Perhaps the Baldwinsville football team took notice of the vast amount of attention given to Liverpool’s long-awaited return to its home stadium on Friday night when it hosted the state Class AA no. 3-ranked Bees.
And if the Bees weren’t paying attention, a quick two-touchdown deficit woke them up, the first real adversity it had faced all season.
No problem, though, as sophomore Tyler Rouse offered a spectacular breakout performance and B’ville put together 47 unanswered points to smother the Warriors 47-20 and move to 3-0 on the season.
Rouse broke tackles, spun, changed directions and, at times, just outran the Liverpool defenders as he piled up 319 yards on 29 carries and scored two touchdowns. Much of that came in response to how the game had started.
Amid a fair amount of pomp and ceremony, Liverpool ignored its 0-2 record and arrived at its first home game since October 2007 determined to spring a huge upset. And for a few minutes in the first quarter, it looked possible.
Following a defensive stop, the Warriors used Tyland Thompson’s 43-yard run to set up Elijah Johnson scoring from five yards out to put the home team up 7-0.
B’ville’s next offensive play saw Ben Paprocki drop the handoff – and Liverpool’s Connor Rogers recovered. Thompson then took off on a 21-yard TD run, the Warriors’ second score in 17 seconds, and the roar from the massive home crowd was deafening.
“That woke us up,” B’ville head coach Carl Sanfilippo said. “So we put it in the hands of our offensive line.”
Thus, Nick Robinson, Jake Margrey, Ryland Jennings, Matt Moreland and Tom Tanguay went to work, clearing the way for Rouse as he got most of the yards on a 62-yard drive that followed Thompson’s second TD. Paprocki went the final four yards for the score, and Mark Stanard’s extra point made it 14-7.
Just when the Warriors were crowding the line of scrimmage in the second quarter, Casey Colligan offered up a perfect play-action fake from his own 44 – and found tight end Carter Twombly wide open in the secondary.
Twombly finished off the 56-yard TD reception, and though the PAT was missed and it trailed 14-13, B’ville had reached Sanfilippo’s goal of catching up by halftime.
Thanks to Rouse, it would do even more.
Pinned on its own 12-yard line with a minute to play in the half, Colligan took a shotgun snap, handed off – and watched Rouse outrun the entire Liverpool defense on an 84-yard sprint inside the Warriors’ five-yard line. Antonio Peck scored from one yard out, and B’ville led 19-14 at the break, despite two turnovers and a rash of penalties.
The getaway came in the third quarter, courtesy of more long runs from Rouse, who set up another short Paprocki TD and found the end zone himself on a 26-yard run. To cap it off, Rouse went 54 yards for his second touchdown early in the fourth quarter.
All the while, B’ville’s defense shook off those early Liverpool scores and forced the Warriors into all kinds of mistakes, including bad snaps and turnovers on three straight possessions. Peck and Eric Tommarello both had interceptions and Stephen Mitchell recovered a fumble.
B’ville brings its 3-0 mark back home to Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium next Friday to face Nottingham at 6:30. The Bulldogs are 1-2 and are coming off a 44-14 loss to CBA.
