BY PAUL LIOTTI
CLARENCE — On a cold and very windy afternoon, passing would be at a premium.
It didn’t matter for the Lil Irish as the ground game was more than effective.
Senior Caron Robinson continued his comeback tour with 11 carries for 250 yards and two touchdowns and workhorse Ruben Torres gained 100 yards on 19 carries and scored three times to lead Aquinas to a statement win over Lancaster, 39-7 in the Class AA Far West Regional Saturday afternoon.
It was the second week in a row where they Irish sent two players over the century mark, something that should strike fear into Aquinas’ next opponent, Cicero-North Syracuse in the state semifinals. Cicero-North Syracuse defeated Elmira 57-14 in to set up a 7 pm Saturday date in Union-Endicott near Binghamton.
The win also avenged a 9-0 defeat to Lancaster (9-2/No. 10 NYSSWA) in last year’s Far West Regional. But Aquinas coach Derek Annechino was quick to point out Saturday’s win wasn’t about last year; it was about Irish’s drive to win its eighth state championship banner.
“The kids are feeling pretty good about the win, but we stressed all week that today was going to be about us,” he said. “We weren’t going to worry about what happened last year, not worry about the fact they shut us out last year, not worry about any of that. The only thing we were going to do was worry about taking care of our business and exerting our will on them.”
And taking care of business is exactly what the Irish did.
Offensively they were as efficient as any team could be, scoring three times in the first half, punting once and turning the ball over on downs after two long drives. In the second half, they scored on two time-consuming drives and only gave up the ball on downs and punted late in the game when their reserves were inserted.
Defensively, the Irish (10-1/No. 7 NYSSWA) shut down the quick-hitting balanced Legend attack, punishing any ball-carrier who dared to try and gain positive yardage.
About the only thing that didn’t go right for the Irish was they had three extra points blocked. All other phases of the team’s game were effective and efficient.
“We’re definitely going to have to do some work there and button that stuff up,” Annechino said. “Or maybe I should be fired because I am also the special teams coach.”
It’s unlikely Annechino would be called to task too much for those minor miscues, especially after he and his coaching staff put together a game plan that turned the Legends inside-out on both sides of the ball, particularly on the defensive side of the line.
On multiple occasions the defensive secondary delivered bone-crunching hits that rattled Legend receivers and the defensive linemen made life miserable for either of the two Lancaster quarterbacks when they tried to pass. And forget about running backs that thought they had the advantage: Lancaster attempted 33 rushes and netted only 93 yards and 13 of those rushes went for two yards or less.
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“These guys are hungry on defense. If you’re going to try and catch the ball over the middle you’re going to pay for it, so the next time you come across the middle you’re going to think twice about it,” Annechino said. “Teams see our film and I’m sure it’s in the back of their minds how we play defense. The kind of game we want to play is physical one within the rules.”
The defense played loose and free because the offense took care of its business all afternoon, starting up front with a senior-laden, talented line that opened hole after hole for its dynamic running backs.
“Our game plan was to simply follow the rules Coach (Sean) Torregiano told us all year: Step punch and push,” senior captain offensive tackle Ricky Todd said. “We did that today and move their defense all over the place. Our offensive line has been together for so long now we learn from each other more and more and are just getting better each week.”
And Saturday they were real good. All told, Aquinas averaged nearly 10 yards every time it ran the ball, finishing with 356 yards on 38 carries.
Robinson, who returned to the starting lineup for the Sectional semifinals after breaking his hand in Week 2, started the ball rolling on the second play from scrimmage, bolting through a cavernous hole and outrunning the secondary en route to an 81-yard scoring jaunt. Two possessions later, his 80-yard run ended just three feet goal line as he was tripped up just before reaching the goal line. From there, Torres scored the first of his three touchdowns, and with 3:30 left in the first quarter, it was 13-0 Aquinas.
“It’s just a fun feeling to have when you’re blocking and you look up and you see your running back 50 yards downfield ahead of you try to chase after them to get to the end zone with them,” Todd said. “Coach Pincelli (offensive coordinator) tells us all the time to score on every drive, and that’s what we try to do. If we execute correctly, we know we can put the ball in the end zone almost every time.”
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Aquinas increased the lead to 19-0 when Torres scored from 14 yards out on the first play of the second quarter. That lead stood until Robinson added his own 14-yard touchdown run to increase the lead to 26-0 with 4:49 left in the third.
After Robinson’s score, Damon Montgomery ended the Legends’ next drive by picking off Jason Mansell’s pass deep in Aquinas territory, returning it 88 yards to the house to build a 32-0 lead. The Irish added the icing on the cake when Torres bulldozed over from two yards with 9:15 left in the game.
Lancaster avoided the shutout when Brian Martin reeled in a 12-yard scoring pass from Gianluca Fulciniti with 1:36 left in the game.
The Irish defense allowed just 182 yards – 89 through the air and 93 rushing.
Aquinas | 13 | 6 | 13 | 7 | 39 | ||
Lancaster | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 7 | ||
Scoring | |||||||
Aquinas | Caron Robinson 81 run (kick blocked) | ||||||
Aquinas | Ruben Torres 5 run (Joe Bronco kick) | ||||||
Aquinas | Ruben Torres 14 run (Joe Bronco kick) | ||||||
Aquinas | Caron Robinson 14 run (kick blocked) | ||||||
Aquinas | Damon Montgomery 88 interception return (Joe Bronco kick) | ||||||
Aquinas | Ruben Torres 2 run run (Joe Bronco kick) | ||||||
Lancaster | Brian martin 12 pass from Gianluca Fulciniti (Clark Whiteside kick) | ||||||
Rushing | |||||||
Aquinas | Caron Robinson 11-250, Ruben Torres 19-100, James Jones 2-6, Andrew Gaskin 5-1, Tyler Szalkowski 1-(-1) | ||||||
Passing | |||||||
Aquinas | Tyler Szalkowski 4-7-35-0-0 | ||||||
Receiving | |||||||
Aquinas | Damon Montgomery 2-15, James Jones 1-17, Ruben Torres 1-3 |
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