Amherst football executes against North, wins 28-6
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Williamsville North's T.J. McDuffie attempts to break up a pass intended for Amherst Central's Matt Krajna during the Tigers' 28-6 home win last Thursday. Photo by Joe Eberle

The magic formula to Class A Amherst Central's three-game win streak, including a 28-6 home win last Thursday against Class AA Williamsville North, comes down to execution.

"It's three wins in a row and the reason is because we played well and executed in all three phases of the game," said Amherst coach Rob Gross. "The offense moved the ball, the defense played well, gave up one drive of consequence and caused turnovers, and the special teams tightened up in the second quarter and we started to win the field position battle."

Since losing 3-0 in overtime to West Seneca East in Week One, the Tigers' offense has scored 90 points. The Tigers are also plus-11 in turnover ratio. Against North, the Amherst defense caused three takeaways, including fumble recoveries by Chris Brunetto and Andrew Gruber and a Bert Smith interception. Gruber's recovery led to Amherst's third touchdown, a 1-yard toss from Cordell Freeman to a wide-open Casey Rich on a fourth-and-1 with 1:29 left in the third quarter.

Freeman also ran in a 1-yard touchdown to cap off an 11-play, 56-yard drive earlier in the third. Two plays prior the senior quarterback had reversed field for 15 yards and dove at the goal line.

"I was running on the (left) side and saw there was no lane and the whole defense shifted," said Freeman. "I came back around, saw I had blocking and ran for the pile-on."

The Amherst offense rushed for 274 yards. Andre Hakeem led with 157 yards on 28 carries and scored the Tigers' final touchdown, busting through the North defense untouched from 29 yards out with 2:43 remaining. Freeman finished with 94 rushing yards.

"It's a nice luxury to have multiple guys get the job done," said Gross. "We're very athletic at the skill positions but no matter how athletic we are, we can't get it done unless the offensive line is getting some displacement at the line of scrimmage and making some holes."

Rob Wilcox recovered a fumble in the second quarter for the Spartans' only turnover but North took plenty of bad penalties that stalled drives. Wilcox roughed Amherst's kicker on a fourth-and-11 early in the second quarter to continue the Tigers' first touchdown drive, culminated by a four-yard Smith run. On their last offensive series of the first half, a North lineman took a 15-yard illegal block penalty and quarterback Eric Dahlman was flagged for intentional grounding, killing any momentum.

"We shot ourselves in the foot," said North coach Mike Mammoliti after the game. "We came out

and moved the ball right down and then we fumble it. Then we force them to punt and we run right into the kicker. Then we came back and fumble again. We were our own worst enemy and that's unfortunate."

North's only score came from a 4-yard Michael Moore run in the fourth quarter. Scott Boyer blocked Zak Boron's extra-point attempt.

Brunetto and Nick Borek had 10 tackles each.

Amherst (3-1, 1-1) looks to make it four straight wins when they travel to Lake Shore at 7 p.m. Friday. North (2-2, 2-1) looks to rebound at 2 p.m. Saturday at Lockport.

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com