ELGIN – The Batavia football team took the field against Larkin on Friday night without its main scoring threat.
Running back Zach Garrett, who scored six of the team’s 10 touchdowns in their first two games, was on the sidelines.
The rest of the team’s offensive contributions easily picked up the slack, beating the pesky Royals, 49-20, in the teams’ Upstate Eight Conference River Division opener at Memorial Field.
“Zach is still just a little bit banged up from last week,” Batavia coach Dennis Piron said. “He wasn’t 100 percent, and we were a little nervous about playing him. Plus the field conditions here are a little rough.”
The Bulldogs’ offense scored on seven of their first eight possessions as six different Bulldogs carried the ball across the goal line.
“We did what we had to do,” Piron said. “Other than a turnover, our first team offense scored every time they were on the field.”
Only their first drive of the game in that string did not result in a score. On the contrary, it set up the Royals’s first touchown.
Larkin, taking advantage of a Batavia fumble on the second play of the game, scored. Royals defensive lineman Maurice Griffith recovered the ball on the Bulldog’s 41-yard line. Five plays later, Larkin quarter back David Hibbler crossed the goal line on a 23-yard run,
The Bulldogs (3-0, 1-0) immediately retook the lead on their next possession, scoring on 57-yard pass from Kyle Niemiec to Nick Stuttle.
The lead went back to Larkin, 13-7, on its next series when Hibbler connected with Keion Adams for a 65-yard touchdown pass.
Batavia got back in front, 14-13, on its next possession on six-yard run by Kamontez Thomas. The Bulldogs put more space between them and Larkin in the closing seconds of the first quarter, going ahead, 21-13, on a 2-yard Dana Anderson run.
Batavia scored two unanswered touchdowns in the second quarter to take a 35-13 halftime lead. Niemiec scored on a 7-yard run at the 10:19 mark of the quarter.
A 4-yard pass to tight end Glenn Albanese resulted in the fifth TD with four minutes to play before halftime.
The Bulldogs put the game away with two more touchdowns in the third quarter.
Niemiec scored his second TD on 11 yard run. Running back Matt Huizinga scored the seventh TD on a two yard run to make the score 49-13 .
The Royals (0-3, 0-1) made in 49-20 on 30 yard run by Hibbler.
BATAVIA 49, LARKIN 20
BATAVIA 21 14 14 0 - 49
LARKIN 13 0 0 7 - 20
HOW THEY SCORED Hibbler kick First Quarter L - Hibbler 23 yd run (Hibbler kick) 7:50 B – Stuttle 57 yd pass from Niemiec (Carlson kick) 6:59 L - Adams 64 yd pass from Hibbler (kick failed) 6:20 B – Thomas 6 yd run (Carlson kick) 5:49 B – Anderson 2 yd run (Carlson kick) 0:17 Second Quarter B – Niemiec 7 yd run (Carlson kick) 10:11 B - Albanese 4 yd pass from Niemiec (Carlson kick) 3:59 Third Quarter B – Niemiec 11 yd run (Carlson kick) 10:00 B – Huizinga 2 yd run (Carlson kick) 2:00 Fourth Quarter L – Hibbler 30 yd run (Hibbler kick) 10:55
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS, RUSHING –Batavia: Thomas 1-6, Anderson 6-31, Hallberg 4-44, Huizinga 6-37, Drake 2-3, Niemiec 8-21, Totals 29-149. Larkin: Clements 3-9, Morris 1-8, Hibbler 19-78, Ball 1-70, Moreno2 – (minus 20) Totals: 26-82. PASSING –Batavia: Niemiec 0-0-0-0. Larkin: Hibbler 17-23-0-286. 15- RECEIVING – Batavia: Coffey 3-71, Thomas 3-35, Stokke, 3-62 Anderson 2-25, Stuttle 1-57, Albanese 3-25, Beckmann 2-11 Totals: 17-286 Larkin: Hunter 7-47, Clements 2-17, Adams 6-101, Totals: 15-165. TOTAL OFFENSE – Larkin 247 Batavia 435
SOPHOMORE GAME: Batavia 56 Larkin 0