east rochester | The Batavian

Blue Devils get historic victory

By Brian Hillabush
Oct 24, 2008, 10:16pm

The Attica football team heard all week about how the program has only one sectional game victory in its history and that they had no chance of beating third-seeded East Rochester/Gananda.

They proved a lot of people wrong Friday night, picking up a historic 18-0 road victory.

"This is huge," coach Jeff Cusmano said. "It isn't a big secret that we have struggled in sectionals. Some of our guys were getting sick of hearing about it and they made an effort today to put their foot down and make history for Attica football."

The gameplan for the Blue Devils was simple - keep the ball out of the hands of Neil Dotterer, who is one of the best quarterbacks in Section 5 history.

It worked.

"We decided to try and keep the ball away from Dotterer," Cusmano said. "We tried to play smash-mouth football and get 3-4 yards per carry and keep the ball away from him. We were successful in doing that."

Andy Ruddock got the call and answered. The GR all-star running back rushed the ball a whopping 37 times for 164 yards to help Attica sustain long drives and keep the ball away from ER/Gananda's high powered offense.

"He showed us that he can carry the load," Cusmano said. "He keeps plugging along."

The only thing that Ruddock didn't do was get in the end zone.

Quarterback Brandon Rollins tossed two touchdown passes to Shawn Dupuis and Dave Jennings had a touchdown run late in the game.

The sixth-seeded Blue Devils (5-3) will get the winner of Saturday's game between Bath and Palmyra-Macedon next week.

Week 6 Batavia at ER/Gananda Preview

By Brian Hillabush
Oct 9, 2008, 6:47pm

Batavia (3-2) at East Rochester/Gananda (4-1)

7 p.m. Friday

Batavia has won three straight games and would love to make it four.

But the Blue Devils will have their hands full with ER/Gananda, which is ranked No. 5 in the state in Class B and is currently No. 4 in Section 5 Class B sectional seeding points.

The only reason the Bombers have a loss is because of the mess that happened in Bath during the opening week of the season. ER/Gananda wound up forfeiting the game even though they were ahead when the lights went out.

Check out this thread on Section 5 Talksback about the issue.

The Bombers are led by quarterback Neil Dotterer, who is his school's all-time passing leader with over 4,400 yards. He is third on the all-time Section 5 passing list.

Batavia has several good athletes, but will need them to step up in the secondary as they will probably see several three and four wide receiver sets.

The Blue Devils need to get a pass rush from either the defensive linemen or blitzers.

As far as offense, Batavia will keep running the ball and hopefully keep doing it well.

Rob Williams earned Class B Offensive Player of the Week last week after rushing for 267 yards and returning to kickoffs for touchdowns in a win over Penn Yan.

He now has 70 carries for 878 yards and 14 touchdowns on the season.

His partner in the backfield is Anthony D'Aurizio, who is having himself a big season as well. He has 634 yards and seven touchdowns on 60 carries.

If the running game is slowed then quarterback Joe Canzoneri will have to do some passing.

D'Aurizio is the leading tackler with 52, with Troy Ireland getting 45 so far. Adam Hausfelder has 39 and Todd Logsdon has pitched in 30.

Batavia is eighth in sectional standings right now and will probably need to get a win this week or at home next week against Geneva to guarantee a spot in the sectional playoffs.