CENTRAL NEW YORK – Two weeks spent on the new turf at Mike Messere Field has led to two victories for the West Genesee football team – and a spot in the Section III Class A semifinals.
The Wildcats handled visiting Carthage 36-7 in Friday’s opening round, which was the team’s sixth win in a row and sets up an exciting semifinal next weekend against Whitesboro.
With only a 3-5 mark in the regular season, the Comets found itself in trouble right away – less than two minutes, to be precise.
That’s how long it took WG to reach Carthage’s 12-yard line before Vincent Firenze, on a rollout, found Landon Spencer, who dashed to the end zone, Firenze’s extra point making it 7-0.
Another possession led to another touchdown, this time the drive reaching the one-yard line before Firenze plunged in himself.
WG made it 22-0 with 4:26 left in the half, having reached Carthage’s three before Francisco Cross ran in for the TD. Here, the PAT snap was muffed, but Firenze picked it up and threw to Dom Burris for two points.
Here, and throughout the game’s early stages, the Wildcats’ defense remained in top form, stifling any attempt by the Comets to establish itself and ultimately pitching a shutout until the fourth quarter.
As if his work on offense wasn’t enough, Firenze got 10 tackles, topped only by Jerry Grobsmith’s total of 11 tackles. Sam Mauro had nine tackles, with Christian Burns getting eight tackles as Spencer and Carson Pagan had seven tackles apiece. Noah Coleman added an interception.
By the time Carthage did score, the game was well in hand, Cross having scored for a second time late in the third period on a 24-yard run before Firenze added a nine-yard TD scramble and two-point pass to Spencer on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Now the Wildcats could focus on Whitesboro and an attempt to avenge a tense 27-26 defeat to the Warriors in the season opener when WG went for two points after a late touchdown and could not convert. The winner here gets Fayetteville-Manlius or New Hartford in the Nov. 11 sectional final at the JMA Wireless Dome.
Over in the Class B sectional bracket, Westhill had to try to make a turnaround after a late-season slump against unbeaten top seed Indian River.
And though the visiting Warriors did net touchdowns in each of the first two periods, it simply could not keep up with IR’s torrid pace as, by a 54-25 margin, it moved to 8-0 and advanced to the semifinals against Central Valley Academy, who ousted Institute of Technology Central 23-7.
Only up 8-6 through one period, IR got away with three scoring drives in the second quarter, all of them capped when Derek Jones found the end zone, the last two of them on runs of 29 and 21 yards.
Despite Jones’ four TD’s and 161 yards overall, he was topped by teammate Ethan Hattori, who amassed 238 yards on 14 carries and scored twice. Antonio Rivera and Azhari Berroa-Prensa eached gained 61 yards, IR accumulating 545 rushing yards overall.
In the Independent division, Jordan-Elbridge was ousted in the Division II semifinals by Phoenix last Thursday night, the Firebirds prevailing by a score of 59-29.
Nixon Karcz scored a pair of first-half touchdowns, but Phoenix still built a 38-14 advantage, humbling the Eagles’ defense as Joe Edick scored three times and Dylan Tack added two TD’s.
J-E also had scoring drive in the last two periods even as the Firebirds got away. Edick tacked on a fourth TD as the Eagles fell to 1-6.
