ROCHESTER - Ian Humphrey rushed for over 300 yards twice at the jayvee level in his sophomore season. Even though he came into Saturday's Section 5 Class C semifinal game at PAETEC Park a little banged up with a deep thigh bruise, he had a performance nearly that big in his senior season. He sure wasn't feeling much pain in rushing for 244 yards in Le Roy's 36-14 blowout of Bishop Kearney.

"It really felt like on every run (I could go for 30 yards)," Humphrey said. "Some days I have it and some days I don't. I don't know what it is, just a feeling."

The senior tailback was simply amazing in the first half as he picked up 209 yards on 18 carries.

"We talked all week about the Forte kid (from Kearney) and he had 303 yards last week," said Le Roy coach Brian Moran. "Before the game I told Ian it was his turn. I thought he would have a big game and he did."

Humphrey had a 35-yard run as the top-seeded Oatkan Knights marched right down the field to score on the opening possession of the game. The 7-play, 69-yard drive was capped off with a 5-yard Brady Bonacquisti touchdown run.

"In every game we like to have a quick start and get a lead," said lineman John Whiting. "After that we can work how we want and run the ball a lot. It was a big momentum booster and it got us into it."

Kearney did move the ball on its first drive of the game, but three straight incomplete passes by quarterback Jake Meek led to a turnover on downs in Le Roy territory. Le Roy's offense didn't do much for the rest of the first quarter, but scored early in the second after a 5-play drive. Humphrey scooted in from 33 yards out. After the fake extra point attempt resulted in a 2-point conversion pass from Travis Fenstermaker to John Scheuing, Le Roy led 14-0.

The difference for the Oatkan Knights - which allowed Humphrey to go off - was the play of the big, physical offensive line.

"They are really good athletes on the line too," Humphrey said. "Just because they are big, don't assume they can't do everything the smaller guys can do. It's a big advantage."
"They were very athletic and the thing for us was to play really well up front," said Le Roy coach Brian Moran.

"I thought our kids up front did. They do have some great athletes. Andrew (Paladino) defensively putting kids in situations to limit what they did. We have some athletes too. Mike Humphrey is back there. Every kid today played very well."

Kearney moved the ball with a 28-yard pass from Meek to Preston Scott, but the Kings stalled with two straight runs for no yards. Humphrey ripped one off for 33 yards and Bonacquisti again scored, this time from two yards out.

Kearney completely dropped the run game at this point and unleashed Meek, who went 6-of-16 for 97 yards in the half and 13-of-34 for 163 yards in the game.

"We knew that they were going to come out and try to run and their running back was great," Whiting said. "Our philosophy all year has been to shut down the run and work from there. We've faced some good running backs and it had us ready for this game."

A long pass to Scott moved the ball into Le Roy territory, but Andrew Alexander made a play to break up a pass on fourth down, and 1:39 on the clock. And that was all the time the Oatkan Knights needed, marching 79 yards down the field to get a 13-yard touchdown pass from Fenstermaker to Josh Risewick with 14 seconds before intermission.

Le Roy made the score 30-0 late in the third quarter when Fenstermaker booted a 28-yard field goal.

The Kings finally got on the board a couple of minutes later when Meek hooked up with Scott on a short pass. Scott made a move to leave a defensive back behind and scored on a 29-yard hookup.

The score came a little too late as Le Roy added a 7-yard Chris Andrews touchdown run and Meek threw a touchdown pass to Jerome Lewis in the fourth quarter to round out the scoring.
With Le Roy not facing a team as athletic and as prone to the pass, making the defensive adaptations and intercepting four passes. Mike Humphrey had two while Bonacquisti and Alexander had one apiece.

"You can't replicate what they do in terms of speed (in practice) until you see it," Moran said. "Once you see it you can understand what they are trying to do and adapt to it. It took us a couple minutes, but our kids adapted and played very well."

The Oatkan Knights came into the game ranked third in the state, but will climb up to No. 2 this week because Cardinal O'Hara's 25-game win streak was snapped in a 19-14 loss to Stubenville Friday night.

Le Roy (9-0) will play Pembroke (8-1) at 5 p.m. Friday night at PAETEC Park.