Stories from

The LeRoy fans who braved the dismal weather for today’s Western Regional football matchup with Southwestern were treated to an emotional roller coaster ride.

As the rain began to intensify, so too did LeRoy’s turnover problems. Turnovers - in the form of a fumble and interception - on their first two possessions proved frustrating. A sustained drive on LeRoy’s third possession had the Oatkan Knighs faithful cheering. Then, just as suddenly, the LeRoy crowd was silenced as the ball was fumbled away near the Southwestern goal line. LeRoy turned the ball over twice more in the first half, both times after moving the ball deep into Southwestern territory. To compound the problem, the Trojans capitalized on LeRoy’s miscues.

At half time I spoke with LeRoyan John Arneth, a long time Oatkan Knight supporter. “You can’t beat a good team with that many turnovers in one half. Period.” He went on to specify the need to control the ball, particularly at this stage of the season. “This time of year all the pretenders have gone home. Good teams will capitalize on your mistakes.” Southwestern fit’s the latter category well as they turned three LeRoy turnovers - two fumbles and an interception - into scores. “Right now they are not beating us so much as we are beating ourselves. But they are playing a mistake free game”, Arneth concluded.

Two former Oatkan Knights, John Piazza and Kevin Pike were on hand to root for LeRoy. When I asked Piazza, a former LeRoy linebacker in bygone years, what he thought of LeRoy’s chances, he said, “You’ve got two great teams on the field. LeRoy’s got a lot of heart. They’re hanging in there. Hopefully the momentum will swing our way.” It takes one to know one. Once a Knight, always a Knight. Or so it seemed. Though it took some time in coming, John Piazza’s words would be prophetic. In the meantime, LeRoy capitalized on a Southwestern fumble. Travis Fenstermaker put the ball in the air and Mike Humphrey made a remarkable catch in the end zone to put renewed life into the LeRoy crowd. Just as quick as their hopes soared, they came plummeting back to earth Soutwestern returned the ensuing kickoff for considerable yardage and the very next play scored on a pass play of their own. But the LeRoy faithful would not be deterred. “LeRoy has some amazing athletes on the field”, said Kevin Pike. ”It’s a great atmosphere here at UB. We’ll have a better second half.”

Trailing by eighteen points with four minutes left, the Oatkan Knights kicked the roller coaster into high gear - and on an uphill ride. In the time remaining, LeRoy brought the fans to their feet, scoring two touchdowns, both conversions - one for two points and two successful onside kicks.

Then, just as quickly, despite all the last minute gut checking, time ran out on a great season, with a seventh turnover.

On an unusually warm Friday`night in early November what better place to be than Paetec Park watching two of Western New York’s finest football teams slug it out for the Section V class C championship.

Squaring off were two perennial powers: the LeRoy Oatkan Knights and the Oakfield-Alabama Hornets.

The highly anticipated contest resulted in a large turnout of supporters for both teams, both on the field and in the stands.

Bill “Bilko” Pangrazio, a LeRoy native and twenty-four year member of the chain gang for the Oatkan Knights was working the sticks for this contest.

“This is the best seat in the house”, he said in reference to being on the sidelines for the game. When asked about the quality of this years Oatkan grid squad he added, “This team lost 17 starters from last years state finals team. They remind me of the 1998 team.” The admiration he felt for this year’s edition was obvious.

Lynn Gehlert works days as an instructor at the Oakfield-Alabama Elementary School. On this Friday evening she came out to support the Hornets and take sideline photographs as she does at all their games. “I still have siblings in school. My sister Michelle dates Brad (O-A running back Riner) so the whole family turns out for games.”

In what was a see-saw battle for most of the game, bursts of crowd noise alternated, with roars erupting first from one side of the field then the other. Both teams - or towns in this case - were equally loud.

Kelly Kowalcyzk, whose son Tyler plays offensive and defensive end for the Hornets, saw O-A quarterback A.J. Kehlenbeck drop back to pass. She then turned and said to a fan seated beside her, “My son can’t catch the ball.” She turned in time to see Tyler catch a thirty yard touchdown pass in the end zone.

“This is more of a battle than last weeks game” she said in regard to some hard hitting and several lead changes. “Right now I think they’re playing for Tim”, she concluded, referring to O-A running back Tim Smith who was injured in a collision with LeRoy’s Travis Fenstermaker.

LeRoy’s next score gave them a lead they would not relinquish and the LeRoy faithful sensed the end was near. Among them were Steven Dumbleton and his son Steven Jr. Young Dumbleton plays for the LeRoy Jayvees and came to cheer on the varsity. “We’re here with everyone else in the stands to support the varsity team.” said his father. “The kids have a good coach and they respect each other.” he said in regards to LeRoy’s winning tradition.

