By: Aiden Locke
HOLLEY, NY--- The Holley Hawks went to battle against the Wellsville Lions. Holley fell short on senior night 22-14. Wellsville's defense was the difference.
The first quarter saw some of the scoring action. Lions' quarterback Brennen Geffers was intercepted targeting an out route. Jacob Pitcher jumped the route and proceeded to take it back 50-yards to the house to give the Hawks an early 8-0 lead.
"I noticed the out route and I knew that it was the first thing he was going to be looking for, I went for it, and it worked out for me," Pitcher said.
Pitcher had a big impact on the game. He played well on both sides of the ball. He was blocking well offensively and making splash plays defensively.
"Defensively, we need to contain better and play better as a team," Pitcher continued, "people need to start coming to practice and we need to come together more."
Later in the first quarter Wellsville would respond with a touchdown of their own to make it 8-6. Wide receiver Jack Davis took a flip pass into the endzone and motioning across the formation on a long Wellsville possession. Wellsville left a lot of meat on the bones offensively as their high-flying passing attack struggle to establish a rhythm in the first half. Multiple deep shots were missed due to either an overthrow or Lions' receivers struggling to locate the ball in the air.
Holley's secondary struggled to hang with Wellsville's receivers throughout the game. Lions' wide receiver Trenton Green took a flip pass into the endzone after a long Lions drive in the second quarter. The Lions run game had an up and down performance but were able to find consistent success using the short passing game as an extension of the run. Using their receivers on simple bubbles and swing passes allowed them to get shifty in space and make big plays.
This game was an overall back and forth battle with both teams finding some form of success throughout. In the fourth quarter while down 14-8, Holley went to a wildcat formation with running back Hunter Jewell-Smith lining up as the quarterback. Running from that look provided them a lot of production and they punched in a QB sneak from the 1-yard-line curtesy of quarterback Destin Kuyal.
Up until the wildcat adjustment Smith had been bottled up all game by Wellsville.
"It was going better than the rest of the offense, wish it worked the rest of the game," Jewell-Smith said.
Holley's offensive line struggled to find consistency throughout the game, and it led to trouble for the Hawks. A true rhythm wasn't able to be established until the second half.
"We need to practice on blocking," Jewell-Smith said.
Holley's offense had a chance to go down and tie the game late in the fourth quarter. They led heavily on Jewell-Smith and the wildcat formation. They pivoted off it for a long third down. Destin Kuyal dropped back to pass and had to step back to avoid some pressure. He targeted Jacob Pitcher down the right sideline, but the pressure effected the throw leading it to be intercepted by Lions' corner Jayvontay Howard.
Wellsville would go on to run out the clock after forcing the turnover with just three minutes left.
Holley falls to 1-4 on the season while Wellsville improves to 2-3.