Batavia makes quick work of Yorkville

You can never undervalue the windfall of a good start in a football game.

And when you get a great one, chances are your team is going to have a tremendous evening.

Batavia intercepted a pass on the first play from scrimmage, needed just 5 plays and 51 seconds to score a pair of touchdowns on its first two possessions and ran back the opening kickoff of the second half in a convincing 44-6 Western Sun Conference victory over host Yorkville.

Batavia (4-2, 3-1) got off to its fantastic start when Mike Theriault picked off his first of two passes of the night. A few plays later, Jordan Coffey found Mark Briden in the end zone for a 10-yard score. After forcing Yorkville to punt on its next possession, Coffey (11-of-21, 126 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs) connected with Erich Zeddies for a 39-yard strike on the Bulldogs next play from scrimmage.

Yorkville (1-5, 0-4) and its Homecoming festivities were literally dampened and the first quarter was less than 3 minutes old. The Batavia defense wouldn't make things any easier either, limiting the Foxes to just 25 yards of offense in the first half.

"I'm most proud with the defense, they played really well," Batavia coach Mike Gaspari said. "We did some different things with coverage, but we pretty much just ran our base defense."

Bai Kabba (9 carries, 107 yards) had a nifty 47-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter and then the Bulldogs recovered a Yorkville fumble on the consequent kickoff. Kyle Duhig answered on the next play with a 26-yard touchdown run and Kabba added a 27-yard touchdown later in the quarter to make it 37-0.

"(Bai) is a great leader for the team and having him out (hurt) was deflating for the team," Gaspari said. "Unfortunately for (Yorkville) they turned the ball over deep in their territory and gave us a short field."

Batavia received sacks from Jack Hegarty and Ryan Welter. Hegarty also recovered a fumble as did Theriault.

With the running clock generated after Zeddies' 82-yard kickoff return with 11:46 left in the third quarter, the Bulldogs were able to remove their starters and get all of its players some game action.

The Foxes eventually broke the shutout with 7 seconds remaining when Daniel Swope scrambled from the pocket for a 13-yard run.

"I told the kids on the field when they scored how proud I was of them," Gaspari said. "He's their No. 1 or No. 2 offensive weapon and I was very proud with how they played."

As well as how the Bulldogs started.END_ATTRIBUTION