Batavia holds off Geneva to clinch UEC River
While the final score might not have shown the dominance Batavia felt it displayed Friday night in its 97th meeting with Geneva, the 24-14 margin kept all the important streaks the Bulldogs are so proud of alive.
Batavia moved the ball up and down Geneva's turf field all night. Three turnovers and a gritty Geneva goal-line stand kept the Vikings within a touchdown late in the fourth quarter.
Freshman Jack Carlson's 28-yard field goal with 3:04 remaining gave Batavia a 2-score cushion, and the Bulldogs defense made one last stop to seal a win that clinched the Bulldogs' 5th straight Upstate Eight Conference River championship.
It also was Batavia's 31st straight River win, the Bulldogs' fifth consecutive win over Geneva to close the all-time series to 51-41-5, and improved coach Dennis Piron to 5-0 against the Vikings since taking over as head coach.
"We really want to win this game," Piron said. "We think about it, we plan for it, we talk about it. We're ecstatic.
"I felt we cold have had 40 or 50 points tonight.
"Our defense was playing so great tonight. Our offense it felt like we had a 1,000 yards and we couldn't score. To Geneva's credit, they played great defense. Their line, their linebackers, are tough."
Geneva (7-1, 4-1) needed that defense to stay in the game because other than a 42-yard touchdown run by Justin Taormina on its first drive of the night, the Vikings struggled offensively all night.
The Vikings finished with 271 yards of offense to Batavia's 486, and while Batavia was holding Geneva quarterback Sean Chambers to 9 of 27 passing for 123 yards, the Bulldogs' Kyle Niemiec went 22 for 33 for 370 yards.
Canaan Coffey caught most of those passes, 14 in all for 225 yards and 2 touchdowns, making several clutch grabs on third downs to keep the chains moving as the Bulldogs converted 7 of their 9 third downs in the first half and their first 4 of the second.
"We have a very good offense," Niemiec said. "We can do so much. But our problem is we drive down the field but we shoot ourselves in the foot 20 times. That kills us."
Trailing 7-0 with 9:58 left in the opening quarter, Niemiec quickly marched Batavia to the tying touchdown on his own 3-yard keeper.
The Bulldogs (7-1, 5-0) took their first lead at 14-7 with 51 seconds left in the first quarter on Niemiec's 7-yard pass to Coffey in the back of the end zone.
Neither team scored again until the fourth quarter. Batavia lost 2 fumbles deep in Geneva territory in the second quarter, and Jack Bodine intercepted Niemiec near the goal line just before halftime.
"We have struggled finishing drives," Coffey said. "That hurt us today but luckily we overcame it. That is one of the biggest things about this team is how resilient we are. I'm so proud of how we finished off this game."
Batavia opened the second half with a 17-play, 76-yard drive that ate 9 minutes and 25 seconds off the clock.
But the Bulldogs didn't get any points, Geneva stopping Batavia on 2nd-, 3rd and 4th-and-goal from the 1.
"That goal-line stop they had was fantastic," Niemiec said. "Their defense is underrated."
"Awesome goal-line stand," Geneva coach Rob Wicinski said. "I'm really proud of the defense. Got us the ball back. That's all we could ask."
After a scoreless third quarter, it was Batavia's turn to hold, stopping Chambers on a pair of incompletions from the 6-yard line early in the fourth quarter with a chance to tie at 14.
Niemiec then went deep to Coffey down the right sideline for an 89-yard touchdown.
Chambers found Donny Friedel for a 33-yard score to bring Geneva within 21-14 with 7:04 left. The Vikings held but ran into Coffey when he was punting, a penalty that gave Batavia a first down on a drive that led to Carlson's clinching field goal.
"I was pretty ready for it and had a similar kick against Oswego," Carlson said.
Zach Garrett added 102 yards rushing on 32 carries while Batavia limited Taormina to 68 yards, just 29 after his long touchdown run.
"We didn't make as many plays as we could," Wicinski said. "They made more plays than us. Hats off to Batavia. Now we keep moving on. We just didn't execute, we weren't that sharp. That's what happens against good teams."