by TYLER HATHAWAY
VICTOR, N.Y– Victor took the lead early and never lost it as the Blue Devils (1-0) led by as much as four possessions in what ended as a 25-13 win over Penfield (0-1) at Victor High School on Thursday night in the opening game of the 2026 Section V Football season.
Victor immediately shrugged off any idea of starting the season slow, with a five-minute, 55-yard march to the endzone on its opening possession kickstarting a first half that saw the Blue Devils find the endzone three times and jump out to a 22-0 lead. Junior quarterback Eli Ricci found Asher Tantillo on a four-yard touchdown pass to stamp the drive.
“The kids played hard,” said Victor head coach Geoff Mandile. ”We capitalized on some of their mistakes, and I’m sure they’re kicking themselves a little bit, but we played hard throughout.”
The biggest reason for the first half success was the Blue Devil defense. In the first 30 minutes, Victor came up with both a fourth-down stop and a safety while only allowing the Penfield offense to pick up two first downs. The big focus for Mandile’s bunch was limiting Patriots’ running back Zane Kropman, who totaled over 1,400 yards on the ground in 2025.
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“I hope we keep improving off of that (performance),” said Mandile. “We knew he (Kropman) was going to be the focus from their scrimmage and from last year. To try and shut him down and make them go through the air with a sophomore quarterback, who did a pretty good job, but for the most part we shut down their run game.”
The special teams units were clicking too. A punt by Andre Poselvich that was downed at the one-yard line led to the safety, and a blocked punt late in the second quarter set up the offense in the redzone.
“The kicking game was really good, and when we had to punt, we did a nice job with that,” Mandile explained. ”We pinned them down at the one and got a safety, which was big. It kept the momentum on our side.”
The offense was able to capitalize on what the defense provided them, with Ricci finding Ben Guiffre on a screen play two plays after the blocked punt to make it 15-0 Victor. The defense got another stop the following drive before Ricci ran it in himself for a score to close the first half with a 22-0 Blue Devils lead.
Victor opened up the second half with a six-minute field goal drive before Penfield started to mount a rally. Mason Cerqua converted a fourth and long with his legs to keep the drive alive before running it 35 yards for the Patriots’ first score of the game as time expired in the third quarter. After the Blue Devils went three-and-out, Cerqua found wide receiver Jake Maurer for a 76-yard touchdown on a fourth and 13, and suddenly, the Blue Devils’ lead was cut to a dozen.
The Blue Devils bent, but didn’t break. They got an interception by Carter Abbate with just over three minutes left in the fourth quarter to seal the win.
“We gave up a couple big plays, but we kept fighting,” said Mandile.
The game was the eighth annual Teddi Bowl, a game which benefits Camp Good Days by raising awareness and funds to support kids fighting cancer. Camp Good Days assigned an honorary coach and cheerleader for each team, and raised over $6,500 to support the programs and services the camp offers.
“The partnership we have with Camp Good Days is great,” said Mandile. “Our camper, Ryan, was just awesome, has a great personality. I tell our kids every year that there’s more than just a game of football. There’s kids that can’t play and go through a lot harder things than what we go through.”
The Blue Devils will look to continue their early season momentum against Spencerport next Thursday.
“We always say that you make your biggest improvement from Week 1 to Week 2, because you’re not really sure how you’re going to be game wise,” Mandile explained. “Hopefully we can clean up the things that we need to clean up. We got a long ride to Spencerport next week, and hopefully we can keep it rolling.”
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