While it’s true that the Westhill football team’s new head coach, Jamie Casullo, got a late start in the off-season, not taking over until June, he and his players have more than made up for that deficiency in the way they got a new era underway.
Mixing in big plays with timely defensive stops, the Warriors defeated Fonda-Fultonville, 28-20, Saturday in the Kickoff Classic at the Carrier Dome, which proved a strong debut not just for Casullo, but for the new guy taking the snaps.
Senior Richie Easterly, already set to play lacrosse at Loyola (Md.) next fall, threw 21 passes on this day, completing 16 of them for 235 yards. He also ran for 81 yards and a touchdown, burning the Braves in the air and on the ground.
Much of the Warriors’ point production came in the first half, starting with Easterly throwing a short pass to Joe Rainone and then watching as Rainone went the rest of the way, 45 yards for a touchdown.
Fonda-Fultonville cut the deficit to 7-6, but Westhill immediately answered with Easterly faking an option pitch early in the second quarter and taking off through the Braves’ defenses, 55 yards to the end zone, extending the lead to 14-6.
Minutes later, Easterly struck on another short screen pass, this one to Ja’Shai Jamison, that turned into a 60-yard scoring play, and suddenly it was 21-6.
Fonda-Fultonville proved tough, closing the gap to 21-12 late in the half, but another drive got thwarted when Jesse Chester reached up and made a spectacular one-handed interception at the Braves’ 39-yard line.
During the third quarter, Westhill was unable to get on the board, and Fonda-Fultonville used a TD and two-point conversion to pull within one, 21-20, leaving the game in doubt until the wire.
With seven minutes left, the Warriors again turned to Jamison, as he caught a punt near midfield, drew some blocks and sprinted 51 yards to his second TD, with Mike Burton’s extra point stretching the lead back to eight.
Westhill’s defense would handle the rest, as Chester picked up his second interception and, as time ran low, the Braves drove into Warrior territory, but Casey Rogers got a critical sack of quarterback Anthony Sinicropi, and Cody Badman batted down Sinicropi’s fourth-down pass to clinch the victory.
That contrasted with how Westhill’s neighbor, Bishop Ludden, opened its season the night before, as high-powered Utica-Notre Dame arrived in town and handled the Gaelic Knights 56-14.
Ludden knew that it was facing a tough Jugglers passing attack anchored by senior quarterback Kevin Warmack, but still couldn’t stop him. Warmack threw just nine passes, but completed eight of them for 212 yards, an average of more than 23 yards per completion, with four touchdowns.
The drama ended early, UND racing out to a 44-0 halftime lead. Warmack did it all, throwing scoring passes of two yards to Joe Sullivan and 50 yards to Nick Rocci, and then running for four more scores with sprints of two, 13, 19 and 42 yards.
Even when the Gaelic Knights pulled a drive together, it got halted when Vinnie Loconti interecpeted a pass in the end zone and returned it 102 yards for a TD. Ludden finally got on the board in the third quarter, when Kendre Sanders scored on a three-yard run. Shi’kem Lee later added a 30-yard TD pass to Cameron Beauford.
