ORCHARD PARK - Even the best coaches make mistakes. Le Roy football coach Brian Moran called a fake punt with just over five minutes left in the game, on a fourth-and-1 at the Le Roy 26-yard line, when his team was leading Falconer 13-7 in the Far West Regionals at Ralph Wilson Stadium Saturday.

It didn’t work and the Oatkan Knights wound up losing a shocker, 13-12, ending the season for a team that was expecting to make a run to the state final four.

“It’s one of those calls where if it works you look good), but if it doesn’t you take the blame,” said Moran, who has a career coaching record of 147-41-2 with 11 sectional titles. “I’ll take the blame.”

Le Roy set up to punt and the snap went to up-man Chad Condidorio. The Golden Falcons saw it coming and he had nowhere to go, so he pitched the ball to punter Mark Bennetti, who was tackled for a 7-yard loss.

“We were going to fake it,” Moran said. “We had run-right called. I didn’t see the whole play exactly, but I think the snap was a little off and we were in a situation where we didn’t make a play. That happens.”

Falconer read the call from the start of the play and the team Le Roy beat in the Regionals two years ago only had 19 yards to go in order to score the winning touchdown.

“As soon as I saw the snap I saw it coming,” Falconer quarterback/defensive back Isaac Gatewood said. “It was like they didn’t respect us.”

The Golden Falcons took 2 ½ minutes off the clock and scored five plays after taking over. The longest run of the drive was a 7-yard run by Gatewood and Adam Erickson - the offensive MVP of the game - punched it in from four yards out.

The Oatkan Knights started a drive at their own 39-yard line and picked up one first down on a Bennetti run, but an incomplete pass on fourth-and-4 with 1:11 on the clock ended the high school careers of eight seniors.

“This is my third year on varsity and I thought we had a great chance to make it to states,” said senior offensive/defensive lineman Kevin Brady, who was the defensive MVP of the game. “We lost two years ago in the state finals and I thought we were going to make another run at it.”
“This is the worst, I would rather be blown out than lose like this,” Bennetti said. “We had a great run, played well and I can’t be too upset.”

The game really was a tale of two halves as Le Roy dominated the first 24 minutes, but struggled to stop the run and couldn’t move the ball in the second half.

Le Roy had a 91-48 advantage in rushing in the first half and led 12-0 at intermission, but Falconer picked up 124 yards on the ground after the break, compared to Le Roy’s 50. Falconer adjustment’s and Brady Bonacquisti getting knocked out of the game with a concussion are major reasons for the turnaround.

“He is a very important part of this team, he wasn’t he MVP for nothing last week,” Moran said. “(It hurt not having him) offensively and he’s a great defensive player too. Any time you lose one of your better players, you are going to struggle a little bit.”

Le Roy scored twice in the opening half, with Bonacquisti scoring on a 2-yard run on the first drive of the game and then punching one in from a yard out early in the second quarter. The Oatkan Knights picked off four Gatewood passes and it was all Le Roy at the half.

But Falconer came out and scored a touchdown on the opening drive of the second half. The Golden Falcons drove 72 yards on 11 plays and Gatewood threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Alex Ognibene.

“They made some good adjustments,” Bennetti said. “Our guys were there to make the plays, we just didn’t make them.”

Falconer (9-2) will play Westmoreland (11-0) in the state semifinals next week while Le Roy ends up 9-2.