Football season ends in second round of state playoffs

by William Belson

On November 8, the ‘Cats traveled to Mendon to take on one of last year’s state champion squads. Despite putting up a great fight, Pittsford fell to the Hornets, 43-7. The varsity started their game off strong as usual, holding Mendon to no touchdowns in the first quarter; however, the offense couldn’t put anything together against Mendon, and there was a scoreless tie after 12 minutes.

Showing the undefeated and 12-time state champs what Pittsford football was all about, the Wildcats were holding their own and looked like they actually might actually have a chance against the undefeated Hornets. Until the first play of the second quarter, that is, when Mendon got its momentum by scoring on their first play of offense. The gang in green held the Pittsford offense in check again and blocked the P-ford punt, recovering it on the Wildcat 8-yard line. That punt block led directly to another Hornet score, and suddenly it was 14-0.

That was not the end of the Hornets good play; they soon got an interception thrown by QB Garet Lee on the following series. Mendon would then have yet another drive to score on the bewildered ‘Cats. On P-ford’s next drive they decided that they had had enough and drove it all the way down to the Hornet 10-yard line, but came up a few yards short on fourth down. The guys in green would then make a difficult drive down the field once again to score and make the score 28-0 at the end of the first half.

As the second half started Pittsford kicked to the Hornets and allowed them an 85-yard return for a touchdown. The Wildcats showed some true grit by coming right back and scoring on a two-yard run by Lee.

The ‘Cats then attempted an onside kick, which they recovered to start another offensive series, but could not answer with another touchdown and gave the ball up on fourth down, thus ending any realistic shot at a Pittsford comeback. The major lesson that the ‘Cats learned from playing the monstrous Mendon Hornets was simple. “Lift and get stronger,” explained Lee.

Looking back on the seniors’ last football season, some realize how much they are going to miss playing football “I’m not going to miss the practices but I will miss the games, and it stinks that I won’t play another football game,” said departing senior Adam Anspaugh. This year’s seniors on the football team have shown some true heart and will be sadly missed. “It was a great season playing with this year’s seniors; it was a blast and something I will never forget. The practices stunk but the games were awesome,” said senior Zach Vanlerberg.