By John D'Onofrio
LOCKPORT — With 254 rushing yards and three touchdowns, you’d think Lockport senior tailback David Fluellen was the star of Saturday’s 36-7 “rivalry” victory over visiting Starpoint in the CRUNCH Game of the Week.
But that just wouldn’t be fair to the blue and gold defense.
The Lions’ aggressive “D” racked up big plays throughout, including two second-half interception returns for scores as head coach Greg Bronson’s team improved to 1-1 overall in 2009 after opening with two non-league contests.
Better yet for die hard high school football fans in Lockport and Pendleton, it evened the newly-created “rivalry series” between the neighboring school districts at 1-1.
It was deja vu again, with the winner dominating their opponent throughout and winning by 30-plus points — wait, that was last year when the Spartans routed the Lions, 38-6, at Shirley Tudor Stadium in Pendleton in their historic first meeting.
Fluellen, who continues to near his brother Jhamal Fluellen’s all-time Lockport rushing record of 3,591 yards, was contained for the most part on Saturday by a hard-hitting Spartans defense led by senior Tyler Smith (8 tackles), but still managed to top 3,000 yards in his high school career.
“Flu” took advantage of limited opportunities for big plays and scampered in on long touchdown runs of 65, 46 and 72 yards at sunny Max D. Lederer Field. With 439 yards in the first two games of 2009, Fluellen now has 3,075 career yards, leaving him 250 behind Randy Smith (3,425) and 416 in back of his older sibling.
The home team led 15-0 at halftime and Flu scored his third TD of the game five minutes into the third quarter to give Lockport a 22-0 lead. Meanwhile the Lions’ defense, led by senior middle linebacker Luke Rankie’s 11 tackles, was busy holding garnet and gray to 14 yards on the ground in the first half and 79 overall.
The Spartans put together their best offensive series of the game early in the fourth quarter, marching 54 yards on 11 plays, capped by sophomore Cory Regnet’s 1-yard TD run.
“We played hard. I don’t think the score reflects how well we played,” said Spartans senior co-captain Derek Bongiovanni.
“I thought our defense played better this week and the offensive line opened up some nice holes. We’re getting better.”
Lockport’s defense put the game away as Rankie intercepted a pass from Spartans sophomore quarterback Branden Wehrmeyer and returned it 15 yards for a score. Senior defensive back Jake Chenez (nine tackles, 2-point conversion run) stepped in front of a Wehrmeyer pass and returned it 80 yards for the game’s final touchdown.
“They were killing us all day with the slant pass,” Rankie said.
“I finally played it right and had an interception and knocked down a few passes.”
Despite the picks, which came later in the game with the Lions ahead comfortably, Wehrmeyer played well and showed that he possesses a tremendous arm and passing touch, completing 14 of his first 15 passes and finishing 16-of-24 for 121 yards.
Senior Thurman Harden (seven tackles) recorded two sacks and senior linebacker Sean Mulvey (eight tackles) added one for Lockport, which will open its Section VI Class AA slate at 2 p.m. this coming Saturday against visiting Niagara-Wheatfield.
“We watched a lot of film on Starpoint and it helped knowing what they would come against us with. All 11 guys played well and tackled well,” Mulvey said.
The Spartans (0-2 overall,) will host Iroquois in a Class A tilt at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Lions senior kicker/punter Brian Orzechowski cashed in on three-of-three extra point attempts and punted the ball effectively throughout, including one inside the Spartans’ 10.
“Our kids were kind of surprised that they hung in with us for as long as they did. They thought it might be easier, but it wasn’t, which is a credit to the Starpoint program, their coaching staff and their players,” said Lions head coach Greg Bronson.
“We made some adjustments at halftime. We knew they liked going to the bootleg play that hurt us last year, so we brought pressure in from the sides. They were hurting us with the slant pass as well, so we also made some adjustments on that.”
GAME NOTES —A moment of silence was observed before the game for former Starpoint football assistant coach Bob Boudeman, who passed away shortly after the first Lockport-Starpoint contest last year ... Saturday’s game was broadcast by Lockport WLVL Radio, with Norm and Becky Palmer calling the action; as well as Lockport Community Television with play-by-play announcers Danny Sheehan and Jim Slowey ... Assisting this reporter on the sideline was spotter, Randy Butler, a former LHS and Lockport Invaders football great.
