Bulldogs miss on opportunities

SYCAMORE – In the first half of Friday night’s game at Sycamore, Batavia had chances to score. But whenever they got close, the Bulldogs made a costly mistake.

One time it was a fumble, another time it was an interception in the end zone and a third time it was a missed first down that turned into a Sycamore touchdown run on the next play.

That’s just how the Bulldogs’ season has gone as they remained winless in their final run through the Western Sun Conference after a 28-7 loss to the Spartans.

“People don’t understand that you have years when things just don’t click as well,” Batavia coach Mike Gaspari said. “That’s what’s happened to us.

“You have years like this sometimes. It’s been a long time since we’ve been in this position. It was 1992 the last time we weren’t in a position at least at this point in the season to make the playoffs.”

The Bulldogs (1-6, 0-5) were led by Danny Seiton’s 81 yards on 30 carries. But they didn’t find the end zone until late in the third quarter, when Seiton ran for a 1-yard score.

Sycamore followed that up with a touchdown-scoring drive to put the game away on a fourth-down touchdown pass from the 6-yard line.

“We just have to keep working to get better and try to win a game,” Gaspari said. “The next two weeks are playoff games, we know then our season is over.”

The win was the first for Sycamore over Batavia that Gaspari could recall and the first in Sycamore coach Joe Ryan’s seven-year career at the school.

“No one has given up, no one has skipped practice,” Gaspari said. “That’s all we can ask from our kids.

They’ve given it their all.”

That wasn’t enough, however, to stop Sycamore’s Marckie Hayes from running for 267 yards on 36 carries while teammate Joe Dougherty – a Batavia transfer two years ago – ran for 123 yards of his own.

“We got Marckie outside last week and they were pretty outside-conscious,” Ryan said. “So we got to them early with Joe hitting the seams on some of our traps. We’re blessed to have a lot of backs.”