Pittsford/St. John Fisher - LeRoy used a stifling defense to defeat Lyons 26-8 Sunday (11-4) at St. John Fisher College to advance into the finals of the Section 5 Class C football playoffs.

The underdog Lions were limited to 132 yards of total offense in the loss while the top-seeded and unbeaten Oatkan Knights (9-0) used a combined attack of Matt Miller, Joe Cosimeno, and Rick Laurie to pound away on the ground. The three together recorded 175 yards, each pushing over the 50-yard mark with Laurie leading the way with 66 yards.

"The offensive line did a great job. (We) had a lot of push (and) we just ran up in the hole," Laurie said. "We watched a lot of tape and kind of memorized everything they did. It made it easy for us."

On LeRoy's first possession, Miller and Cosimeno drove the ball down to the Lyons 11 before being forced to turn the ball over on a failed fourth-and-3 attempt. Two plays after taking over, Lyons QB Nick Alena tried to force a pace to Horace Bettes but LeRoy DB Joe Shaughnessy picked off the throw. The Knights then drove the ball 35 yards for the game's first score. A Shaughnessy pass to Brendan Fulmer over the middle gave the Knights a first down at the Lyons 11. Three plays later Miller took a handoff up the middle to score from three yards out. A Fulmer PAT made it 7-0 LeRoy.

Midway through the second quarter, Fulmer stepped in front of Bettes to intercept an Alena pass. Three plays later, Shaughnessy dropped back and found Fulmer deep in the Lions secondary on a 40-yard TD strike. The PAT attempt went wide and the LeRoy lead stood at 13-0.

The Lions then took over only to cough the ball up on Alena's third interception of the game. Again it was Shaughnessy helping his own cause by grabbing his second pick of the game. LeRoy head coach Brian Moran then dug into his playbook for a bit of trickery. On a first-and-10 from the Lyons 23, Cosimeno took a Shaughnessy pitch only to pull back and set up to pass. Down the field he found Fulmer wide open and hit him for a TD to make it 19-0.

At the start of the third quarter the Lions caught a break when LeRoy lost a fumble that Bettes snagged and ran 60 yards for a TD. Lyons QB Alena found Bill Sergent for the two-point conversion to cut the deficit to 19-8.

Starting at their own 30 late in the fourth quarter, the Knights would eat up more than 6:30 on 12 plays to score on a 2-yard run by Laurie. Fulmer would put the PAT through the uprights to account for the final margin of 26-8.

"We just wanted to make sure we took care of (business) and not give up the big play," said Moran. "We stepped up after the turnover and played really well. Defensively, I though we played a great game." The LeRoy defense was lead by Brendan Moran with 8 tackles with Bill Fox, Kenny Smith, and Jason Hodge each collecting 7 tackles. Shaughnessy was 5-of-6 for 82 yards and a TD while adding 48 yards on the ground.

"Their defensive schemes were a little different that what we've seen," Shaughnessy said. "We really just had to get pumped up and get ready to play." Fulmer caught 6 balls for 105 yards and two touchdowns.

No. 5 seed Lyons finishes the year at 6-3. LeRoy will now attempt to give Moran his eighth sectional championship in 13 years coaching against an Avon Braves team the Knights previously beat 36-12 in Week 4 of the regular season. The game is scheduled for noon Saturday (11-10) at the University of Rochester's Fauver Stadium. Avon prevented a sectional final matchup between archrivals LeRoy and Cal-Mum by stunning the Raiders 34-28 as Germaine Dixon intercepted a pass on the final play of the game, returning it 80 yards for a TD to give the Braves the win. Dixon scored 4 TDs in the contest.