Everyone associated with the West Genesee football team had a feeling that the progress made a season ago was just the foundation for something much bigger in 2018.
Through one game, their optimism appears quite reasonable.
Consistent on offense and dominant on defense, the Wildcats roared past Henninger 27-0 in Friday night’s opener at Mike Messere Field.
The Black Knights, 2-7 a season ago, knew that a win at WG could signal a turnaround, but the Wildcats never let them get going as a defense with 10 returning starters kept making big stops.
This allowed the offense, run by new quarterback Tyler Cook, ample time to find its own rhythm, and it got on the board in the first quarter with a drive that led to Cook’s touchdown pass to Ben Rustay.
Another scoring march early in the second period doubled WG’s lead to 14-0, Brad May going the final three yards as Riley Small made the extra point, one of three conversions he had on the night.
While the defense continued to stand out, Cook would tack on two more TD passes in the second half, eight yards to John Benson and then, as a capper, a 58-yard strike to Esisas Brumfield in the fourth quarter.
A tougher assignment looms next Friday as WG would visit Corcoran, who had opened its season with a 24-14 road win at Baldwinsville.
Meanwhile, Jordan-Elbridge made the long trip north to Clayton to face Thousand Islands in its Aug. 31 opener, and a spectacular effort from Jeremiah Sparks carried the Eagles past the Vikings 37-34 in head coach Joe Fiacchi’s debut.
Perhaps the effects from a two-hour bus ride affected J-E early, for it was blanked in the first quarter and found itself trailing 14-0 before Sparks went to work.
From TI’s 45-yard line, Sparks broke loose for a touchdown run, and then caught Geoff Lippa’s two-point pass. Then, when the Eagles marched to the Vikings’ nine, Sparks found the end zone again, tying it 14-14, where it stood at halftime.
Now the teams went back and forth throughout the second half. Twice, TI went in front, with Michael Briggs scoring on runs of 12 and seven yards.
Both times, J-E answered, Sparks catching a 31-yard TD pass from Lippa and then, on his biggest play of the night, Sparks took a handoff on his own 25 and then outraced Vikings defenders to the end zone, following it up with another two-point catch.
Now up 31-28, the Eagles absorbed Briggs’ third scoring run, from 53 yards out, before Sparks found the end zone for the fifth time on a six-yard dash in the waning minutes.
Sparks’ five touchdowns negated the fact that the Vikings got 181 yards on the ground from Briggs and 170 more yards from Thorne Matthews on 15 carries.
