CENTRAL NEW YORK – As it goes into the Section III Class AA playoffs the West Genesee football team is quite aware of the mammoth obstacles it faces should it get out of the opening round.
First, though the Wildcats had to deal with Fayetteville-Manlius in last Friday’s regular-season finale, knowing it had to win in order to host a first-round sectional playoff game.
And though the Hornets made it quite stressful, WG made the big plays it needed on both ends to prevail 29-22 and get that home date this Friday against Utica Proctor for a 6 p.m. kickoff.
No plays were bigger than what took place early in the fourth quarter after F-M had battled back to take a 16-14 lead on Jack Hearn’s 20-yard scoring pass to Sam Goepfert and a Hearn two-point conversion.
Calmly the Wildcats answered, driving to the Hornets’ nine before Elijah Apps dashed in for the go-ahead touchdown and added a two-point run.
WG’s defense, which already had points thanks to Dontae Rufus recovering a second-quarter fumble in the end zone, got the ball back to the offense, which soon had possession at its own 32.
Jack Wade, held to less than 100 passing yards to that point, went deep – and found Brian Simmons for a touchdown covering 68 yards and producing a 29-16 advantage.
Though F-M would cut the deficit to seven late on Hearn’s TD pass to Chase Giammichele, it could not get any closer.
Apps gained 113 yard on just 12 carries to balance out the attack as Wade went 12-for-24 for 163 yards overall, most of it to Simmons, who had six catches for 103 yards.
Even better was Apps on the defensive side notching 15 tackles, helped by Raul Colon, who had 10 tackles. Shakair Jones added eight tackles and Jay’Mari Newsome added seven tackles.
Back on Thursday night, Jordan-Elbridge found itself in a tense, low-scoring battle against Phoenix, unable to do much in a 12-6 defeat to the Firebirds.
Colton Munson went eight yards for the Eagles’ lone touchdown in the first quarter. For the rest of the night Phoenix quieted J-E and patiently awaited for its own chance to strike.
That came in the third quarter, minutes apart. Tallen Prior’s 35-yard TD run tied it and, when Prior threw eight yards to Dan Swank, the Firebirds went in front for good. J-E could not answer it and fell to 2-6 on the season.
Westhill continued its season-long trend of putting up plenty of points but surrendering even more, doing so at Homer as the Trojans defeated the Warriors 60-37.
For much of the game Westhill did keep pace, scoring at least once in each of the first three quarters even as Homer built up a 38-31 advantage. Gradually, though, the Trojans’ ground game wore down the Warriors, leading to a trio of decisive fourth-quarter touchdowns.
Homer had 534 yards on the ground, mostly from two sources. Alex Votra got 328 yards from 29 carries, with Brycen Poole managing 200 yards on 24 carries.
