by TYLER HATHAWAY
BRIGHTON, N.Y— Brighton (2-0) found the endzone four times and forced two turnovers in the first half to seize control and ride to a 42-7 victory over Irondequoit (1-1) at Brighton High School on Thursday night.
“We’re still trying to get better,” said Bruins head coach Stephen Lian. “We have a lot of young guys that were playing new spots, and I think we were proud of how they did week one, and our challenge to them was to just continue to get better every week. I think we did a little bit.”
The second quarter was what swung the game for the Bruins, more specifically three touchdowns on three straight drives in a four minute span to close the half with a 28-0 lead.
“I think mindset is a huge part,” Lian said about how Brighton finished the first half. “Going into this year we want to really try to be present one moment at a time. That’s something we’ve been really purposeful about this offseason and practice. So when we get in those moments it’s not, ‘we’ve only got this amount of time’. It’s ‘this is the moment that we got to execute’. That’s something we’ve really been working at, and I was really proud of the guys tonight for executing.”
VIEW MORE PHOTOS FROM STEVEN TWARDZIK.
Justin Medina finished with 106 yards on nine carries and three touchdowns, scoring in the first, second, and third quarter to lead the way for the Bruins.
“He’s a special, special running back,” Lian said of the senior. “He’s been special since I coached him when he was in youth football. We’ve known that for a long time, and when you got a guy like him, with a young offensive line that’s feeling out their way, it helps to have guys like him and Zach Rossignol running the ball and making plays. But man, those cuts he had, those touchdowns were beautiful. I can’t wait to watch them on film.”
His running mate, Rossignol, added 58 yards and a score. All told, Brighton finished the night with over 250 rushing yards.
“I think the beautiful thing about them is that they’ve shared the backfield since they were in elementary school,” Lian explained. “They’re so unselfish. Both of those guys could be guys that carry the ball 25 times for their team and be incredible and get over 200 yards a game, but they’re happy to support each other, block for each other, share the rock, celebrate with each other. When you got two guys like that that are that talented, but also that unselfish, it’s really great for the mindset of the football team.”
In the first quarter, Anthony Julian came up with a redzone interception to stop an early Irondequoit threat. Brighton then strung together a 13-play, six and a half minute march that was capped by a seven-yard Medina score on fourth and short.
In the second quarter, Brighton made a fourth down stop in their own territory before Rossignol broke off a long run to leave them knocking on the door of the endzone once again. Rossignol found the endzone a few plays later from two yards out to make it 14-0.
The next drive, Valerio Akujuobi made a third down interception that set up the Bruins offense deep in Eagle territory. Rossignol ran it for nine yards before Medina made a few Irondequoit defenders miss on his way to a 18-yard touchdown.
“It starts with the veteran guys,” Lian said of the defense. “We have some guys on that defense that have played a whole lot of football. So when we have young guys working in, like Valerio (Akujuobi), Mars Dixon, and Jah Joseph, those young guys are able to kind of feed off the veteran guys. When you have Zahmar Tookes in front of you, Titus Nebbia, those guys making plays. If you’re a young linebacker, it just helps to kind of get your feet out there, and you saw it as the game went on.”
Akujuobi had a big tackle for loss early in the next Irondequoit drive, and the Bruin defense was able to force a punt. As time expired in the first half, Brighton quarterback Ethan Bialaszewski found Leo Hopkins in the back corner of the endzone for a 30-yard strike to punctuate a 28-0 first half advantage.
Irondequoit cashed in a Noah Panzardi interception to open the second half with a 24-yard touchdown to Joshua Barr. Brighton responded with a big kick return from Hopkins to start their next drive.
Rossignol put together a couple of chunk runs to move the Bruins into the redzone, and Medina’s third and final score, this one from 18 yards, restored Brighton’s lead to 36-7.
Kadyn Buckner had a 38-yard bolt through the defense late in the third quarter for Brighton’s final touchdown. Buckner finished with 91 rushing yards.
“It’s just nice to see a lot of different guys making plays,” said Lian. “We’ve had years in the past where we’ve had some great individual players, but they have to carry a heavy workload. It’s been really nice to see a lot of different guys. We have Medina, Rossignol, then all of a sudden in the second half when Kadyn Buckner goes in, he’s a great running back that can make plays too.”
Bialaszewski completed five of 12 passes for 75 yards. Leo Hopkins made three catches for 44 yards and had two kick returns for 85 yards. Defensively, Mars Dixon and Jah Joseph each had eight tackles. Hudson Coles made six tackles. Akujuobi added five.
Brighton will take on Greece Athena (0-1) on the road next Friday.
“We’re just trying to get better,” said Lian. “Our mindset has been moment to moment. “We know this is a long season with young players, and we just want to keep improving every week. We know that our A1 bracket is brutal and has some incredible teams, so we just want to keep getting a little bit better every week, and hopefully can hit our stride when we need to.”
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