F-E Titans Sink Wilson Lakemen, 36-16
F-E Titans Sink Wilson Lakemen, 36-16
Titans’ receiver Noah Shenk soars over a Wilson defender to haul in a 23-yard touchdown pass. It was Shenk’s only reception on offense, but the junior also snared a pair of Wilson passes as a defensive back in the Titans' 36-16 victory.
If you didn’t draft Franklinville-Ellicottville senior QB Gian Nuzzo for your fantasy football team, it’s probably for the best. As a high school player, he couldn’t be on your roster anyway.
But when you look at the game stats he put up in the Titans’ 20-point shellacking of the Wilson Lakemen Friday, Sept. 9, it’s easy to daydream about the monster day he could’ve had for your roster’s Week 1 NFL matchup.
According to the scoring format for ESPN standard fantasy football leagues, Nuzzo’s passing performance of seven-for-13 attempts for 156 yards and two touchdowns would’ve netted 14.24 points. Add to that number the 21.4 points gained from his rushing effort of 18 carries for 94 yards and two more touchdowns and you begin to realize the elite-level performance the first-year signal caller uncorked last Friday at Wilson. His combined tally of 35.64 fantasy points would’ve put the Titans’ QB right up there in scoring with Allen and Mahomes!
As Nuzzo’s primary passing target, junior running back Beau Bielecki lit up the Wilson secondary for 121 receiving yards and a touchdown, averaging a whisker over 24 yards gained every time he caught the ball. Bielecki also gained 7 yards on his only rushing attempt of the evening and chipped in with 2.5 tackles and a pass interception on the defensive side of the ball.
While Nuzzo had the offense firing on all cylinders, it was coach Chris Mendell’s opportunistic, ball-hawking defensive squad that proved to be the rain on the Lakemen’s parade.
Although the Wilson running attack achieved a limited amount of success in the contest (143 yards and 2 TD’s), a ferocious Titans pass rush forced a number of poor decisions from the Wilson quarterback, who ended up tossing about one-third of the passes he completed to the Titans defense.
Defensive back Noah Shenk was the biggest recipient of the Lakemen’s generosity. He snagged a pair of interceptions on the night, including a brilliant, gloveless pick on an errant Wilson pass near the Titans goal line that put to rest any thoughts the home team might have had about mounting a late-game comeback.
While the teams finished the game with nearly the same offensive output (the Titans out-gained the Lakemen, 298-239 total yards) it was the case that most Franklinville-Ellicottville offensive possessions ended in touchdowns, while many Wilson drives ended with a Titans interception.
Junior linebacker Hunter Smith led the Titans defense with seven total tackles (six solo tackles), and senior defensive lineman Tyler Gibas added 4.5 tackles of his own (three solo, three assisted), including one tackle for a loss of yardage.
As ‘home’ game sites alternate between Ellicottville and Franklinville throughout the season, the Titans will be on their home field in Franklinville this Friday, Sept 16 at 7:00pm, when the Randolph Cardinals come to town. Voted the top football program among all small schools in Western New York in the pre-season coaches’ poll, the defending Section VI Class D Champs are 2-0 thus far and once again led by their senior running back, Xander Hind, the Section VI Class D Player of the Year.
The Titans led last year’s contest between these two teams in the third quarter at Randolph, but ultimately fell to Hind and the Cardinals’ relentless rushing attack.