Now the early-season work for the Baldwinsville football team is done, and the important stuff in the Class AA-2 division kicks off this Friday night when West Genesee visits Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium.
But the Bees sit at 0-2, this following a 41-14 defeat to Section IV’s Horseheads in Friday night’s home opener, a game where big plays by the Blue Raiders proved too much to overcome.
Hours before B’ville took its 28-21 overtime loss to Jamestown in the Sept. 7 Kickoff Classic at the Dome, Horseheads had recorded an impressive 35-14 win over the same West Genesee side that the Bees will face this weekend.
So it wasn’t a big surprise to see the Blue Raiders play well in this game, too. What was a shock, though, was the degree to which Horseheads would seize control, and the way they did so.
Three times in the first half, the Blue Raiders struck for touchdowns, including second-quarter plays where Grayson Woodhouse threw touchdown passes of 64 and 80 yards to Andrew McLaughlin.
Meanwhile, Horseheads’ defense mostly stifled B’ville’s ground game, so the Bees found itself trailing 21-6 at intermission despite Braden McCard putting his team on the board with a 22-yard scoring pass to Pat May.
It was decided for good when Horseheads scored twice more in the third quarter to make it 35-6, and again the big play was a part of it. Gavin Elston, who had already scored on a seven-yard run in the opening period, added a two-yard TD plunge and then, from his own three, took off 97 yards to the other end zone to make it 41-6.
Though the Bees would score again thanks to Mike Letizia’s 47-yard run, it proved far too late.
Overall, Letizia gained 97 yards on 19 carries, with McCard rushing for 55 yards to go with his seven-of-15 passing for 128 yards, which included a pair of interceptions. May caught five passes for 113 yards.
Defensively, Kolby Hahn led the Bees with 11 tackles, nine of them solo. Eight of Nate Robinson’s nine tackles were solo efforts as Letizia added seven tackles.
Elston finished with 145 yards on the ground after going for 217 yards against West Genesee the week before. Woodhouse completed 13 of 19 passes for 335 yards, with McLaughlin catching five of those passes for 216 yards.
Next week, B’ville knows that, while West Genesee lost most of its starting lineup from the 2018 team that reached the Section III Class AA final, it still recovered well from its loss to Horseheads, topping Corcoran 28-12 on Friday.