While both teams gave their supporters much to cheer about, in the end it was the Oatka Knights who walked away with the sectional title. Still, its hard to imagine there could have been a loser in a game such as this. Both teams left it all out on the field.

Notre Dame proved to be the sternest test of the year for the Dundee Scotsmen, and who knows what might have been if not for a controversial non-call which resulted in the game’s first score.  In the end, the Fighting Irish gave undefeated Dundee all they could handle before coming up short in overtime. 

  Hard hitting was the order of the day. For most of the first half, Dundee and Notre Dame jockeyed for field position by trading punts. With 5:56 to go in the second quarter, Dundee quarterback Justin Schenk fired a long pass downfield. Dustyn Thompson, the intended receiver, shoved the Notre Dame defensive back with both hands, knocking him off balance. With the defender out of the picture, Thompson caught the ball uncontested and raced to the end zone. No flag was thrown, the point after was good and the half ended 7 - 0.

            In the third quarter Notre Dame’s Justin Shenk (not to be confused with Dundee’s Justin Schenk) blocked a punt and Cam McDonald recovered. The opportunity was squandered by a combination of timely defense and penalties. 

 At the 4:19 mark of the quarter Mike Raplee caught a quick strike from Justin Schenk and turned it into a 51 yard touchdown. After the PAT the Scotsmen led 14 - 0 and at this point Notre Dame began playing inspired defense. At 11:56 Kevin Schildwaster scored on a five yard run. Point after made it 14 – 7. The Scotsmen were stopped yet again by the Fighting Irish and Bochicchio drove his team toward the goal line. This time it was Mike Pratt carrying the ball into the end zone at the 4:10 mark.

 With time running out Dundee moved the ball to the Notre Dame ten but time ran out. Steven Webb scored on the third play of overtime and the Scotsmen went for two. The conversion was good and Dundee was up 22 – 14.

On their final possession, the Fighting Irish made it close, but an illegal procedure penalty nullified a completion inside the five and the resulting first down.         

 Offensively for Notre Dame Mark Schildwaster carried seventeen times for 60 yards. Mike Pratt carried thirteen times, also for 60 yards. Nick Bochicchio was 7 of 12 passing for 46 yards.

 For Dundee Steven Webb carried 14 times for 94 yards and quarterback Dustin Thompson was 7 of 14 passing for 140 yards, 2 Td’s and an interception.

Defensively for Notre Dame, Kevin Francis had 7.5 tackles, 1.5 for a loss and 3 assists. Craig Houseknecht amassed 6.5 tackles and 7 assists. Cam McDonald added 6 tackles and 6 assists.  

It was in the late forties when Walt & Dean Briggs were looking for a place to hunt deer. The brothers happened into a southern tier farmer who was looking to hunt pheasants and a deal was struck. Six decades later, I’m sitting in a tree stand, overlooking what was once the deer hunting realm of Walt and Dean.

               It’s the middle of the first week of bow season and on this day the woodland was damp and wet. It also made for silent footing. For that reason the doe was within twenty-five yards before I was aware of her presence. Trying not to make eye contact, I noticed her tongue was protruding from the side of her mouth. I also thought I heard her grunt. Then I heard a stick snap and the buck bounded from the foliage behind her. His antlers were unique, reaching upward rather than protruding around and outside the ears. I could see why the doe’s tongue was hanging out. Intent on breeding, he had obviously been dogging her for some time. She may have been approaching estrus but was neither ready nor willing at the time. The doe kept moving, the buck right on her tail. They exited the woods, entered a clover field and were soon out of sight.

            The next day was almost balmy by comparison, and the deer activity had slowed considerably. The whitetails may have been absent, but the woodland floor was alive with small rodents. Gray squirrels, red squirrels and chipmunks were running about gathering and stashing hickory nuts. Though they are in the squirrel family, a red squirrel’s behavior is sometimes akin to that of a weasel in that they are small and feisty. This day, on two separate instances, I watched a red squirrel in close pursuit of its larger cousin, the gray squirrel.

            In my fifty-eight years I had never seen so much squirrel activity in one location. It came as no surprise when I was told one of the locals keeps a pot of Brunswick stew simmering on the stove from October 1 to the end of deer season. 

            Nearly five hours after I first climbed into my stand, the coyotes began singing. I’ve heard coyotes before, but always at night. On this day they began their serenade before the sun touched the horizon - and it was in stereo. It sounded like there were at least three howling in unison, maybe more. And they weren’t far away.

             That evening an owl made its presence known. And unlike the coyotes, he was on schedule. With stars illuminating the nighttime sky, the hooter called out from a tree just the other side of the narrow stream which flows past the camp. The owl’s call was always the same, a single note, deep and sonorous. 

