Batavia football closing in on playoff berth

ELGIN – One week after putting St. Charles North on the brink of postseason elimination, Elgin entered Friday night’s game against Batavia with a similar opportunity against the Bulldogs.

But behind a dominant defensive performance anchored by a secondary that held Elgin quarterbacks Lee Jackson and Jake Meyer to a combined 10-for-38 through the air for 139 yards, the Bulldogs blew out Elgin, 28-7.

The win moves Batavia to 3-1 within the Upstate Eight Conference River Division and 4-3 overall, one win away from becoming eligible the playoffs.

“After a tough loss to Geneva, we knew how important this game was for us,” said Batavia QB Noel

Gaspari, who threw two touchdown passes – to Ben Fornek and David Peskind – and ran in a touchdown of his own.

“The defense was huge for us. We knew Elgin had some big-time athletes and our corners and safeties did great. (Our defense) was stopping them the whole game and if they can hold them to one touchdown, that gives our offense a ton of confidence to go out there and put up points.”

Gaspari and the Bulldogs’ offense were aided by the Batavia defense throughout the night, reaping the benefits of Elgin’s inability to sustain drives and several precise punts which pinned Elgin (4-3, 3-2 UEC River) within its 20-yard line by senior Ben Allison.

“We always talk about punt from the perspective as a huge offensive weapon,” Batavia coach Mike Gaspari said. “Obviously we’d rather not punt, but when we have to it’s the first and only play where you can guarantee 30 or 40 yards.

“And Ben Allison has been tremendous this year.”

After Elgin running back Dennis Moore scored on a 64-yard touchdown with 8:24 remaining in the third quarter to cut the Batavia lead to 14-7, it was the Bulldogs’ defense and special teams that managed to alter the game’s momentum.

For the remainder of the game, Batavia held Moore to 13 yards on five carries and the defense – highlighted by defensive end Cole Gardner’s knockout hit on Jackson in the middle of the fourth – set up Gaspari’s offense within the Elgin 30-yard line for both of Batavia’s scoring drives.

“They’ve got a lot of good athletes over there and I think we did a real good job tonight,” said Fornek, a defensive back who was also one of four different Batavia running backs to rush for over 20 yards. “We really needed to get the momentum going coming off a bad week last week and this win was huge.”

Batavia will attempt to qualify for the playoffs against St. Charles North next Friday.

BATAVIA 28, ELGIN 7

SECOND QUARTER B – Lyons 6 run (Clabough PAT), 4:00 THIRD QUARTER B – Peskind 3 pass from Gaspari (Clabough PAT), 8:36 E – Moore 64 run (Moore PAT), 8:24 B – Fornek 5 pass from Gaspari (Clabough PAT), 4:19 FOURTH QUARTER B – Gaspari 8 run (Clabough PAT), 8:44 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING – Batavia: Guzaldo 14-50, Lyons 6-31, Fornek 7-20, Gaspari 8-6, Moore 3-17, Giacopelli 2-4, Eberhardt 3-7. Elgin: Moore 13-115, Meyer 5-13, Jackson 6- negative-4, Dean 3- negative-3. PASSING - Batavia: Gaspari 15-21-146-2-0. Elgin: Jackson 9-33-111-0-0, Meyer 1-5-28-0-0. RECEIVING - Batavia: Gardner 5-50, Peskind 4-42, Fornek 3-28, Strittmatter 1-19, Guzaldo 1-5, Lyons 1-2. Elgin: Gilliam 4-82, Hayes 3-29, Teschner 1-17, Moore 1-14, Dean 1-9, Muenzer 1-2.

Total Yards – Batavia: 281, Elgin: 260.

Sophomore Game – Batavia 41, Elgin 0