A-L cruises past CL/W/B for Homecoming triumph | Sports

But a week ago, past the Gators’ toughest portion of the schedule, A-L handled Alden 36-18.

And, Friday at Fred Grace Field, Grove’s crew made Homecoming Night for the faithful with a 34-0 win over Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton (2-3).

That was the score at halftime and A-L’s defense took care of the rest.

And this was hardly a one-man show.

Junior running back Kevin Edwards-Hardy had two touchdowns, a 1-yard run and a 32-yard interception return, fellow back Anthony DeCapua, a senior, added a 5-yard TD run and two interceptions, junior quarterback Michael Frederick ran for a 35-yard score and added a fumble recovery and senior wideout Andrew Giardini added a touchdown from 10 yards out.

AFTERWARD, Grove, now 2-3, was thrilled with a second straight win after those three opening losses.

“I told the kids those (defeats) are on me and ‘I’m working to get it fixed.’” he said. (CL/W/B) is a good football team. They have some good players and a good coaching staff, unfortunately some things haven’t gone their way yet.”

But he added, “Talent-wise we’re right there with Fredonia and Salamanca. We’re putting in a new offense. It’s going to take a few weeks to get going and we’re finally seeing that gel.”

His approach to last night was simple.

“We wanted to come out of the gates early, get off and get running,” he said. “We knew if we gave it our best shot we wanted to see if they’d answer the bell and unfortunately for them, they didn’t. Our goal was to come out swinging and we did tonight.”

Especially, on defense, turning CL/W/B over four times and holding it to 66 yards total offense.

“Defensively we played awesome and our offense capitalized when the defense put us in good position,” Grove said.

The A-L alum and St. Bonaventure graduate has a degree in sports studies/team and individual coaching, but also spent his college years on the Gators staff, a year under Paul Furlong and three for Tom Callen.

Of the Gators’ impressive defensive performance, Grove, who’s only 23, concluded, “That’s something we’ve been preaching. This is my fifth year doing the defense and I’m familiar with the guys and they understand my expectations. Defensively, I expect us to be a stout team and tonight we finally were firing on all cylinders and 66 yards, that’s unreal.”

Randolph 54, Gowanda/Pine Valley 6

RANDOLPH — Xander Hind had another monster outing, scoring four touchdowns in three different ways as Randolph, following a forfeit victory, cruised to 5-0.

Hind rushed eight times for 144 yards (good for an average of 18 per carry) and three touchdowns, including a 73-yarder, caught an 85-yard TD pass from Carson Conley and returned the second-half opening kickoff 87 yards for a score.

Connor Braley had seven totes for 111 yards and a touchdown, Joseph Nottingham had 59 rushing yards and a score and Conley completed 2-for-3 passes, both for touchdowns, the first a 12-yarder to Jaiden Huntington.

The Cardinals took a 21-0 first-quarter lead and extended it to 33-0 at the break before cruising after halftime. They outgained Gowanda/PV 436-192, including a head-turning 339 to minus-26 on the ground.

Quentin Centner was 6-of-17 for 198 yards with one touchdown and one pick while Logan Ruff caught four passes for 123 yards for Gowanda/PV.

Bolivar-Richburg 40, C.G. Finney/Northstar 7

BOLIVAR — Quarterback Caden Allen carried 12 times for 129 yards and two touchdowns as B-R, even after a week off due to a forfeit win, picked up where it left off with another convincing win.

Allen also went 4-of-6 passing for another two scores and completed four two-point conversion passes. Ethan Coleman added nine carries for 80 yards and a score and Tavyn MacDonell caught four passes for 88 yards and the two receiving touchdowns for the Wolverines (5-0), who built up a 24-0 halftime lead before tacking on two more scores in the third quarter.

Trent Sibble led the defense with nine tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery.

“Finney was pretty physical, and I thought our kids responded,” B-R coach Steve Smith said. “We had a forfeit last week, and it had been a little while since we were out there, but once we got back into football mode, we were fine. I was really pleased with our effort, but I felt Finney played a very physical game, which was good for us.”