Garnet Football vs. Poughkeepsie Section A Finals at Home Friday Night 7pm Under the Lights

MyRye.com is pleased to be providing the Old Garnet's (AKA former school board prez Steve Feeney) Garnet football write-ups. Here is OG's note on Friday's game:

Friday, October 30

Rye vs. Poughkeepsie @ Nugent Stadium 7:00PM

Don’t Know Them . . . . . Never Played Them . . . . . Where is Poughkeepsie Anyway?

Since the Garnets have never previously intersected trails with the POUGHKEEPSIE PIONEERS the Old Garnet tabulated some “Queen City of the Hudson” tidbits of both the city and its football team:

City of Poughkeepsie

• In Iroquois, Poughkeepsie means “the reed-covered lodge by the little water place”
• Settled in 1659 by the Dutch, Poughkeepsie was the second capital of New York State
• Poughkeepsie’s official seal depicts a hive with eleven circling honey bees, the largest being New York as the eleventh ratifier of the US Constitution when the city was the NYS capital
• Known for whale rendering, Vassar, hatteries, peppermills, Marist and . . . . the Smith Brothers of cough drop fame

Poughkeepsie Pioneers

• School has been on the AA/A cusp and bounces between the two classifications.  ‘09 enrollment of 1048 put the Pioneers three noses under the AA/A cut point as the largest Section One Class A combatant.
• 2nd Place finish in Section One – League A North, narrowly lost to Eastchester 13-12 and Fox Lane 34-28
• Beat undefeated, # 1-seeded Somers 14-10 in last week’s quarter-final.  Prior thereto Somers had yielded only six (6) points on the entire season
• Possess three NCAA Division One football prospects, one of whom has signed with the UConn Huskies

Other interesting commentary about the American Pioneer emerged:

• Although there is popular reference to the American Pioneers venturing into "unsettled" territory, the land they traversed and eventually settled was really territory of indigenous peoples, thus the forays of the pioneers were invasions of inhabited territory, perhaps of the lands belonging to the Indians of Ossining, Roosevelt and Nyack!
• The pioneer alone represents those who went into unexplored territory (Rye?) in search of a new life, looking to establish permanent settlement (as Section One – Class A Champions?).

Pioneers, including those from Poughkeepsie, are hardy folks, but despite their grizzly toughness and strong spirit, this week’s battle tilts to the Garnets as Rye tackles its biggest challenge of the ’09 season to-date 24-14.