22-6 to Altmar-Parish-Williamstown in their season opener and take on a Morrisville-Eaton team that dropped its first game in a much higher scoring affair, falling 54-22 to Weedsport a Friday ago.

Last week, the Lumberjacks experienced a vastly different scenario than they have in recent seasons while playing in 11-man football. Instead of losing matchups by wide margins against Section X opponents, they were in a tight football game, trailing by just an 8-6 score before the Rebels pulled away with two big touchdown plays in the fourth quarter.

Tupper Lake’s game against APW saw loads of running up the middle. ‘Jacks quarterback Noah Cordes attempted just two passes — one was picked off and the other fell incomplete — and head coach Dennis Klossner said he would like to see better protection for his senior tonight.

“We had a tough time throwing the ball,” Klossner said. “We’re looking at opening things up more. We need to be real quick — quick passes sideline to sideline, quick slants, look-ins. We have confidence in our receivers, the concern is the amount of time in executing the plays.”

Junior running back Skyler Pickering accounted for the bulk of Tupper Lake’s offense, finishing with 126 rushing yards on 11 carries. He scored Tupper Lake’s lone points on an 89-yard touchdown run. Pickering did suffer an ankle injury last week but will be in the lineup tonight.

“We had a pretty good defensive game, and I think we had a few nerves on offense,” Klossner said. “We’re really excited about our move to eight man. I know the score was 22-6, but it was an 8-6 ball game right into the fourth quarter. I’m excited about our chances in this league.”

Klossner expects quarterback Andrew Parkhurst and running back Nick Fox to be key players for Morrisville-Eaton.

After missing last week’s game, senior Brennan McComber will be in the lineup for the first time this season and a valuable asset to the Lumberjacks on both sides of the ball.

Klossner hopes if all goes well, Tupper Lake’s gridders can enjoy their victory even more on Saturday as spectators at a Division I college football game. And even better, they’ll be watching a Syracuse Orange team that currently owns a 3-0 record. The extra-day trip was made possible by the Tupper Lake booster club.

“What a great opportunity for the kids,” Klossner said. “Our Tupper Lake football booster club is taking is care of this and we thank them. We’re just lucky enough to go play our game, spend the night and make a whole experience of this.”

Tonight’s Tupper Lake-Morrisville-Eaton game was originally scheduled for 7 p.m. but the start time was moved up to 5 p.m. due to the possibility of poor weather conditions moving in later in the evening.