BY PAUL LIOTTI
VICTOR — It was worth the wait.
And it was an instant classic.
Irondequoit’s Freddy June Jr., showed why he is one of the most dynamic players in Section V, scoring on an electric 3-yard run with :18 left in the game.
But it wasn’t until Victor’s Hudson Alread’s pass bounced off two Blue Devil receivers’ in the back of the end zone on the game’s last play did the Eagles know they were on the winning end of a 28-21 upset victory.
Mother Nature couldn’t delay the inevitable any longer. After she unleashed her fury Friday night forcing a 48-hour postponement of the much-anticipated matchup between Class A powers Victor and Irondequoit and Victor, ranked 3rd and 7th respectively, the two heavyweight titans weathered the other’s best shots: Victor with its ground-and-pound offense against the Eagles’ playmaking athletes. Victor’s game-plan was more for self-preservation: The more it had the ball, the less time June would be in the game.
“When you have a player like Freddie on the other side, the best defense against him is just keeping the ball on offense,” 3rd-ranked Victor coach Geoff Mandile said.
Mandile’s troops did all it could to keep the pigskin out of June’s hands for as long as they could, but, with the game tied at 21-all, 7th-ranked Irondequoit took offense with 5:08 left on its own 80-yard line. There was something in the air that said Irondequoit would pull this one out.
The Eagles (4-0) steadily marched down the field, mixing up the plays, but essentially keeping the ball in their two top play-makers’ hands: June and RB Jaden Turner. Five carries by June, two carries by Turner and a crossing pass completion from June to Turner for 25 yards put the ball on the 3-yard line with :24 seconds left.
On first down, June took the shotgun snap and the middle of the offensive line opened a gaping hole. But Victor’s Sutton Boland – who blocked an extra point earlier in the game – sprinted in to plug it up. June juked right, then slid left, broke free from Rushawn Baker and outsprinted the Blue Devil (3-1) defense scooting just inside the left pylon. June’s two point conversion was good and Irondequoit had broken the tie.
“We are a situational team in practice and we practice our two-minute drill every day,” IQ coach Dan Fitcher said. “Victor is a great team that plays extremely hard and is well-coached. I’m sure we will see them again this season.”
“We had to speed up the game on that last drive,” June said. “We have a fast-paced no huddle offense with quick routes and we got open on that last drive. On that last play they shut down the middle and if I could get to the outside I knew I could get in the end zone.”
Even though there was only :18 left on the clock, the game was far from over. A penalty on the touchdown against Irondequoit forced the Eagles to kick off from their own 25. Victor’s Joey Pezzimenti – who had 157 yards on 34 carries – gave his offense life by finding a seam on the left side and returning the ball to the Irondequoit 47-yard line with :11 left.
On the first snap, Alread found Carson Rucker in the left flat for 17 yards, but when the IQ defense tackled Alread after the pass was released, another 15 yards were tacked on, putting the ball at the IQ 15 yard line with 4.8 seconds left.
On the final play of the game, Alread’s pass to the back of the end zone into a swarm of IQ and Victor players was nearly hauled in, but the ball bounced off his receiver’s hands and the game was over.
For the better part of the game, the Blue Devils were successful; exerting their will, grinding out time-consuming drives and gained more and more momentum as the game went on.
After Quinn Simenson hauled in a June pass from 9 yards out, toe-tapping his way for a score to put the Eagles up 13-0 with 5 minutes remaining in the first quarter, the Blue Devils ran 50 of the next 65 offensive plays. Of those 50 plays, 47 were rushes, split between Pezzimenti and Baker. In the third quarter alone, Victor ran 19 plays to Irondequoit’s 3.
“We’d like to be more balanced, but it was working for us,” Mandile said.
And it was beating up the Eagle front line in a very bad way. Early on in the game the Blue Devils were gaining only 2 or 3 yards on each carry. But by the middle of the fourth quarter, each tote was netting 5, 6 and 7 yards.
But the IQ defense stiffened in the nick of time.
After Barker had ripped off a 43 yard touchdown to put the Blue Devils back in front 21-20 — two plays after IQ took the lead 20-14 on the second June-to-Simenson touchdown pass midway through the fourth quarter – the Eagles blundered on the kickoff by not fielding the pooch kick by Jacob Cole-Allen. Instead, the Blue Devils pounced on the ball and set up shop at the 24-yard line with 6:20 left in the game.
It was at that time that the Eagles mixed things up defensively.
“We knew coming in they were going to run the ball and pound it down our throats. But we made some adjustments as the game wore on and they worked out,” Fichter said. “We made some player changes on that last drive which worked for us.”
That specific adjustment including sliding senior captain Nick Serce from his defensive end position inside for more stopping power and bringing offensive lineman McGuire Craig off the bench to play defensive end.
The result: Victor only moved the ball 4 yards and turned the ball over on 4th down when Alread’s pass fell incomplete. Craig made two tackles on that short drive.
“We never give up…we believe in each other,” an exhausted Serce said. “Stopping them deep in our own end gave our offense an opportunity.”
“We have a great group of kids and they came to play tonight. They bent but they didn’t break,” Fitcher said.
June finished the game accounting for 207 of the team’s 278 total yards of offense and accounted for 4 touchdowns – 13 of 20 for 141 passing and two scores, and ran the ball 19 times for 66 yards, two scores and a 2-point conversion. Ryan DeRosa and Turner combined for 76 yards rushing.
Barker also joined Pezzimenti over the century mark with 128 yards on 17 carries and two touchdowns. Pezzimenti added the other Victor score on a three-yard burst.
Both teams will have a quick turnaround for Week 5, as they both play on Friday: Irondequoit hosts Rush Henrietta and Victor travels to Webster Schroeder.
| IQ | 6 | 7 | 0 | 15 | 28 |
| Victor | 0 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 21 |
| Scoring | |||||||
| IQ | Freddy June Jr 4 run (kick blocked) | ||||||
| IQ | Quinn Simenson 9 pass from Freddy June Jr (Nicholas Chodak kick) | ||||||
| Victor | Rushawn Baker 10 run (Sam Castiglia kick) | ||||||
| Victor | Joey Pezzimenti 3 run (Jacob Cole-Allen kick) | ||||||
| IQ | Quinn Simenson 11 pass from Freddy June Jr (Nicholas Chodak kick) | ||||||
| Victor | Rushawn Baker 43 run (Jacob Cole-Allen kick) | ||||||
| IQ | Freddy June Jr 3 run (Freddy June Jr run) | ||||||
| Rushing | |
| IQ | Freddy June Jr 19-66, Ryan DeRosa 4-43, Jaden Turner 7-33, Quinn Simenson 1-(-5) |
| Victor | Joey Pezzimenti 34-157, Rushawn Baker 17-128, Camden Hay 1-5, Kordell Jackson 1-0 |
| Passing | |
| IQ | Freddy June Jr 13-20-141-2-0 |
| Victor | Hudson Alread 5-12-59-0-1 |
| Receiving | |
| IQ | Quinn Simenson 5-49, Jaden Turner 3-47, Patrick Thomas IV 3-35, Joe Bianchi 1-6, Joshua Colon 1-4 |
| Victor | Jacob Cole-Allen 2-38, Carson Rucker 1-17, Jon Crowley 1-9, Joey Pezzimenti 1–5 |
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