In terms of performance in its two home games in 2018, the West Genesee football team could not do much better than have two shutouts.
Following up on its 27-0 win over Henninger two weeks earlier, the Wildcats made a loud statement in its Class AA-2 division opener Friday night at Mike Messere Field, blanking Baldwinsville 35-0.
To some degree, the result reflected how much the Bees have struggled this season, far removed from its usual form, but it was also a tribute to WG’s experienced unit that only seemed to gain more confidence with each stop.
It helped, too, that the Wildcats scored before the game was five minutes old, burning B’ville on the ground with Brad May sprinting 61 yards down the left sideline to the end zone.
Those were the only points of the first half. The Bees’ defense, to its credit, kept the game 7-0 until the third quarter, when it took just 21 seconds for the game to break open as sophomore Exavier Brumfield took a handoff at midfield and outraced the Bees 50 yards for a touchdown.
WG’s only prolonged drive came later in the quarter, moving to the Bees’ two before Brumfield scored for the second time. Overall, he had 129 yards on just nine carries.
Tyler Cook only completed three passes all game, but one of them came early in the fourth quarter when Cook, from his own 17, threw deep and found Esisas Brumfield, the TD covering 83 yards.
Anthony Datellas tacked on a 68-yard scoring run with 3:50 left, the fourth scoring play of 50 or more yards as the Wildcats will look for back-to-back league wins next Saturday at Utica Proctor.
As this went on, Jordan-Elbridge rebounded from its loss to Lowville by going to Oswego and getting a spectacular first half from Jeremiah Sparks in a 53-16 victory over the Buccaneers.
For the second week in a row, Sparks began the game by taking the opening kickoff and returning it for a touchdown, this 78-yard strike just the first blow in a 46-point first half for the Eagles.
After Nate Melfi’s 17-yard TD run, Sparks did everything in the second period, running 22 yards for one score, returning a punt 62 yards for another and even getting points on defense when he recovered an Oswego fumble at the Bucs’ 19 and took it to the end zone.
Melfi would return with a 39-yard scoring run and Luke Pinckney contributed a 13-yard TD run, J-E improving to 2-1 but looking ahead to a big Class C clash with 3-0, state no. 5-ranked General Brown next Friday at 7 p.m.
