by TYLER HATHAWAY
The seven-game regular season finished up last week in Class A2 football and the sectional matchups are set. Eight teams will fight to take home the Section V Class A2 championship with quarterfinal games this Friday night. East/World of Inquiry ended up clinching the number one seed in the bracket with a 5-2 record thanks to wins over teams like Brockport (4-3), Canandaigua (4-3), and Batavia (4-3).
The Eagles dropped their first game of the season, losing 7-6 against Eastridge. East/World of Inquiry went on to win five of their next six games and three straight to close the season, overcoming injuries along the way.
“I don’t think that was us,” head coach James Vann said of the season opener. “First game jitters, we made a lot of mistakes. Thing is, guys got hurt throughout the season. Guys have stepped up. That’s what it’s been about – next man up. We just believe in the next guy who’s up, ready to go and we’ll rock out with it.”
In the final week of the regular season, with a shot to clinch the top-seed in the Class A2 bracket, Vann’s bunch overcame a 14-6 halftime deficit to win 25-14 against Canandaigua.
“Our guys always believe that we can do it,” said Vann. “We never gave up. You can tell by every play. We felt like we had shots and should have been up. We stayed consistent and did what we’re supposed to do. Everybody was about the team.”
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Freshman running back Legacy Taylor and senior tail back Amir Bush have combined to run for 819 yards, with Taylor finding the endzone three times and Bush five times. Senior Junayde Richardson has thrown for 171 yards, ran for 269 yards, and hauled in 69 receiving yards while scoring a total of seven touchdowns. Junior linebacker Zieyan Cook-Tyson leads the defense with 59 total tackles, while Richardson has made 44 tackles, 10 of which resulted in a loss.
Brockport won three of its final four games to finish with a 4-3 record and snag the number two seed. Its one loss during that span was a six-point road loss to Class A1 Irondequoit, who finished the season undefeated.
“We need to finish strong,” Blue Devils head coach Paul Carella said was the most important thing for his team in sectionals. “I don’t mean to sound cheesy but the only season that matters is the postseason.”
Last year, Brockport was the seventh-seed in the Class A sectional tournament and knocked off second-seeded East in the first round. This year, the Blue Devils find themselves on the other end of the matchup they had last year, as they get ready to host No. 7 seed Greece Arcadia on Friday night.
“When we won in the first round last year no one thought we would,” said Carella. “Seeds don’t matter, they really don’t. We gotta go put our best foot forward and just win. I don’t care what our seed is, I think Arcadia has some good players on their team. We’re going to look to take our field Friday night and do our best to win the game.”
Brockport’s defense has been the strength of its recent stretch of play, holding teams to 11 points per game over its past three games. The Blue Devils have forced 19 turnovers this season, with Ayden Matthews leading the way with five interceptions. On offense, eight different players have found the endzone this season. Junior quarterback Mason Scott has thrown eight touchdown passes in his last four games.
Third-seeded Canandaigua enters the postseason with the best scoring offense in Class A2, averaging 34.7 points per game. Head coach Jeff Welch credits his offense for being the anchor of the team.
“We’re a little young and have had some injuries on defense, so our offense not only being able to score points but being able to possess the ball has been a key in not only our wins, but even in the games that we lost, they were all close and we’ve been in it,” said Welch. “Ball possession and being able to move the ball has been important. I mean, we’ve also turned the ball over, it’s been a little up and down, but the offense has been the thing that has carried us.”
While Welch would have loved to grab a win in their regular season finale against East/World of Inquiry, he admits there were some positives to take away in the loss.
“Whether we won or lost, obviously you wanna win the game, but we were able to take some things away from that performance and learn from them,” Welch explained. “East is a rival of ours,we’ve been playing them a lot the past 10 years both in the regular seasons and in the playoffs. Knowing that we competed and it was a decent game gives us a little bit of confidence going into the playoffs, but we obviously have to play a little better and be able to beat them.”
Gates Chili earned the number four seed in the bracket. For head coach Andre Fontenette, he’s been most excited about the growth his team has shown throughout the season and is readying for sectionals by having his team focus on the details.
“We’ve been building on trying to get better each week,” said Fontenette. “We’re trying to avoid shooting ourselves in the foot and just executing our gameplan. Getting a lot of quality reps, not just quantity reps. We’re trying to hone in on the details of what we’re trying to do for each play and concept offensively and defensively, and getting better week by week.”
The Spartans’ opponent is a familiar one, fifth-seeded Eastridge. The two teams met in the first weekend of October, with Gates Chili coming out with a 24-12 win. But for Fontenette, he knows there is challenges with beating the same team twice.
“I think there’s certainly things that you can take to help you from a past matchup but I actually think it’s more of a negative than a positive. It puts you in a mentality of what we’ve done already is expected to be good enough (to beat Eastridge), but that’s not the case. We expect to get Eastridge’s best shot and for them to be playing their best football, so we can’t take what we did for granted before just because it’s a Friday night and any team can win. Especially in Class A2, it’s a very competitive league and we’re gonna have to certainly play our best football to beat Eastridge.”
Nate McKinney has completed 57% of his passes for 725 yards and seven touchdowns, while also rushing for 341 yards and two touchdowns. Kaleb Giddens has generated 346 total yards of offense, including 305 rushing yards and six touchdowns. Kentrell Holt has ran for 243 yards and six touchdowns. Ray Jones leads the defense with 27 tackles, eight of which have been sacks. Alex Yohance has made 31 tackles.
Eastridge head coach Victor Davidson sees the matchup against a Gates Chili squad they played only a few weeks ago as a positive, at least compared to facing a team they haven’t seen.
“Having a familiarity with a team helps you prepare during the week as opposed to a team that you’re playing for the first time, or if you did play them, it was early in the season,” said Davidson. “Things change a lot, we’ve changed a lot over the course of the year. Our record indicates that we’ve been through a lot of change, but our record doesn’t indicate how talented of a team we have.”
In 2024, Eastridge won the Class B sectional title after winning two games against teams seeded higher than it. Davidson expects some of his veteran leaders from last year’s team to be a boost in sectionals.
“They can definitely lead the rest of the troops because they understand what’s at stake,” said Davidson. “They know what it takes to prepare and they understand the severity of preparation of going into sectional play because now it’s win or go home.”
Senior quarterback Anthony McKinney averages 120 total yards per game through the air and on the ground and has five touchdowns. Senior Cahmari Hayes averages 5.1 yards per carry. Junior wideout Justin Weathers has caught 23 passes for 349 yards and three touchdowns. Junior Jamal Desouza and senior Troy Caulkins lead the defense with 60 and 52 total tackles respectively.
The schedule for the Class A1 quarterfinal round is listed below. All games are scheduled for Friday night.
No. 8 Wilson/Early College (0-7) at No. 1 East/World of Inquiry (5-2) at 6:00 pm
No. 6 Greece Athena (2-5) at No. 3 Canandaigua (4-3) at 6:00 pm
No. 5 Eastridge (2-5) at No. 4 seed Gates Chili (4-3) at 6:00 pm
No. 7 Greece Arcadia (1-6) at No. 2 seed Brockport (4-3) at 7:00 pm
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