Led by a potent rushing attack that grounded out nearly 350 yards, visiting Livonia pounded its way to a convincing 34-7 Livingston Conference victory over Le Roy at Hartwood Park, handing the Oatkan Knights their first home loss in 44 games.

"I am disappointed in our mental preparation," Le Roy coach Brian Moran said. "We're a young football team and we knew coming in that Livonia had some good athletes. It wasn't our night."

But it was Livonia's. After Le Roy went three-and-out on its first series, Livonia took its first possession of the season and went on an eight-play, 60-yard scoring drive that ended with a Jeff Wester 1-yard TD run.

After Le Roy punted on their ensuing series, Livonia tacked on more points as the Bulldogs used a 32-yard dash up the middle to set up a 3-yard TD run by Steven Diener that made it 13-0 with 32 seconds left in the first period.

It got worse for the Oatkan Knights. On Le Roy's next offensive series, Wester came up big on defense as he intercepted a Quentin Humphrey pass that was tipped in the air, giving the Bulldogs the ball back on the Le Roy 40.

Three plays later, Wester scored from five yards out. The drive was set up by a rollout pass from Bobby Schuster to Mike Knapp that was good for 34 yards.

With 1:40 left in the first half, Livonia coach Steve Girolmo rolled the dice deep in his team's own territory. On fourth and 1, called for the option left, and Diener took Schuster's well-executed pitch and went the distance on a 77-yard TD run that gave the Bulldogs a 27-0 lead and left the home crowd at Hartwood Park speechless.

The Oatkan Knights started the second half with some trickery of their own as they recovered their onside kick at their own 44. Tailback Rick Henry accounted for 24 yards on three carries, including a drive-ending 1-yard plunge that made it 27-7 with 9:13 left in the third.

Livonia put the game away for good in the fourth. The Bulldogs went on a 13-play, 79-yard drive that ate up seven minutes, culminating with a 1-yard plunge up the middle by Jake Fox, who set up the TD with a 19-yard run up the middle that put the ball inside the one.

Livonia finished with 350 yards rushing on 43 carries. Diener led the way with 119 yards on 10 carries and two TDs, while Jake Fox collected 97 yards on 7 rushes and a TD, and Wester ran for 93 tough yards on 16 touches and two more TDs.

Livonia QB Bobby Schuster had 40 yards on eight carries. Schuster had a great performance engineering the offensive attack as he also went 2-for-3 passing for 48 yards.

Henry led Le Roy with 109 yards on 15 carries with one TD, while Humphrey rushed for 87 yards on 20 carries. Jon Casper rushed for 26 yards on six carries.

Humphrey started the game at running back but was called back behind center after sophomore quarterback Andy Lowe, a recent JV callup, injured his shoulder on the first series and was forced out of the game.

Humphrey was 3-of-7 passing for 17 yards. Tyler Fenstermaker led Le Roy's defense with nine tackles.

"It's disappointing, but we're a young team," Humphrey said. "We have a lot of kids that never played varsity football before. We just need to regroup and get ready for Bath."

Leading into this season, Livonia had not played Le Roy in more than 10 years. But Girolmo was excited to leave with the 'W.'

"Coming back here tonight brought back so many memories -- some good, some not so good," Girolmo said. "Any time you can come in here and get a victory, you know you've done something special."

For Moran and his Knights, it's back to the drawing board with Bath coming in next week.

"Playing schools like Livonia and Bath, they are twice our size, so we have our work cut out for us again next week," Moran said. "We need to get back at it Monday and get to work."

Friday, September 4, 2009 (07:30 PM)
League game at Hartwood Park, LeRoy NY
Livingston County Division I

Livonia Bulldogs 34, LeRoy Oatkan Knights 7