Empire Football League

BINGHAMTON -- An inexperienced, injury-riddled secondary spelled disaster for the Broome Country Dragons on Saturday night.

Watertown quarterback Doug Black torched the Dragons for nearly 300 yards passing and four touchdowns, as the Red & Black rolled to a 31-20 victory in an Empire Football League contest at Binghamton Alumni Stadium. The loss snaps the Dragons' (4-3) four-game winning streak.

"I'll be blunt, we're running a patchwork secondary right now," Dragons coach Tommy Manny said. "I'm not making excuses, but it is what it is."

The Dragons secondary, already shorthanded due to injuries, took a huge blow in early in the game. Jeff Newton, the starting strong safety and team's leading tackler, left the game with a knee injury.

Newton's injury left the Dragons struggling against Watertown's (4-2) potent offense. Black finished 21 for 31 for 278 yards. Earnest Wash caught a game-high 10 passes for 129 yards and three second-half touchdowns.

The Dragons came up empty on two first-half drives. On their second possession of the game, the Dragons drove inside the Red & Black 10-yard line, but Jemall Johnson fumbled on the 6-yard line and Watertown recovered.

Just before halftime, with Watertown holding a 3-0 lead, Steve Tammariello had a 25-yard field goal blocked.

"When those two things happened, I thought, 'Man, this is going to come back and hurt us later,' " Manny said.

Sure enough, after the blocked field goal, Black marched his team 80 yards in 41 seconds. He hit Anthony Noel on a 6-yard scoring pass to give the Red & Black a 10-0 lead.

Ty Fish threw two second-half touchdown passes for the Dragons and ran in another. He finished with 317 yards passing. Jonathan Bechy caught eight passes for 141 yards and two touchdowns for the Dragons, who are at Scranton on Saturday.

"We'll beat Scranton next week, you can put that in the paper," Manny said.

The game was delayed more than 30 minutes early in the third quarter when Watertown defensive back Jon Fisher broke his leg and had to be carted off the field by ambulance.