Home gridiron openers Friday for Mustangs and Purple Eagles

Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Devin Joy (24) and and Tom Follman (39) and their Medina teammates will host Bennett at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Vets Park. Albion will also host Barker/Roy-Hart at 7 p.m. Friday in the Purple Eagles home opener.

If last weekend’s point totals are any indication the scoreboard at Vets Park may get quite a workout Friday evening as Medina hosts Bennett at 7:30 p.m. in a B North Division game.

The two teams piled up a whopping combined total of 114 points in last week’s season openers as Medina romped to a 60-8 victory at Newfane in a B North game while Bennett blitzed Williamsville East by a nearly identical margin of 54-6 in an interdivisional contest.

Offensively Medina had a big day both through the air and on the ground.

Quarterback Jason Hellwig completed 13 of 14 passes for 212 yards and three touchdowns, two to Brandon Schoolcraft and one to Dylan Lewis who had seven receptions for 120 yards.

Brett Pecoraro led the Mustangs ground attack with 134 yards including a 53 yard touchdown run. Devin Joy also rushed for two touchdowns while Hellwig and Eric Neace both had one.

Bennett rushed for a total of seven touchdowns against Will East including four by Isaiah McDuffy who rushed for a total of 150 yards on only seven carries.

“Bennett has a heck of a team,” said Medina Coach Eric Valley. “They have a lot of speed and quickness. Defensively they put 11 guys in the box and come right at you but we’re going to try and take advantage of that with some of the things we do. They gave us a good beatng last year so we’re going to try and build off last week and do a better job than we did last year.”

Bennett defeated Medina 44-14 last fall in the first ever meeting between the teams.

Albion will also hold its home opener Friday as the Purple Eagles host Barker/Roy-Hart at 7 p.m. in a match up of two teams looking to rebound from opening week losses.

Albion quarterback Kyle Smith three three touchdown passes in the second half, two to Trey Hart and one to Austin Loyd, in the Purple Eagles narrow 26-20 loss at Burgard which held a 26-0 lead at the half.

“Barker/Roy-Hart is very well coached you can see that on film,” said Albion Coach Gary Parisi. “They do a great job on their schemes and getting people in the right places to make plays and they are very big up front. Defensively they play a 3-5 scheme so you never know where the blitz comes from It will be a tough game for our team as Barker/Roy-Hart plays very fast and hard.”

Barker/Roy-Hart was hurt by turnovers and by three long touchdown passes which keyed Lew-Port to a 42-20 victory in thr opener.

“Number one, we’ve got to do a much better job of protecting the football and number two we’ve got to improve our pass defense. Those are our keys,” said Barker/Roy-Hart Coach Bill Bruning.

Brandinlee Woods ran for two touchdowns and Josh Mead one for Barker/Roy-Hart in the loss.

Albion defeated Barker/Roy-Hart 32-0 last year to even the series between the teams at 1-1.

Newfane will visit Lew-Port on Friday night in the other B North game while Burgard will be at Fredonia in an interdivisional contest.

In Genesee Region League action, Holley will visit Elba/Byron-Bergen at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Elba as the Hawks look to rebound from a season opening 42-0 loss to Attica.

B-North Standings

Medina 1-0, 1-0; Burgard 1-0, 1-0; Lew-Port 1-0, 1-0; Bennett 0-0, 1-0; Albion 0-1, 0-1; Barker/Roy-Hart 0-1, 0-1; Newfane 0-1, 0-1

G-R Standings

Attica 1-0, 1-0; Elba/Byron-Bergen 1-0, 1-0; Oakfield-Alabama 1-0, 1-0; Alexander 0-0, 0-1; Holley 0-1, 0-1; Pembroke 0-1, 0-1; Notre Dame 0-1 0-1