Geneva runs over Batavia, inches closer to UEC River title

A punishing 40-21 victory at Batavia Friday night in a game the Vikings physically pushed the Bulldogs around all but sealed a seventh straight conference championship for Rob Wicinski's program.

That championship wasn't the one that had Wicinski fired up when he addressed his team.

"Can you say Tri-Cities champs!" Wicinski roared, and his players quickly let out similar cheers.

It turns out that the victory over their archrival Batavia was the easiest of the three, following a 1-point win last week against St. Charles North and a fourth-quarter comeback to beat St. Charles East in Week 3.

That wasn't supposed to be the way it went with Batavia (3-3, 2-1). The Bulldogs also entered the game unbeaten in the Upstate Eight's River Division playing their homecoming and looking to halt a three-game losing streak to Geneva (4-2, 4-0) in the 93rd meeting of a series that dates back to 1913.

But after an Emund Kabba touchdown run staked the Bulldogs to a 7-0 lead less than three minutes into the game it was all Geneva all night. The Vikings scored 40 of the next 47 points, gaining 268 of their 404 yards on the ground behind offensive linemen James Buban, Kevin Dwyer, Brett Willman, Jake Mills and Jacob Bastin.

"Our offensive line is doing a heck of a job upfront," said Geneva quarterback Matt Williams, who ran for one touchdown, threw for another and converted two fourth downs deep in his own territory on fake punts. "They are just making the holes for everyone. I can't give them enough credit."

Connor Quinn led the rushing attack with 136 yards and 2 touchdowns on 31 carries, and he also caught a team-high 3 passes for 58 yards. Joe Cella picked up 68 yards on just 7 attempts and Doug Berthold scooted 29 yards on his only carry as Geneva averaged 5.3 yards.

"They just physically put us on our heals with their offense and their defense fed off that," Batavia coach Mike Gaspari said. "I didn't anticipate getting handled physically like that. Credit to them. I didn't think it would be that much of a mismatch. I really thought if there might be a physical edge after watching them on film it might be for us. But tonight it didn't work out that way."

After throwing only six times last week against St. Charles North, the Vikings passed their first three plays Friday. Batavia held for a 3-and-out, then quickly marched 46 yards in 5 plays capped by Kabba's 11-yard run with 9:18 left in the first quarter.

The Vikings turned to what they do best and ran the ball. They rushed 14 times on a 15-play, 65-yard scoring match that ate 6:32 off the clock. Williams picked up a first down with a sneak on fourth down, then also scored from 1 yard out to cut Batavia's lead to 7-6.

"They were stacking the line six up," Mills explained about the early passes. "Once we started firing off and realized we could (run) anyway we kept pounding."

Geneva only needed 2 plays on its next possession to take the lead on Cella's 58-yard burst up the middle on the final play of the first quarter.

The Vikings scored the only touchdown in the second quarter on another long drive, this time 10 plays and 79 yards. The drive started with Wiliams throwing to Quinn for 5 yards on fourth-and-2 from Geneva's own 30-yard line. Quinn's 1-yard dive gave Geneva a 20-7 halftime lead.

The Vikings also converted a fourth-and-7 from their own 19-yard line in the second half when Williams found Ben Rogers for 21 yards.

"He's got the option," Wicinski said of Williams, who completed 10 of 16 passes for 136 yards.

"We are putting some responsibility on 12 (Williams) to make a play. He is the gambler. He's there to make plays, that's what he does."

Batavia started the second half with a 52-yard touchdown by Kabba on a near identical run up the middle as Cella's, cutting Geneva's lead to 20-14.

The momentum vanished quickly when Berthold returned the ensuing kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown, his second kick return in as many weeks. The Vikings poured it on from there, adding a 3-yard Quinn touchdown run and a 6-yard pass from Williams to Cella after Williams somehow escaped heavy pressure to keep the play alive.

Batavia also gave up a backbreaking kick return in a loss to Bartlett.

"We did exactly what we wanted to do, came out and scored to start the half," Gaspari said. "Those (kick coverage) are things we work so hard on. We made some personnel changes on our kickoff team. It's disheartening when that happens."

The Geneva defense drew praise from both coaches. Vincent Kraig and Drew White both made tackles for a loss on third-down plays to stop Batavia drives, cornerbacks Berthold and Ryan Landrum broke up long passes that could have gone for big plays, Tom Frederick blew up a screen pass and was part of a front seven that didn't give Batavia quarterback Noel Gaspari any time to throw.

"Coach (Frank) Martin, coach (Dave) Carli and coach (Andrew) Toniolo put a game plan together," Wicinski said. "In practice we have seen them get better. I'm really proud of the defense because we were a sieve for many weeks."

There was one very scary moment for Geneva when junior Tom Oliveria was injured on a special teams play.

Oliveria had to be taken from the field on a stretcher and gave the thumbs-up to his Geneva teammates and fans as he was wheeled to an ambulance and taken to the hospital with a concussion. The Vikings medical staff thought Oliveria would be OK.

"He's one of my best friends, it really was upsetting to hear," Mills said. "We all hope he is doing OK."

Batavia concluded the scoring on Noel Gaspari's 36-yard touchdown pass to Evan Zeddies with just 26 seconds remaining. Gaspari completed 12 of 24 passes for 168 yards while Kabba led the ground attack with 111 yards on 11 carries before leaving the game in the third quarter with an ankle injury.

"That goal (a conference title) is out for us but there is still a lot to play for in terms of playoffs," Mike Gaspari said. "To make the payoffs after the tough year we had last year would say a lot."