Albion, Holley have football openers in new divisions; Medina/Lyndonville visits Burgard

Photo by Cheryl Wertman – William Braswell (11) and his Medina/Lyndonville teammates will open the season Friday night against Burgard at Buffalo’s Riverside Field. Ben Schwab (55), who is making the tackle, and his Roy-Hart/Barker teammates will host Akron on Friday night. The other local openers will have Albion hosting Springville on Friday and Holley entertaining Geneseo on Saturday afternoon.

The high school football season will kick off this weekend as both Albion and Holley host foes in new look divisions.

Albion will host Springville at 7 p.m. Friday for a contest in the new enrollment based Section VI Class B2 Division. The division also includes Depew, Olean, Dunkirk and Fredonia/Westfield/Brocton.

Holley will entertain Geneseo at 1:30 p.m. Saturday for a game in the new Division 4 of the Livingston County League.

Holley, along with the other five football playing Genesee Region League teams (Attica, Alexander, Pembroke, Notre Dame and Oakfield-Alabama/Elba), have joined the Livingston County loop this year to form Division 4 along with Geneseo and York.

The two other interdivisional season openers will have Medina/Lyndonville at Burgard (at Riverside Field) and Roy-Hart/Barker hosting Akron at Middleport, both at 7 p.m. Friday.

Junior quarterback Bryce Pritchard leads the offense for Albion which returns experience at the skill positions in running backs senior Demetrius Gardner and junior Ugene Harrison and at the receiver positions in juniors Nate Moore and Matt Kovaleski and senior JaQuess Harrison. Seniors Caleb Pettit and Justin Stritzinger and junior Ben Restivo anchor the front line.

The meeting will be the seventh all time between the Purple Eagles and Griffins. The previous six have all come in post season play with each school winning three, Albion in 1979, 1987 and 1993 and Springville in 1992, 1995 and 1996.

Senior quarterback Jeremy Mallett leads Holley which also has experience at the receiver sports in Camron Labarge, Ryan Andrews and Nick Schutz and at running back in Jacob Affronti and Dalton Moyer.

It will be the first meeting between the Hawks and Blue Devils.

Medina/Lyndonville likewise returns a veteran quarterback in junior Izaiah Rhim and receiving trio in seniors Jalin Cooper, Mason Lewis and Brendan Luthart.

It will be the third ever meeting between the Mustangs and Bulldogs. Burgard won the previous two in divisional contests in 2013 and 2014.

Junior quarterback Charlie Brigham leads the Roy-Hart/Barker offense which also returns seniors Malik Smith and Aaron Curry at the running back spots and junior Charlie Bruning at receiver.