Pickin' Splinters

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Powerful balance carries Hilton past Canandaigua in Class A qualifier

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Hilton senior running back Tyler Reger finished with 17 carries for 133 yards and two touchdowns along with a pair of catches for 66 yards and a score and an 85-yard kick return for another touchdown. (Photo: STEVEN TWARDZIK)

PITTSFORD — It was a game, for a bit. But then it wasn’t.

“That’s a hell of a football team,” Canandaigua Academy coach Jeff Welch said of Hilton, a 49-13 winner in Friday’s Section V Class A qualifier. “In all facets of the game. They’re physical, well-coached … they’re good.”

And all that goodness for the Cadets came from exactly who you’d expect. There was the 89-yard touchdown pass from Matthew Kosiorek to Jared Wade, the 49-yard TD run from Tyler Reger and then the kickoff return for a TD from Reger. Throw in a defense that didn’t allow a Canandaigua touchdown until the fourth quarter and you have all the details you need to understand how solid this Hilton team is. 

As a result of Friday’s win at St. John University’s Growney Stadium, the Cadets (9-2) advance to the Class A state quarterfinals to play West Seneca West of Section VI. Canandaigua ends its season with a 9-2 record.

Both Hilton (Class A1) and Canandaigua (A2) are Section V champions for 2026 and the first half of Friday’s game showed as much. The Gray Wolves and Cadets both punted on their first possessions but the first mistake, a Canandaigua pass intercepted by Hilton’s Kyle Taddeo, set up the first score. 

VIEW MORE PHOTOS FROM STEVEN TWARDZIK.

The interception gave Hilton a first down at its own 10-yard line and after a short run, Kosiorek dropped back on second down on the first play of the second quarter and launched an arcing pass to Wade, who reeled it in and outran the Canandaigua secondary for the score. Canandaigua ended up punting its next two possessions away but managed a turnover on downs between those possessions to keep the game manageable before Kosiorek struck again. 

This time, the senior found Luca Auriuso from 14 yards out with 54 seconds left in the first half to give the Cadets a 14-0 lead that they carried into halftime. 

“We started a little slow and Canandaigua took it to us,” Hilton coach Rich Lipani said. “But we hung in there and got back to playing our game.”

That happened even after Canandaigua opened the second half with an on-side kick that Ethan Kane recovered. But the Gray Wolves went three-and-out and the Cadets scored TDs on their next three possessions to pull away. With 7:51 left in the third, Reger took a handoff and bounced to the outside and outran the Gray Wolves down the right sideline, then broke free for a 16-yard TD run on the next Hilton possession.

And six seconds into the fourth quarter, it was Reger again, this time hauling in a Kosiorek pass from 34 yards out and the extra point gave Hilton a 35-0 lead.

“They were pounding us early,” Reger said of the Canandaigua defense. “We needed to wake up and once we got our line going, we found some momentum. The line started blocking and it really opened things up.”

The Gray Wolves avoided the shutout with 9:17 left in the game with an 82-yard drive that included a 62-yard pass play from sophomore Brady Davern to junior Isaac Dolph to set up the Gray Wolves at the Hilton 14. Two plays later, junior Mick Schaeffer hauled in his first career TD, a 22-yard pass in end zone traffic from Davern. 

But Reger doused that excitement quickly for Hilton, returning the ensuing kickoff 85 yards for a TD and a 42-7 lead before Canandaigua responded with its second TD, a 4-yard run by junior Aleks Hawryschuk. The final score came from Hilton’s Kiernan Murphy.

(Photo: STEVEN TWARDZIK)

The running game of the Cadets was no secret coming into this game and Reger’s 133 yards and two TDs on 17 carries upheld that reputation. But three TD passes from Kosiorek put Hilton’s balance on display after becoming one of the adjustments made by the Cadets.

“(Canandaigua) was committing to the run and was a little light in the secondary so I guess we kind of exploited that,” said Lipani.

Kosiorek finished with 213 yards passing while completing 6 of 8 passes. He also rushed for 45 yards on five carries while Auriuso caught three passes for 58 yards and senior Calvin Starwald led the defensive effort with nine solo tackles.

For Canandaigua, Davern was 7-for-13 for 116 yards and Dolph rushed for 62 yards on eight carries.

Hilton’s Class A quarterfinal game is set for Friday night at 8 p.m. at SUNY Brockport. 

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