Having climbed farther than anyone could have imagined at the start of this fall, the Westhill football team had a chance to offer a perfect ending to a perfect regular season by defeating Homer in Friday night’s showdown for the Class B West regular-season championship.
But the visiting Trojans had no intention of cooperating in the Warriors’ plans.
Shaking off an early deficit, Homer relied on Alec Bush and a dominant ground game, along with a defense that held Westhill without a first down in the second half, to pull away for a 47-13 victory.
“They (Homer) are a well-coached, well-oiled machine that did a great job of pounding the football on us,” said Warriors head coach Jamie Casullo.
Bush, in particular, overwhelmed Westhill’s defenders, gaining 312 yards on 31 carries and scoring all three of his touchdowns in the second half, while passing Bob Avery, a star back in the early 1970s that went to Syracuse University, as Homer’s all-time leading rusher with 2,840 career yards.
“He’s certainly one of the best we’ve ever had,” said Homer head coach Gary Podsiedlik. “He’s taught himself to be a great back and to trust the guys up front. He’s a great student of the game.”
One lesson the Trojans had rarely faced this season, while averaging more than 60 points per game, was facing a deficit, having trailed just once in six contests.
But after Joel Christopher missed a 32-yard field goal on Homer’s first possession, Westhill promptly went 80 yards in 11 plays, mixing up runs and passes. a 37-yard completion from Richie Easterly to Joe Rainone was the big blow that helped set up Easterly’s own one-yard scoring sneak.
Homer replied with a pair of scoring drives, each of them featuring wide receiver Jayden Gavidia. Drew Cottrell found him on a key third-down completion to set up a seven-yard TD pass late in the first quarter, tying it at 7-7.
Then, early in the second period, Gavidia managed to sneak behind Westhill’s secondary and catch a deep pass from Cottrell, going the rest of the way, 65 yards to the end zone.
Casey Rogers blocked the extra point, and despite five different trips into Warriors territory, Homer could not get anything more the rest of the half. Westhill only trailed 13-7 at the break, the closest anyone had come to the Trojans, by a wide margin, in any first half this season.
But once the third quarter got underway, Homer asserted itself on both sides of the ball. Bush, and his offensive linemen, did most of the work on a 61-yard drive to open the half that included a key fourth-down conversion before Bush scored from 10 yards out.
On both of its third-quarter possessions, Westhill went three-and-out, Easterly struggling in the face of heavy pressure and sacked twice.
Meanwhile, the Trojans’ getaway began early in the fourth quarter, as Bush took off on a 48-yard run down the left sideline, setting up his second TD, on a one-yard plunge.
Then, after Easterly fumbled, Bush scored on the very next play, breaking several tackles on a 45-yard sprint to the end zone, which made it 34-7.
The only points Westhill got in the second half came on Rainone’s 86-yard kick return, but that got sandwiched in between long TD runs of 31 and 64 yards by Chris Birchenough, who took over at tailback after Bush and the starters went to the bench.
Despite the loss, Casullo said he was proud of his team for what it had done defying everyone’s expectations and earning itself a home sectional playoff game next Friday against Mexico, the third-place finisher in the B East division, next Friday night, with the winner to play Cazenovia or Skaneateles in the sectional semifinals.
“However it works out (in the post-season), I’m so happy for these guys,” he said. “I knew they had it in them, but they knew it better than I did.”
