By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
Homecoming at Hilton High School, Cadets coach Rich Lipani told his team, is very much a Friday Night Lights affair at LeBeau Field.
“He said in this community, homecoming is the football game,” senior running back and defensive back Tyler Reger said.
Which means for the players wearing the Hilton uniform, you’re expected to put on a show, to uphold the tradition of hard-nosed, never-quit football that Lipani brought to Hilton his first year as head coach in 1989.
It was mission accomplished for the Cadets (4-0) on Friday night. They scored touchdowns on their first six possessions, led 44-0 at halftime and cruised to a 58-7 victory over Irondequoit (2-2).
In doing so, the players gave Lipani his 229th coaching victory, which ties the Section V record held by Dave Whitcomb. Predictably, Lipani downplayed the accomplishment.
“It means I’ve been doing this a long time and if I didn’t have a lot of wins, I’d be doing a crappy job,” Lipani said.
There’s far more to all those wins than a mastery of X’s and O’s, however. There’s a culture. There’s a dynamic. There’s a way of doing things. The Lipani Way.
“When people talk about Hilton football, it’s tough family,” Reger said. “He brings us all together and we’ll play to the final whistle.”
On Friday, that play hard to the end mentality wasn’t really necessary. Nor has it been in any of the first four games. This Cadets team has been unstoppable. They have outscored opponents 186-65. The starting unit on defense has yet to give up a touchdown while the offense has overpowered defenders from Fairport, Penfield, Victor and Irondequoit.
“We can come at you a lot of ways, we can control the ball and be physical on offense,” Lipani said. “Our quarterback (senior Matt Kosiorek) can throw it and our guys can catch it.”
The scoring fest started early against Irondequoit, after Reger intercepted a Ryan Jiang pass to set up the Cadets at the Eagles 35. After he raced 34 yards to the 1 yard line on first down, senior fullback Calvin Starwald powered into the end zone and Jared Wade’s first of eight PAT kicks made it 7-0.
A bad snap on an Eagles fourth down punt attempt led to a safety, and then Hilton scored again after the free kick when Reger took a pitch from Kosiorek, drifted back and lobbed a strike to senior wideout Gianluca Auriuso in the right corner of the end zone. The game wasn’t six minutes old and the Cadets already led 16-0.
Reger then went to the receiving end for the next touchdown, taking Kosiorek’s 39-yard strike down the middle in stride for the 23-0 lead with 3:31 left in the first quarter.
Wade (on a 2-yard run), Kosiorek (on a 15-yard run) and junior running back Kiernan Murphy (on a 38-yard run) scored TDs in the second quarter before junior tight end/running back Carlos Castillo scored on runs of 11 and 81 yards in the third quarter.
Comparing teams from different eras is perhaps an impossible task, but there’s a belief that this Hilton team is among the best during Lipani’s tenure.
“I think we’re really good,” senior offensive lineman Zach DeMarte said. “Obviously great coaching makes a great impact on the players.”
Lipani, meanwhile, said it’s dedicated players who are the foundation of a successful program. He said he’s been fortunate to coach a multitude talented players who wanted to get better and wanted to win.
That’s how he now has 229 coaching victories. The irony of him tying Whitcomb’s record? It was Whitcomb who gave Lipani his first coaching job, hiring him to guide the junior varsity at Aquinas Institute in 1985.
And while he’s now on the verge of setting the all-time record, Lipani quickly pointed out that Whitcomb is still the only coach to win Section V championships at three different schools: Midlakes, Geneva and Avon.
He’s probably going to win a whole lot more games before he retires, too.
“I’m happy doing what I’m doing, being out (here) every day is a lot of fun,” he said.
And while the world is a whole lot different than it was in 1989, Lipani says that in reality, the game is very much the same.
“Maybe things have changed in other areas but when it comes to getting on the football field, kids want to be coached, kids want to be disciplined, kids want to win,” he said.
Which perhaps explains the powerhouse 4-0 start for the Cadets.
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