BALDWINSVILLE – A single play early in a football game rarely carries significance beyond its early context.
Yet what happened in the first quarter of Baldiwnsville’s 55-6 defeat to Liverpool Friday night at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium was difficult to ignore given all the big plays that would follow at the Bees’ expense.
A great situation presented itself when a B’ville defense which surrendered a single touchdown to Middletown in its Sept. 7 opener had the Warriors pinned at its own one-yard line in the first quarter.
Liverpool’s response was having John Sindoni throw deep – and find Antonio Rivera, who outran all the Bees to find the other end zone, the rare instance of a 99-yard touchdown.
B’ville would score before the period ended, Luke Primrose throwing a 32-yard scoring pass to Jimmy Ryan, but the Bees found it difficult to recover from the full-field blow the Warriors gave them.
Over the course of the next three periods Liverpool would score four different ways – running, passing, defense and special teams – with Antonio and Alejandro Rivera at the heart of it all.
Not content with his early 99-yard strike, Antonio Rivera stepped in front of a Primrose pass in the second quarter and returned the interception 39 yards for a TD before returning to catch a short scoring pass from Sindoni just before halftime.
Then, in the third quarter, Rivera took a punt at his own 22-yard line, picked up some blocks and went all the way to the end zone again, a 78-yard dash to go with his defensive score and four catches for 164 yards.
Alejandro Rivera balanced it out with his big gains on the ground, needing just 12 carries to amass 208 yards. He scored once on a 22-yard run early in the second quarter, broke free for a 75-yard TD dash early in the third period and went 16 yards for a third score to make it 48-6.
While all this was going on, B’ville did move the ball, gaining 342 yards on the ground, mostly from Brady Garcia, who had 26 carries for 170 yards, and TeiShawn Wade, who had 124 yards on just nine carries.
Yet it never could translate into points, the Bees instead finding itself knocked out by all the big plays thrown at them. Defensively, Dylan Garcia led with six tackles, helped by Maxie Capers with five tackles and Tyler Pine had four tackles.
B’ville looks to recover this Friday night at Mike Messere Field when it faces West Genesee. Kickoff is at 6 p.m.
