BY PAUL LIOTTI
BROCKPORT – If defense wins championships, Victor is dialing up the right recipe for a Sectional championship if its Class A semifinal win is any indication.
The Blue Devils shut down Canandaigua – holding the Braves to just 137 total yards of offense – in a dominating 27-7 upset performance handing top-seeded Canandaigua its first loss of the season at SUNY Brockport. Fourth-seeded Victor advances to next week’s Sectional title game against second-seeded Irondequoit, which also moved on with a stellar defensive effort, sending East home 39-8.
Victor (7-2/No. 23 NYSSWA), which lost 12-0 to Canandaigua in Week 6, held the Braves to 38 yards on the ground on 31 carries (1.2 per carry) and forced three turnovers. Out of the 10 legitimate drives in the game – excluding the one-play drive to end the game – Victor forced five three-and-out drives.
“When we played them the first time we held them down (offensively), but they beat us on two long scores. So we thought we could hang with them tonight,” said Victor coach Geoff Mandile. “We made some changes for this game , including six different starters to new spots for this game and it worked out for us.”
One of those moves was to send Joey Pezzimenti to safety, a move that paid off for Mandile as he blanketed the Braves’ deep routes, giving Jack Johnston very few windows to throw to. Both he and fellow safety Sam DiGiacomo snatched two interceptions on deep balls that, if completed, would have turned the tide. The loss dropped Canandaigua (8-1/No. 12 NYSSWA) from the ranks of the unbeaten.
Mandile’s defense stopped 24 of the Braves’ 31 rushing attempts for three yards or less, and eight of those attempts never made it to the line of scrimmage.
And when Victor had to give up the ball, punter Sam Castiglia flipped the field, averaging 40 yards on seven punts punts and pinned the Braves inside the five twice and inside the 20 on two other occasions. None of the seven punts were even returned, as most had outstanding hang time. Also, five of his six kickoffs went deep in the end zone for touch backs. So, when adding it all up, Castigilia booted the ball 13 times to the Braves and nine of them gave Canandaigua drive starts no better than the 20-yard line.
“(Castiglia) has done a great job punting the ball for us all year and he’s a tremendous weapon for us when we can’t get some first downs,” Mandile said.
Offensively, Victor’s thunder and lightning running game operated behind an efficient offensive line that won more battles in the trenches than it lost.
Sophomore Rushawn Baker – the lightning back – scored three times, including ripping off a 55-yard score on the game’s third play. By the end of the first quarter he had 95 yards rushing and another score from 8 yards out to stake the Blue Devils to a 12-0 lead after one quarter.
And when the Braves keyed on Baker, Pezzimenti – the thunder back – softened up the middle with a number of long and short runs, including a 37-yard jaunt to set up the final Victor score.
Baker finished the game with 125 yards on 18 carries and those three scores, while Pezzimenti 94 yards on 14 carries.
“Rushawn has been coming on like crazy at the end of the season and we have to find ways of getting him the ball more,” Mandile said. “(Canandaigua) hurt us at the line of scrimmage the first time we played them, but tonight we did a much better job with that and our line allowed Rushawn to get out in space and we completed some passes to take some of the pressure off the running game.”
The Blue Devils scored their third touchdown early in the first second quarter when James Knapp’s 22-yard pass found the hands of Jacob Cole-Allen 22 pass in the end zone. Castiglia’s point after made it 19-0 and essentially sealed the game. Canandaigua never threatened in the first half to try and cut into the Victor lead, and by intermission, Canandaigua had as many turnovers — three — as first downs and only 49 yards of offense, including eight rushing yards on nine carries.
After stopping the Braves on three consecutive drives to start the third quarter, the Blue Devils cemented the game on a nine-yard touchdown run by Baker with 3:53 left in the third quarter. Kordell Jackson converted the PAT on an end-around and it was 27-0. The touchdown was set up by Pezzimenti’s 37-yard run to put the ball at the 13-yard line. Thunder struck, and then lightning finished it off.
The Braves recovered on the next series as quarterback Jack Johnston found Brenden Shay streaking down the sideline and delivered a perfect pass that was capped by Shay diving over the goal line to complete the 47-yard touchdown pass.
But that was the only offensive success the Braves had. Brave running back Seth Vigneri was his team’s leading rusher with 23 yards on 13 carries and Johnston finished with 21 yards on 13 carries. Johnston completed seven-of-18 passes for 99 yards and the lone score.
| Victor | 12 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 27 | ||
| Canan | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 7 | ||
| Scoring | |||||||
| Victor | Rushawn Baker 55 run (kick failed) | ||||||
| Victor | Rushawn Baker 8 run (kick failed) | ||||||
| Victor | Jacob Cole-Allen 22 pass from James Knapp (Sam Castiglia kick) | ||||||
| Victor | Rushawn Baker 9 run (Kordell Jackson run) | ||||||
| Canan | Steven Brady 47 pass from Jack Johnston (Carson Rucker kick) | ||||||
| Rushing | |||||||
| Victor | Rushawn Baker 18-125, Joey Pezzimenti 14-94, Camden Hay 3-5, Sutton Boland 1-5, Kordell Jackson 1-3, Hunter Rickey 1-3, Joseph Theede 2-2, James Knapp 1-(-3), | ||||||
| Canan | Seth Vigneri 13-23, Jack Johnston 13-21, Casey Herod 1-3, Steven Brady 3-1, Matt Vierhile 4-(-10) | ||||||
| Passing | |||||||
| Victor | James Knapp 4-7-58-1-1 | ||||||
| Canan | Jack Johnston 7-18-99-1-2 | ||||||
| Receiving | |||||||
| Victor | Kordell Jackson 2-23, Jacob Cole-Allen 1-22, Joey Pezzimenti 1-13 | ||||||
| Canan | Steven Brady 1-47, Carson Rucker 2-18, Matt Vierhile 2-17, Seth Vigneri 1-9, John DiSalvo 1-8 | ||||||
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