The Pembroke Dragons notched the team's first win of 2015 with a 27-12 victory over Holley.

Genesee County has at least one champion squirrel hunter.

Erica Kotarski, 13, in eighth grade at Oakfield-Alabama Central School, won the youth division in the Holly Fire Department Squirrel Slam on Saturday.

To earn the $50 prize and plaque, Erica bagged five squirrels with a total weight of 7 pounds 1.8 ounces.

As near I as I can find, HFD has not announced the other winners, but Erica's parents, Dale and Molly, are proud of their daughter and sent along the phone and information.

Erica has her lifetime hunting license and has taken all required safety courses, Molly said.

Sophomore Korie Leitten filled in as the the goalie and had a couple nice saves in the first half to keep Holley off the board.  It was Leitten's first game at any level in goal.  

Inside the final minutes Shilvock hit a cross to Pettys on the back post and Pettys' header nearly found the corner but was cleared out by Holley.  However Alexander got the ball right back to Shilvock who hit a shot from 22 yards that found the top left corner of the net to give Alexander a 1-0 lead just before halftime.

Alexander came out in the 2nd half and began to get more of the possession and it paid off about 15 minutes in as Shilvock found Pettys with a nice through ball inside the 18 yard box and Pettys finished with her left foot low in the right side of the goal to make the score 2-0.  

Leitten continued her solid work in goal by knocking a corner kick clear later in the half to keep the score 2-0.  With about 10 minutes left Holley had a cross go off the post but it was cleared out by Junior Defender Gabby Kwiatek to again keep the score at 2-0.

It was a great all around performance by the ladies from Alexander as they got were swarming on defense to the ball and applied a lot of pressure high up the field on Holley's defense and midfield and that lead to a lot of turnovers while also breaking up Holley's possession and attack before it got into Alexander's defensive 3rd.  Leitten finished with 7 saves to get the win and shutout.

Starting Lineup for Alexander: Korie Leitten (10th, GK), Gabby Kwiatek (11th, D), Eliza Vacanti (10th, D), Sydney Breton (9th, D), Ashlee Wolf (11th, D), Maria Dominick (11th, M), Mary Kunze (9th, M), Abby Shilvock (11th, M), Emily Alvut (10th, M), Lydia Spiotta (10th, F), Julia Pettys (12th, F)

Substitutes for Alexander: Morgan Woodhouse (11th, D), Sam Marchisin (11th, M), Nikki Draves (11th, F), Breyana Crawford (9th, F)

Alexander opened the scoring in the 18th minute as Senior Forward Megan Schmieder finished off a pass from Sophomore midfielder Abby Shilvock to make the score 1-0.  Holley tied it in the 34th minute on a corner kick.  Alexander nearly went back on top as Schmieder had a breakaway but failed to get a shot off before the Holley keeper slid to knock the ball off her feet.

In the 2nd half Alexander had the majority of the possession but could not convert any of their chances.  Senior Midfielder Tessa Bigelow took a pass from Senior Midfielder Claire Hartl but rang her shot off the crossbar to keep the score tied at 1.  In the 75th minute of the game Junior Forward Julia Pettys knocked in a rebound of her own shot to put Alexander back on top (her 5th goal of the season).  In the 78th minute Shilvock ripped a 30 yard shot into the top corner to put the game out of reach.

Alexander's Senior Keeper Hannah Wilson picked up her 2nd win of the season with 8 stops in goal.

Alexander's record is now 2-0-1 overall and 1-0 in the league.  Holley drops to 0-1.

Alexander's next game is Friday on the road @ Attica at 4:30pm.  Attica is 2-0 coming into the game.

Taken into custody yesterday was Darrell Bruce Reid, of 4 N. Main St., Holley.

Chief Deputy Jerome Brewster said the victim had met Reid a short time before Saturday and the two men were talking in the victim's apartment when Reid allegedly assaulted the victim.

The victim suffered a broken nose and cut above his eye that required stitches.

While the victim had met Reid, he didn't know his full name, which led to the Sheriff's Office taking a couple of days to track down the suspect, Brewster said.

Reid, who was jailed without bail, is charged with robbery, 2nd, assault, 2nd, and three counts of grand larceny.

He is scheduled to return to Byron Town Court at 5 p.m., May 17.

In the win over Attica, Tessa Bigelow, Anna Dominick, and Kylie Bank had the goals with Dominick picking up 2 assists and Summer Bliss picking up the other one.  The score was 1-1 at the half before Alexander scored 2 unanswered in the 2nd half to win the game.

