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Fenton opens play in new conference with shutout of Larkin

If you're joining a new conference, why not make a statement?

That was Fenton's goal Friday in its first Upstate Eight matchup, against visiting Larkin.

Consider that objective achieved.

The Bison were uber-balanced on offense, rushing for 209 yards and passing for another 206, en route to a 33-0 win.

"A lot of people don't know our school," said senior receiver Ethan Queyquep, who caught 8 passes for 115 yards and a touchdown, along with a 2-point conversion catch. "We're trying to get our name out and show that we're contenders for conference."

It's true Queyquep had a solid night, but even more damaging was senior running back Andre Bess, who rushed for 130 yards on 23 carries and 4 touchdowns. He also had an interception on defense.

"I was just following the coaches' game plan, that's all I was doing," Bess said. "It was just putting what we were doing on the practice field into the game. It all came together."

And how. Fenton won the coin toss to start the game and deferred. Good decision on the part of coach Matthew Lynch, as Larkin only got as far as its own 38 in its initial drive. When the Bison got the ball back, it took only a shade over two minutes to score.

Bess finished off that 8-play drive that ate up 2:13 with an 11-yard touchdown run, and though the 2-point conversion failed, the Bison had already made a statement.

The next time Fenton touched the ball, it pulled together a 14-play, 80-yard drive that culminated in a 3-yard Bess scoring run. He added a 1-yard run with 29.1 seconds left in the half.

But Bess wasn't done. He intercepted a pass from Larkin sophomore quarterback Dontrell Maxie deep within Royals territory with 14 seconds left. Three plays later, Fenton junior quarterback Nickolas Benn rolled right and hit Queyquep for an 18-yard scoring pass that made the halftime score 26-0.

Benn went 18-for-21 passing for 206 yards and 1 touchdown.

"No matter what, every Friday night you have to line up and play football," Lynch said. "It's varsity football. There are no easy games anywhere, there are no easy teams. It's not about just conference, we have to be prepared to play no matter who we play, or where we play."

As for Larkin, it was a tough start to its 2019 campaign. The Royals were only able to muster 98 total yards, and were led in rushing by junior Kaydin Clark's 41 yards on 10 attempts. Senior receiver Kione Williams-Sowers added 29 yards on 4 catches.

But the closest Larkin got to scoring was a 31-yard field goal attempt early in the second quarter that flew under the crossbar.

"We've got a lot of guys who are improving, so we are going to keep concentrating on that," coach Matt Gehrig said. "Fenton has improved a great deal over the past couple of years and did a good job playing as a team tonight."

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