By: Ashton Townsend
CALEDONIA, NY - The rushing attack of the Le Roy/Caledonia-Mumford Rivals proved to be too much for the Hornell/Arkport-Canaseraga Red Raiders as the Rivals grabbed a 40-14 win. All touchdowns for the Rivals came from the ground game.
"We're playing our best football right now," Rivals head coach Mike Humphrey said. "But the attitude going into tomorrow is to get better and we're never going to be perfect and we weren't tonight."
Senior Jack Egeling led the Rivals with 16 carries going for 263 yards and four touchdowns. Sophomore Zach Boop added 21 yards and junior Cam Riggi added 14 yards and scored a touchdown.
"I was seeing big holes," Egeling said. " I did what I was supposed to do, hit the hole hard and I made plays."
The Rivals opened up the game with a four-and-a-half-minute, seven-play, 70-yard drive. Sophomore quarterback Brady McClurg found junior Connor Elmore on a 36-yard catch and McClurg punched it in on a quarterback sneak to grab a 7-0 lead.
The Red Raiders would turn the ball over on downs and Egeling made the Red Raiders pay with a one-yard touchdown run. This was after a 30-yard catch from senior Xavier Bowen that set the Rivals up in great field position. After a missed extra point, the game was at 13-0.
The Red Raiders were forced to punt after going three-and-out and the Rivals got the ball back once again.
Egeling scored on the drive's first play, going 45 yards on the ground for a touchdown. Egeling added a 36-yard rushing touchdown on the Rival's next drive to take a 27-0 lead into halftime.
To open the second half, the Red Raiders scored on a 66-yard, first-play touchdown on a screen pass to senior Austyn Gollnitz. But Egeling responded, breaking away for a 76-yard touchdown on the next drive to take a 33-8 lead.
Riggi scored his touchdown on an inside handoff and the Red Raiders scored again, thanks to an eight-yard touchdown catch from senior Aaron McInerney, to settle the final score at 40-14.
Le Roy/Caledonia-Mumford improves to 4-3 on the season and are now 3-1 in Section V Class C play. They currently sit in third place in Class C.
After going 1-3 in their first four games of the season, the Rivals have started to ramp things up as they extended their winning streak to three games.
"Our team building, like getting together for team dinners on Thursday nights, practicing for each other, the pre-game speeches," McClurg said. "We play for each other."
The Rivals will look to continue their winning streak as they take on the number one ranked Section V Class C team ER/Gananda. Kickoff will be at 7 p.m. next Friday.
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