Coming off a disappointing rivalry loss last week, the West Seneca East football team came out sluggish on Friday night.
The struggles lasted all of one defensive drive.
The third-seeded Trojans spotted seventh-seeded Kenmore West the first touchdown but then rolled from there, advancing with a 42-7 win over the injury-riddled Blue Devils in front of a loud home crowd.
“It was little bit of a slow start,” WSE coach Jim Maurino said. “We had a tough loss last week and we were still a little down in the dumps from that. But once we got going, we were fine.”
Having Shaun Dolac helped. The bruising do-it-all back ran for 172 yards and two touchdowns and threw for another.
But please don’t expect the humble Dolac to take the credit for himself.
“My boys opened up holes and I just ran through them,” Dolac, who also recorded 10 tackles and an interception on defense. “That’s all it was.”
Zach Arnone ran 22 yards for West Seneca East’s first TD and also added two picks on defense. Dylan McNulty caught a TD pass and Devare Mathis and Niam Bonner also had touchdown runs for East.
The Trojans had to wait nearly two hours to find out their opponent for next week. West Seneca East will travel to Grand Island at 7 p.m. next Friday for a sectional semifinal. The Vikings outlasted South Park 38-32 in double overtime in their quarterfinal.
“We’re going to enjoy this one for a while and then get back to work,” Maurino said. “We’re going to be playing a very good team.”
West Seneca East improved to 7-1 on the year – the lone loss coming in Week 7 to arch-rival West Seneca West. If the Trojans can get past a strong Grand Island team, there’s a decent chance they’d get a rematch against those Indians – who also face a tough semi against record-setting quarterback Aaron Chase and Starpoint in their semifinal.
If both win, an all-West Seneca Class A final would certainly be one for the ages. But Maurino wasn’t even going to pretend to want to talk about that question on Friday night.
“Nah, not even worried about that right now,” he said. “West Seneca who? I didn’t know there was another West Seneca school.”
Kenmore West opened the scoring on a short TD run by Mike Miranda. But things went south from there for the Blue Devils, who lost quarterback Zac Boyes to a concussion – and were already playing without stud running back Joe Stewart (broken foot).
“We lost our quarterback, that hurts,” Kenmore West coach John Haynes said. “Ramon (Hill) did a great job of stepping in but he hasn’t had the reps that Zach had all year and that sort of hurt us.”
The Blue Devils season ends at 4-4. Kenmore West turned the ball over six times, four in the second half, allowing the Trojans to pull way.
“That’s the other thing,” Haynes said. “Six turnovers, you’re not going to win. Not against that team.”