Last night Alexander had a great 1st half picking up goals from Megan Schmieder (from Anna Dominick) and Julia Pettys (from Amber Finan) to get out to a 2-0 halftime lead.  The 2nd half Kendall put on a ton of pressure but Junior Keeper Hannah Wilson made 7 saves in net picking up her 7th shutout of the season with the defense playing solid in front of her.  Savannah VanSon cleared a ball off the goal line after Wilson had made the initial save.

Holley and Byron-Bergen played to a 0-0 tie meaning that Friday night Alexander travels to Holley for a 6:30 contest that will decide the GR Division 1 (and GR League) champion.  Alexander enters the game 12-2-1 (11-2-1 league) while Holley enters the game 13-1-1 (12-1-1 league).  Holley needs only a tie to win the league title.  Alexander needs a win which would knot the teams at 12-2-1 in the league with a 1-1 record against each other and the league title would come down to divisional record where Alexander would then have the advantage.  The first time these two teams played Holley picked up a 2-1 win in Alexander.

Things looked good for Notre Dame at the end of the first half this afternoon, but in the end Holley took control of the game and went on to win 14-7.

It was the first loss of the year for the Irish and continued Holley's dramatic turn around from an 0-8 in 2008.

It was a tale of two halves, according to Notre Dame Head Coach Rick Mancuso, who said his team failed to execute in the third and fourth quarters.

"We had a good mix of run and a good mix of of pass (in the first half)," said Mancuso. "I thought we played with passion. We played with emotion. I thought we came out early in the second half and we started off with a penalty right in the first series and that was just kind of the way that we played. We lost our focus and we lost our discipline and we didn’t play a good second half."

In that first half, Notre Dame did a good job of stuffing Holley's powerful running game. When Holley went up the middle, the Irish line was there to push back the pile. On sweeps, the pursuit was aggressive, lead by Gianni Zambito, to keep Holley's backs from turning the corner. A couple of sweeps turned into lost yardage for the Hawks.

After the game, Hawks Head Coach Chad DeRock bristled at the idea that the Irish were sticking it to his guys during the first half.

"We played our game -- bend, don’t break," DeRock said. "We gave up only seven points to one of the best offenses around here. We bend, we don’t break. They’re going to have big plays. You’ve got to accept that when you’ve got Bochicchio at QB and Pratt and Richter and Zambito out there. Those are big play guys. We just didn’t want to get beat with the big, big play. We got burned on one. Other than that, we did what we had to do."

That one big play was a 35-yard TD pass early in the second quarter to a wide open Zambito from Nick Bochicchio.

The successful drive was sparked by a Cam McDonald fumble recovery late in the first quarter. The turnover stopped a long drive by the Hawks that had them on a seeming precipice of a first score of the game.

Instead, Notre Dame was able to end the half with a 7-0 lead against a Holley team that scored at least 30 points in three of its four previous wins.

ND opened the half with the ball, an illegal motion penalty the Irish in the hole and a few downs later ND was punting it away. It wasn't long after before Mike Perincano was crossing the goal line on a 30-yard rush to pull the Hawks within a point of the Irish (Holley failed to score on a two-point conversion try, so the score stood at 7-6).

On its next possession, the Irish moved the ball down field and were within striking distance of another score when Bochicchio was picked off by Guy Hills. That's the last time the Irish really threatened to put points on the board.

Two possessions later, Chad Barhydt, who took over at QB for Hills, who was injured in the fourth quarter, carried the ball in on a two-yard TD run, and with the two-point conversion, Holley sealed its 14-7 victory.

"My hats off to Holley," Mancuso said. "They played terrific. They were up to the challenge and they’re a great team. They’ve got a lot of really great kids. They work hard and their coaching staff does a great job with them. I wish we cold have done them justice and played them a little bit better."

Coach DeRock said his team, even at 5-0 and assured of at least a share of the Genesee Region title, is still taking the season one week at a time.

"Everybody says this was the GR championship, but it’s not," DeRock said. "It’s another game on our schedule. We have another game next week and another game after that.

"Attica’s a great team," he added. "Brad Clark had 295 yards rushing last night. I scouted the game. He’s a great running back, so we’re not taking them lightly by any means."

Pernicano finished the game with 52 yards on six carries. Sean Baylor had 12 carries for 68 yards. Barhydt posted 42 rushing yards.

For the Irish, now 4-1, Mike Pratt rushed for 65 yards on 20 carries. Zambito contributed 90 total yards on four receptions.

