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Bartlett rolls to 7th win

Winning a conference title is a great feeling.

Allowing an entire team to take the field to enjoy the clinching victory is an even better one.

Bartlett's entire roster saw playing time on Friday night at East Aurora as the Hawks rolled to a 62-13 victory, earning a share of the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division championship.

“We've now had four games where we played everyone which is nice to do with 60 to 65 kids and only 11 playing at a time,” Bartlett coach Tom Meaney said. “It was great to play everybody and the kids like that and the coaches like that.”

Bartlett (7-2, 5-1) wasted little time in putting the game away against hapless East Aurora (0-9, 0-6)

A 4-yard touchdown run by Andrew Puccini, a 29-yard touchdown reception by Zach Karys from A.J. Bilyeu and a 5-yard touchdown run by Bilyeu put the Hawks ahead 21-0 early in the first quarter and they cruised the rest of the way.

Puccini finished with 3 touchdowns to lead a Hawks team that led 56-6 at halftime.

“We had a chance to only give some guys limited playing time but we had some seniors to take care of and we let them play and they did a good job,” Meaney said. “It was nice to get a lot of kids playing time.”

Not to be overlooked in the victory though was the conference title and a Bartlett team that will anxiously be looking at playoff pairings tonight.

“This was icing on the cake to be conference champions but now it's a new season with the playoffs and that's something we've been gearing up for,” Meaney said. “It's something like five (conference titles) in the 12 years since the school opened so it's a feather in our cap and something the kids can share for the rest of their lives.”