BY PAUL LIOTTI
It’s been said that the loneliest job on a football team is the kicker.
After all, they get very few chances to make a difference. And many of those times, the result isn’t memorable.
But when Pittsford junior Kyle Hennessey walks through the school’s doors on Monday morning, he will have more friends than he ever could have imagined.
That’s because Hennessey split the uprights in his overtime point-after-try to send the Panthers into the Class AA finals with a 28-27 win over Fairport and give the Panthers a sweep of the two games played between the teams this season.
“I just wanted to make it an win the game,” said Hennessey. “All week in practice I make that kick and just wanted to make it again. The snap was great, the hold was perfect and I just did what I practice.”
Hennessey’s kick followed a dramatic turn of events for the Panthers (6-2), who have now won six straight games. After Dante Coccia scored from five yards out in the Red Raiders’ (6-2) first overtime possession, Pittsford was facing a fourth-and-four from the 14-yard line. Fairport had all the momentum when Pittsford broke the huddle, but the Panthers dialed up and end-around reverse that wound up in speedy Clyde Williams’ hands and Williams darted around right end into the end zone to tie the game at 27-all.
Then it was time for Hennessey to shine.
And he did, capping an evening that saw him convert all four of his point-after-tries.
Williams’ end-around scamper was not the only back-against-the-wall play the Panthers had in waning moments of the game. Late in the fourth quarter, trailing 21-14, Pittsford found itself staring at a 4-and-12 from the Red Raider 28 yard line with the Fairport defense chomping to make a stop.
That’s when quarterback Matt LaRocca found Braydon Surra down the center of the field. The pass was off target, but Surra snatched the ball away from a defender who was blanketing him in coverage giving Pittsford a first down at the two yard line. On the next play Lavontae Bonds burrowed in for the score. Hennessey first stab under pressure was true and the game was tied at 21-all with 1:28 left in regulation.
“That’s just great football we played here tonight,” said Fairport coach Marc Vitticore. “They brought it today and we brought it today, but it just came down to a play here or a play there. Our guys laid it down on the line.”
Two of those plays came after Bonds’ game-tying score. On the ensuing drive, twice Fairport receivers slipped behind the Pittsford secondary, but the Red Raiders could not convert on the long passes. If either of them were completed, both would have gone for scores and all but assured Fairport the victory.
The fireworks that ended the game were a dramatic contrast to how the game was played for the first 46 ½ minutes.
Both defenses rose to the occasion and stopped the other when it mattered most, with most of the offense coming in grind-out, smash-mouth football fashion on a very cold October night. Fairport outgained Pittsford on the ground 187 to 175, but the Panthers only averaged 3.2 yards on 55 carries while the Red Raiders averaged 4.3 on 43 carries. The coldest game time temperature of the season may have played a role in the passing game as well as both teams struggled through the air: Pittsford finished six-of-13 for 96 yards and Fairport four-of-18 for 50 yards.
“Steve Marriott (Pittsford’s Defensive Coordinator) does an incredible job and we were shifting guys in and out all game on the line and making adjustments with the personnel when he needed to,” said Molinich, who’s defense held Fairport to just 9 yards in three possessions in the third quarter.
Coccia’s 116 yards and three touchdowns came on 30 punishing carries – carries in which he delivered as much punishment as he took. While he scored three times on runs of three, five and four yards, nine of his carries for two yards or less.
“We executed the game plan the way we wanted, but (Pittsford) changed up a few things on their defense and it was outstanding the way they did it and it caused some trouble for us,” Vitticore said of his New York State Sportswriters Association 26th-ranked team.
Pittsford, meanwhile, didn’t fare much better against the staunch Red Raider defense: Bonds gained just 82 yards on 17 carries, eight of which were for two yards or less. But his longer runs seemed to come at the most opportune times.
“The opportunity was there for kids to make great plays and they did,” Pittsford head coach Keith Molinich said. “Matt did a very good job and we got great yards out of Lavontae who has been injured all year. We don’t win this game unless we get those yards out of Lavontae.”
The defenses dictated matters all game, and one play by each team led directly to points for them. With the score tied late 7-7 midway through the third stanza, Fairport linebacker Colin Peers jarred the ball loose from LaRocca and an opportunistic linebacker Ryan Derion scooped it up and rambled 21 yards to paydirt giving the Red Raiders a 13-7 lead.
Pittsford’s defense had a turn to shine two possessions later when Patrick Sanna broke through the line and smothered Mike Pellittiere’s punt. It took the Panthers eight plays – all on the ground – to travel the 41 remaining yards before Wyatt Molinich burrowed in from one yard out on fourth-and-goal. Hennessey’s kick made it 14-13.
Fairport then retook the lead with some trickery of its own with 5:21 left in the game. Facing fourth-and-10 at the Pittsford 31 yard line, wide receiver took a pitch from Coccia who then rolled out and found Aaron Jenks on the sideline for 22 yards to the nine. Two plays later Coccia scored from the five yard line and Pellittiere made it two completions in a row when he found Andrew Copeland for the two-point conversion and put the Red Raiders up 21-14.
Pittsford drew first blood early in the second quarter when, facing third-and-goal at the Fairport one, LaRocca rolled to his left and the southpaw delivered a scoring strike to Jackson Westfall. Fairport tied it up on Coccia’s three-yard run with 2:16 left in the first half.
With the win, Pittsford advances to play top-seeded Aquinas in the Class AA semifinals. There is history between the two schools in Sectional competition, and the 5 pm Saturday kickoff at SUNY Brockport will simply add to that rivalry.
| Fairport | 0 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 27 | |
| Pittsford | 0 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 28 | |
| Scoring | |||||||
| Pittsford | Jackson Westfall 1 pass from Matt LaRocca (Kyle Hennessey kick) | ||||||
| Fairport | Dante Coccia 3 run (Amir Yamout kick) | ||||||
| Fairport | Ryan Derion 21 fumble return (kick failed) | ||||||
| Pittsford | Wyatt Molinich 7 run (Kyle Hennessey kick) | ||||||
| Fairport | Dante Coccia 5 run (Aaron Jenks pass from Mike Pellittiere) | ||||||
| Pittsford | Lavontae Bonds 2 run (Kyle Hennessey kick) | ||||||
| Fairport | Dante Coccia 4 run (kick failed) | ||||||
| Pittsford | Clyde Williams 14 run (Kyle Hennessey kick) | ||||||
| Rushing | |||||||
| Fairport | Dante Coccia 30-116, Mike Pellittiere 8-48, Jair Ford 2-6 | ||||||
| Pittsford | Lavontae Bonds 22-82, Matt LaRocca 13-41, Clyde Williams 4-35, Wyatt Molinich 7-7, Sonny Imburgia 3-6 | ||||||
| Passing | |||||||
| Fairport | Mike Pellittiere 3-17-28-0-1, Klay Stuver 1-1-22-0-0 | ||||||
| Pittsford | Matt LaRocca 6-13-96-1-0 | ||||||
| Receiving | |||||||
| Fairport | Aaron Jenks 2-34, John Tarmino 1-13, Andrew Copeland 1-3 | ||||||
| Pittsford | Braydon Surra 2-48, Jackson Westfall 3-41, Clyde Williams 1-7 | ||||||
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