              On my first overnight to the cabin thirty-eight years ago, I remember the sound of flying squirrels scurrying across the tin roof at night. Walt, Dean and a few friends built that first cabin way back when, working with the materials available. Since that time the cabin has been enlarged, a deck has been added and a new roof put on. You don’t hear the flying squirrels on the roof any more. I’m sure they are still around and I’d be willing to bet the owl knows where to find them. 

             Walt & Dean have both passed on, but the tradition continues.

            The clearing where the cabin sits is now called Whitetail Hollow. As it was in Walt and Dean’s day it serves as a base camp and the numerous antlers and whitetail mounts adorning the cabins interior will attest to decades of memorable hunts.

            I’ve enjoyed the times spent at the Hollow, but not for the hunting alone. The football tradition here is storied as its deer hunting history.

             The five people who now own the property are also the core group of hunters at the Hollow. And they were, for me, the face of high school football in the sixties.

            The Briggs brothers, Jim and Tom, captained two of Danny Van Detta’s Blue Devil juggernauts. Tom in ’64 and Jimmy in ’68. 

              Buddy Houseknect, who won’t be in camp until mid-November, was recently elected to the Blue Devil Athletic Hall of Fame. Bud captained the ’67 Batavia grid squad.

            Playing our home games on Friday nights, we were able to watch Notre Dame High play on Saturday afternoons. On a Saturday afternoon in the autumn of ’66 I saw a halfback wearing number 23 sprint through defenders for a long touchdown. That is my earliest recollection of Jim “Gramps” Fanara. He captained the Little Irish the following year.

           Bayne Johnson was both quarterback and captain for the Little Irish in 1959. Bayne went on to quarterback the LeRoy town team of the early sixties. Like Jimmy Briggs, Bayne went on to become a highly successful football coach. Both were elected to the Section V Football Hall of Fame.

            Stepping back even further in time, Walt Briggs was no stranger to the grid iron. He too played for Danny Van Detta before going on to excel for the Batavia Essos, a local semi-pro team.

            I’ve barely scratched the surface here. But the next time I’m at the Hollow, We’ll throw another log in the wood burning stove, kick back and talk about one of our favorite topics - Pigskins & Whitetails. 

          For several minutes we sat in brushy overgrowth, listening to ducks calling in the distance and the whistling of wings as waterfowl passed overhead. With the crescent moon still in the eastern sky, the horizon below grew brighter. Soon Andy Webster, Aaron Green, John Lawrence and I were able to see myriad waterfowl passing overhead. Legal shooting time, however, was yet minutes away.

            When our watches read 7: 10 a.m. John and Aaron touched off the morning’s initial burst and three ducks fell from the sky.

John had placed us in a waterfowler’s dream. Our location couldn’t have been better. We were hunkered down on a narrow spit of land with open water to the north and south. The ducks, consisting mainly of northern shovelers and a few mallards, approached from all directions.

            As a small flock of geese came into view, John began calling. Moments later the flock flew off in disarray, minus one goose. 

           Despite what turned out to be a blue bird morning, the action never slowed down. As the sun climbed above the horizon, many made aerial maneuvers, tilting and veering as the shotguns discharged. Others seemed to make a sudden upward surge in an attempting to gain altitude. It was a tactic that worked for some, but not all.

          All too soon it was time to go. By then the ducks were no longer silhouettes. The sun was high enough to detail entire flocks of waterfowl, their breast feathers shining white against the blue morning sky.

RITES OF AUTUMN

          Come autumn, fishing on Tonawanda Creek tends to heat up, particularly the month of October. As the water begins to cool and clear up, both smallmouth bass and northern pike become active. In recent weeks we’ve managed to take a few bass and one big northern. Some years the pike fishing is extremely good right into early November.

            In addition to great angling, the high school grid season has been nothing short of spectacular. Ditto the autumn countryside. Can’t remember the last time I’ve seen such vivid red and orange hillsides. The hickory trees in our back yard are tinted bright yellow and the foliage along the creek bank has made for enjoyable evening canoe rides.

            If the current autumn trend continues, the bow season could be exceptional.

            Saturday marks the beginning of the archery big game season and, with the exception of our canoes, it will be time to stow the fishing gear.              

            In past years the bow season opened on the 15^th. Recently the powers that be saw fit to give us an extra three days to fling practice arrows. That’s okay – some of us need it. I’ve been shooting my Bill Moon longbow for the past month. The bow is ten years old and still a smooth-shooting piece of equipment. The same can be said for the arrows – wooden shafts with turkey quill fletching also crafted by Bill.

            It’s going to be a fun season. Thanks Bill!