By TIM IRVING
Hilton football coach Rich Lipani has always preached, run first. For the last couple of seasons, with Tah’Jae Hill at wide receiver, they altered that philosophy a bit.
With lightning and thunder in the backfield this season, the Cadets have returned to the ground and topped Aquinas for the first time, 28-14 on Thursday night.
“Lightning” is Section V indoor 55 meter champion Dontae Valion, who totaled 237 yards on 14 carries. “Thunder” is Jason Bedford, who ran for 119 yards and scored three times.
The game went to the second quarter scoreless and on the second play, Valion ran a reverse to the right and took off 76 yards to put the Cadets on the board.
From there, the defense contained University of Albany signee Tyler Szalkowski, forcing some tough throws and Will Salamone picked him off setting the Cadets up for another offensive chance.
Lipani said, “We tried to limit the big plays, they get a lot of big plays. He (Szalkowski)…not even close, the best quarterback in the area, (Manny) Russell is fantastic, (Will) Benjamin is fantastic, Zach Kelsey is great receiver.”
Where the Cadets holds the edge is in the trenches. Valion carried the load after the Salamone pick and Bedford took it in from two yards out behind some big holes created on the left side of the line.
Szalkowski led the Li’l Irish down the field and with just under two minutes left, hit Benjamin on a corner route to slice the lead in half, 14-7.
Both teams came out with strong drives in the second half. Bedford jumped through the line from one yard out on Hilton’s first drive of the third quarter for a 21-7 lead.
Aquinas answered, switching to their ground game and sophomore Eimaj Giddens, who busted off a 33-yard touchdown run.
Midway through the fourth quarter, Szalkowski had the Irish on the march before Peyton Consaul chased him down for a sack on second down. On third down, Szalkowski threw a virtual Hail Mary that was knocked away by Tim Hubbard.
The fourth down pass was incomplete, leaving the Cadets to try and run out the clock. Bedford responded with a couple of bruising runs and finished it off with a one-yard dive to lock up the win.
“AA football is freakin’ tough, week in and week out, there’s no off weeks, “ Lipani said. “Aquinas is the standard pretty much every year, they’re a great team, well-coached and we fought, the defense held up there at the end and I’m real proud of these guys.”
Improving to 3-1, the Cadets have now beaten the three teams behind them in the Class AA standings with games against Edison/SOTA and Fairport left.
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