Football
East cannot solve Starpoint
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Starpoint coach Al Cavagnaro doesn't have the definitive answer for why his team has beaten Williamsville East four straight times, including 33-14 Friday at Williamsville South in the Section VI Class A Consolation Bowl semifinals, but he has his reasons.

"We've gotten some breaks," Cavagnaro said. "The last two years our defense has been very tough and we've been able to stop them. Our kids have just made plays... I don't have the answer why but I'm just glad its happening that way."

"It was a lot of miscues," added East coach Henry Fumerelle. "We'd get drives going and fumble the ball. We were our own worst enemy. I think we were very inconsistent with our play in the game. We couldn't get anything going offensively and were playing on bad field position... We were just out of sync from the Amherst game (East won 35-14). You can't beat a quality football team if you make mistakes."

One of Starpoint's big plays, a school-record 98-yard interception return from Darren Vukovic with 4:28 left in the game, sealed the Spartan victory. East had cut the deficit to 28-14 a minute earlier when Zach Miller busted through the right side of the Starpoint defense on a fourth-and-1 for a 27-yard touchdown, his 12th TD of the season.

Brad Demo then recovered a pooch kick that went off a Starpoint player at the Spartan-40. Two plays later, East QB Joe Schriever under threw a pass to a streaking Rick Silvestri into the arms of Vukovic, who broke at least three tackles on his way to pay dirt.

"I was there where the ball was and fortunately, I had enough speed to get back into the end zone," said Vukovic.

Starpoint took advantage of good field position in the second half (earliest drive start was on its own 35) to score three other scores, two coming off East turnovers on consecutive drives.

A C.J. Regnet fumble recovery set up a 26-yard Brandon Bratek TD and an Eric Roberts interception led to a 9-yard QB sneak from Joe Scibilia. Scibilia also threw two TDs, an eight-yard strike to Mike Regnet at 10:03 of the first quarter and a nine-yard throw to Amir Billups at 2:29 left in the third. Bratek rushed 28 times for 154 yards.

Schriever scrambled for a 51-yard TD in the first quarter for East's first score. Mike Langfelder recovered a fumble off a Starpoint punt to set up the play.

Miller ran 12 times for 89 yards, unofficial, and a TD. He also made nine tackles on defense, unofficial.

"He played very physical and ran very hard," said Fumerelle of Miller. "I think he showed why he's a quality football player. He was the glue that held our team together."

Starpoint faced Hamburg for the Class A Bowl title Tuesday at Medina but results were unavailable before The Bee went to press.

Starpoint's consecutive wins over East coming into the game were 26-21 in Week Six, 21-6 in Week Seven last year and 20-6 in last year's Class A Consolation Bowl finals. East won 10-0 in Week Seven of 2004.

East finishes 4-4 and graduates 17 seniors.

"It was a disappointing season," Fumerelle said. "I think the biggest thing with us all season has been inconsistent play... The kids, through all of the adversity last week, stayed focused and had a big win (over Amherst), which was important."