GREECE — Speed kills.
The Brighton Barons found that out first hand Saturday afternoon as Greece Athena’s skill-position players turned on the jets for 4 back-breaking scoring plays to lead the Trojans to a 30-14 win over Brighton in the season opener for both teams.
GA’s Lorcen Miller ripped off touchdown runs of 74 and 59 yards and Nate Bogoniewski connected with Kelvin Reaves for scoring strikes of 34 and 43 yards to pace the Trojans’ win. All this despite of temperatures that hovered in the low 90s the entire game.
“We have speed that’s for sure and that will help us as the year progresses,” 27-year coach Rob Cerone said. “But we have to get sharper if we want to get better. We will take the win, but it was sloppy. Regardless, it was a win, and we are 1-0.”
The sharpness will come in playing disciplined football and taking care of the ball. The Trojans fumbled on their first play from scrimmage and had 9 penalties for 55 yards. While the number of penalties wasn’t so bad, it was the timing of some, including one that negated a long touchdown pass from Bogoniewski to Reaves. Even though the touchdown was nullified, Jake Zielinski did kick a 32-yard field goal on the drive, so that drive wasn’t completely for naught.
Going into the season the Barons knew they would have to grow up in a hurry as many new first time starters were taking the field. While the game will go in as a loss, Brighton will be hanging their hat on their defense this season.
While the Trojans did light up the scoreboard with big plays and collected 337 yards of offense – 167 on the ground and 172 through the air – 254 of those yards were on just five plays. The rest of the game the Barons limited the Trojans to just 83 yards on 47 plays.
“I thought our defense played very good today, but our offense just couldn’t execute,” Brighton coach Steven Lian said.
Even though Brighton dominated the first half in time of possession, it just couldn’t dial up the right combination to get on the scoreboard. Brighton snapped the ball more times than Athena in the first half – 40-27 – but still found itself on the short-end of a 21-0 deficit.
After fumbling away their first snap and stalling on their second drive, the Trojan defense stiffened and stopped the Barons on downs at the Athena 23. Two plays later, Miller saw a gaping hole on the right side and scampered 74 yards for the score, outrunning the secondary the last 50 yards.
“Our line blocked extremely well on those long touchdown runs. The holes they opened were great,” said Miller, who finished the game with 126 yards rushing on just 6 touches.
After the score, Brighton stayed true to its game plan of run-first, and continued to pound the ball, own the clock and and rack up first downs. But the Trojan defense employed a bend-but-not break approach, and every time Brighton would string together some success, the drives stalled.
Athena’s quick strike offense was set in motion when Sam Sheldon returned a Baron punt 39 yards to set the Trojans up at the Brighton 34-yard line with 1:51 left in the second. On the very next play Reaves got behind the Baron secondary and hauled in a 34 toss from Bogoniewski and just like that Athena was up 14-0.
Lightning struck seconds later when Athena took over on its own 40 yard line with 1:00 to go. Two runs by Kendale Williams got the ball to the 34 yard line, and after a timeout, Bogoniewski heaved a desperation ball to the goal line that went through the hands of a Baron defender landing softly in Reaves hands in the end zone with :04 left.
“That last play was unfortunate for us,” said Lian, who’s team ran 27 more plays than Athena in the first half. “The difference in this game was three or four plays. We made a lot of mistakes. I know our players are better than that. But we will get it right.”
The win exacted some revenge by the Trojans, who last year suffered a 22-21 loss to the Barons after having a large halftime lead. This year, Athena was not going to relinquish their 21-0 halftime lead.
“We remembered what happened last year and this year we went in at halftime thinking it was 0-0 and keep fighting. We were not going to let it happen again,” said Reaves who finished the game with 129 yards on 5 receptions, and also snared an interception.
Taking their coaches’ words to heart, the Trojans came out in the second half and on their first series from their 35-yard line, Bogoniewski found Reaves for an apparent third long touchdown, this time from 65 yards. But as he crossed the goal line a downfield blocker was caught blocking from behind, negating the score and putting the ball at the 13-yard line. The Baron defense would not relinquish the score, instead holding Athena to the Zielinski’s field goal to lead 24-0.
Athena held on the ensuing drive, and four plays later Miller found daylight again over the right side, racing 59 yards down the right sideline to make it 30-0.
Despite being down 30-0, Brighton continued to play hard to avoid the shutout. With 5:37 left, Baron linebacker Clayton Teeter scooped up a fumble and rambled 22 yards to put the first Brighton points of the season on the board. Then, with less than 3 minutes left, Brighton embarked on its last drive and reserve tailback Jayden Pope saw plenty of action. On the final drive of the day, he carried the ball 6 times gaining 51 yards, the last 6 coming on the last play as he powered into the end zone. Pope finished with 68 yards rushing, while Ammon Jordan had 67 yards on 14 carries.
Next week, Athena plays host to a talented Irondequoit team at 2 pm Saturday, while Brighton hosts defending Class A champion Wilson at 7 pm Friday.
GREECE ATHENA 30
BRIGHTON 14
1 2 3 4 F
BHS 0 0 0 14 14
GA 7 14 9 0 30
Scoring
GA-Lorcen Miller 74 run (Jake Zielinski kick)
GA-Kelvin Reaves 34 pass from Nate Bogoniewski (Jake Zielinski kick)
GA-Kelvin Reaves 43 pass from Nate Bogoniewski (Jake Zielinski kick)
GA-Jake Zielinski 34 FG
GA-Lorcen Miller 59 run (kick failed)
B-Clayton Teeter 22 fumble return (Jack Carl kick)
B-Jayden Pope 6 run (Jack Carl kick)
Individual Passing
Brighton-Ryan Watson 5-23-41-0-2, Teddy Knapp 0-1-0-0-0-
Athena-Nate Bogoniewski 12-19-172-2-0-
Individual Rushing
Brighton-Jayden Pope 8-68, Ammon Jordan 14-67, Ryan Watson 10-56, Vaughn Fetkenhour 8-35, Tahj Jackson 4-19, Sam Tourangeau 1-5
Athena-Lorcen Miller 6-126, Kendale William 7-33, Nate Bogoniewski 4-12, Jayden Dorsey 3-6, Johnny Lopez 1-(-10)
Individual Receiving
Brighton-Jack Falter 2-29, Najeeb Awad 1-9, Ammon Jordan 2-3
Athena-Kelvin Reaves 5-129, Sam Sheldon 3-21, Lorcen Miller 2-10, Tahjmir Kearse 1-7, Tristan Ellison 1-5
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