Trojans snap Rivals five game winning streak

Photos by Cheryl Wertman – Hadrian Batista hauls in a touchdown pass for Albion/Medina during the Rivals narrow 35-34 loss to West Seneca East at Albion this evening.

A season long five game winning streak came to an end as Albion/Medina dropped a narrow 35-34 decision to West Seneca East in a key B1 Division game this evening on Homecoming at Albion.

The teams traded scores throughout the game as a bushel basket full of penalties and three missed extra point attempts proved costly to Albion/Medina which slips to 4-1 in the division (5-1 overall).

The OC Rivals are now in a virtual three-way tie for the B1 Division lead with West Seneca East (5-1, 5-1) and McKinley (4-1, 5-1) which downed Lake Shore 54-14. Maryvale (3-2, 4-2) knocked Williamsville South (4-2) out of a share of the division lead by posting a 31-26 win.

Trailing 34-28, West Seneca East scored the game winner as Josh Urban ran 11 yards for his fifth touchdown of the evening and Andrew Ross tacked on his fifth extra point kick of the evening for the deciding point and a 35-34 lead with 1:22 remaining.

Rivals receiver Jack Conn works to get away from a Trojans defender.

Albion/Medina did have one last scoring chance as Elijah Doxey returned the ensuing kickoff 40 yards to the West Seneca East 43 yard line. However, the Rivals drive stalled out on downs inside the 20 in the final seconds as the Trojans held on for the one point win.

At the outset, the Rivals grabbed a 12-7 lead at the end of the first quarter on touchdown runs of 1 yard by quarterback Preston Woodworth and 14 yards by Jayzon Wills. However both key extra point attempts failed.

The Trojans scored in the quarter on on a 25 yard TD run by Urban and a PAT kick by Ross.

Albion/Medina maintained a 20-14 lead at the half as a 15 yard touchdown pass from Woodworth to Hadrian Batista and a two-point conversion pass from Woodworth to Noah Harrison in the second quarter off set a West Seneca East 2 yard TD run by Urban and PAT kick by Ross.

Again the teams traded scores in the third quarter as a 70 yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Doxey for the Rivals offset a 4 yard TD run by Urban and a Ross PAT kick for the Trojans keeping the Rivals up 26-21 at the three-quarter mark.

The lead continued to sea-saw back-and-forth in the decisive final period.

First the Trojans went ahead 28-26 on a 4 yard TD run by Urban and a PAT kick by Ross.

Then the Rivals answered with a 6 yard touchdown run by Doxey and a two-point conversion pass from Woodworth to Harrison to regain the lead for what proved to be the last time at 34-28 with 4:48 remaining. Woodworth had pass completions of 17 yards to Batista and 16 to Harrison to highlight the drive.

That set the stage for the Trojans decisive final 60 yard scoring drive which was aided by a couple of Rivals penalties.

Elijah Doxey breaks loose for a touchdown run for the Rivals.