What's the recipe for "The Big Game"? Well, start with two undefeated teams in the fifth week of the season. Make sure one of them has a storied history and is hosting the game on homecoming weekend. The other team should be up an upstart, a new program that for the first time is emerging as a powerful, tough-to-beat squad.

That's a Big Game.

And's the situation tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. when Notre Dame hosts the Holley Hawks Notre Dame. The teams clash as division rivals with matching records of 4-0.

“They’ve (Holley) got a great group of kids and we’re probably the underdog here" said Notre Dame's head coach, Rick Mancuso. "We’re fighting an uphill battle, but we’re looking forward to the challenge."

If you put any stock in such things, MaxPreps ranks the Fighting Irish 121st in the state, and Holley at 155th.

The Irish have scored 101 points on the season, Holley, 114. ND's has allowed 35 points, with Holley being a bit stingier, giving up only 23.

The Hawks have a reputation for being a strong, hard-hitting team, and Coach Mancuso acknowledges the Hawks are a tough, well-coached team, but that doesn't make them much different from Attica and Oakfield. Both of those squads have fallen once each this season to the Irish.

"We’ve been against some tough, strong, hard-hitting teams and Holley’s no different than them," Mancuso said,  "other than Holley’s maybe a little bit bigger and they have a little bit better skill level in their back field."

Mancuso said the Hawks probably have the best four backs in the league.

"That gives them an advantage," he said.

"We've got to come out and we've really got to work at it," Mancuso said. "We can't get down they have a big play. We can't get too high and we can't get too low. It's a big challenge."

He said his players are excited about the big game.

It sounds like a recipe for a can't-miss match up.

AUDIO: Interview with Head Coach Rick Mancuso (mp3)

Up in Holley, an interesting story line is developing in the 2009 Genesee Region football season. A team that rarely won over the first few years of its young football program seems suddenly unbeatable.

The Alexander Trojans found out firsthand today just how invincible Holley seems to be at just past the halfway point in the season.

The Trojans were dominated on both sides of the ball for most of four quarters and dropped to 2-2 with a 32-10 loss.

The Hawks move to 4-0 and face a challenge next week to their seeming invincibility when they butt heads with the division’s only other undefeated team, the Fighting Irish, at Notre Dame.

Alexander Head Coach Dave Radley expressed some dissatisfaction with his team after the game saying his players didn’t come ready to play and seemed to take Holley for granted.

On the other side of the field, Chad DeRock said his team is bearing the fruit of three or four years of extra effort.

“Our focus this season was on making history,” DeRock said. “I don’t know what the past record was – two and 60 or something – but that doesn’t matter. I’m happy for my seniors who’ve put in the time. I promised them, if you put in the time, you’ll see results. They put in the time. My juniors put in the time. My sophomores and freshmen have put in the time. My seniors are the most dedicated group of I’ve ever worked with. I’m proud of them. They deserve it.”

Holley opened the game by methodically marching the ball down the field only to lose it on the two-yard line to a fumble.

The Trojans, however, were unable to capitalize on a potential shift of momentum, coughing up the ball on the 20-yard line a few plays later.

It didn’t take long, then, for Sean Baylor to put six on the board for the Hawks with a six-yard run.

Alexander made one last stab at making a game of it early in the second quarter when Lucas Czechowski booted an impressive 35-yard field goal to make the score 6-3, but except for a little spark late in the fourth quarter, the game was all Holley’s.

By the half, the score was 20-3 after TD runs by Baylor and Guy Hills.

Turnovers were a key factor (four total by Alexander), including an interception for a 40-yard touchdown return in the fourth quarter by Holley's Mike Pernicano, which pushed the margin to 32-3 (Baylor had another touchdown run in the third quarter).

After another Pernicano interception, Holley started moving the ball toward the end zone again when the Alexander defense managed to force a fourth down. 

Holley decided to try a long field goal, but the pop-up kick came up well short of the goal line and #88 Steve Schaffer found himself in an open field just waiting for the ball to come down. He then darted to the far sideline and carried the ball 80 yards before being forced out to put his team in the red zone.

Alexander capitalized on the opportunity, finally pushing the ball across the goal line on a one-yard run by Jared Quinn.

And that’s how the game would end – 32-10, Holley.

Notre Dame Head Coach Rick Mancuso had a keen eye on the game through all four quarters. It will be interesting to find out later this week what he thinks about the upcoming clash of two teams seemingly putting it all together in 2009.

More photos after the jump.