ENDICOTT -- Walton's superiority on the offensive front led to 470 rushing yards Saturday and a 48-28 victory over Newark Valley in a Section 4 Class C football semifinal at Union-Endicott High.

Phil Hanley's 168 yards on the ground led the way for the Warriors (7-2), who advanced to the final against Chenango Forks scheduled for 1 p.m. next Saturday at Binghamton Alumni Stadium.

Walton erased a 7-6 deficit created when Travis French returned the day's second kickoff 90 yards for a score, going ahead for good when Hanley finished a 12-play, 69-yard drive by rushing 6 yards up the middle for a TD and 12-7 lead with 2:45 to play in the opening quarter.

Newark Valley (7-2), however, continued to hang around and was within 34-28 after Mason Parmelee made a 14-yard TD touchdown reception from Troy Schiess and Parmelee added the PAT kick in the final minute of the third quarter.

Parmelee's catch was a beauty, made in a jump-ball situation in the left side of the end zone after going airborne and tipping the football to himself.

But Walton produced touchdowns on its next two possessions, the work done exclusively on the ground and leading to a 14-yard scoring rush by Bryant Mead two minutes into the final quarter and a 12-yarder by Evan Boyd with 5:02 to play.

Between those two scores came a fourth-and-1 stop of Schiess for no gain at Walton's 45-yard line with 7:51 remaining.

"Our line just pushed them all day, made it easy for the backs to get through the hole and just run," said Boyd, who went for 127 rushing yards and three TDs.

"They just out-manned us up front," Cardinals coach Jack Short said. " ... Their kids run hard; everything they run is quick. They just beat us up front."

Newark Valley didn't go quietly, in large part thanks to the contributions of junior quarterback Schiess. He passed for a pair of scores and rushed 31 yards for a TD that, with Parmelee's PAT, had the Cards within 26-21 4:09 into the second half.

French, No. 2 rusher in Section 4 with 1,575 yards to start the day, was held to 60 yards.

"We moved the ball. I don't think Travis had the day he'd hoped he would have, but Troy had a really good day; ran the option great," Short said.

"We set up our defense to stop (French) and they were able to do some other things against us, spread us out," Warriors coach Jim Hoover said. "Then we adjusted our defense, kind of slowed them up there."

Walton got a major boost when, granted an un-timed down following a penalty in the waning seconds of the first half, Mead made an 8-yard TD reception from Dan Gehl for a 26-14 advantage at the midway point.

"They were resilient; they kept coming back, got some big plays here and there," Boyd said of Newark Valley.