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Sports

Broncos Crush Vikings 44-0 in Season Opener

The Bronxville Broncos shut out the Valhalla Vikings on Saturday's game at BHS.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the noun big as: "an individual or organization of outstanding importance or power."

The Bronxville High School football team proved to have both Saturday when its devastating offensive line plowed the way for a roster full of running backs in a lopsided 44-0 opening day victory over visiting Valhalla.

Bronxville, led by the ferocious senior front four of Kieran Borcich, Stephen Shoemaker, Henry Palermo and Eliot Bartsch, scored all of its points in the first half before coach Jeff Napolitano used most of his bench for the final two quarters.

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"We're a team and we have good size—we just try to go out and do the simple things– block and move the defense for our backs and play strong defense," Shoemaker said. "(Today) we jumped on them from the beginning as a defense and the backs all did a great job running the ball."

The Broncos (1-0) got early penetration on the ground against Valhalla (0-1) using twins and junior running backs Jackson and Christian Conway. Christian, who rushed for 63 yards and three touchdowns on just four carries, scored the opening touchdown on a 10-yard blast just four minutes into the game. His brother Jackson had 45 yards on 4 carries and backup running back Jack Grass, a sophomore, led all rushers with 66 yards and two scores on six carries.

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"We have such a great line that it makes it easy to move the ball," Christian Conway said. "It usually takes time to get used to a system, but this line is so good."

The twins moved back to Bronxville earlier this year, after having moved away for a time, and Jackson looked very much at home in the backfield.

"I felt very good out there," Jackson said. "We were back for baseball in the spring, so we're at home. We have a little competition going on out there between brothers–but you can see by the way we ran that all the backs had success."

Borcich said he and his line mates made sure things went smoothly for the new backfield, which included quarterback Dillon Mitchell and the Conway brothers.

"Our job is to be better each time out," the Boston College-bound senior lineman said. "We don't worry about the score. Executing is the most important thing. Our backs can all do the job."

Mitchell, who replaced last year's quarterback Jack Near (currently nursing a lingering injury), said he felt comfortable in his first start.

"The line is so strong that it makes you confident," Mitchell said. "We did pretty much what we wanted to do–we will do more passing as the season goes on, but things went very well. I felt good."

As for the defense, the "Bigs" showed their dominance early on holding Valhalla to 15 total yards in the first half, including two sacks on Val Valhalla quarterback Mark DeMilio—on one the Broncos knocked DeMilio's helmet off.    

Up 14-0, Bronxville's senior defensive back Ryan Hackett showed his experience when he picked off a DeMilio pass at the Vikings 22-yard line. The Broncos needed only four plays to capitalize with another score.

"I watch (DeMilio's) eyes go to the receiver and waited on the ball," Hackett said. "It's something you learn to do. Our line is so strong that it helps us make plays. Our goal on defense is to stay smart and be consistent. We want to build on this game."

Broncos coach Jeff Napolitano was pleased with his team's opening day performance, especially the second and third string players who played most of the second half. He singled out running backs Jack Grass and Brad Davies for their work on offense.

"We try to instill the idea in practice and games that we want to be better with each repetition," said Napolitano, who proudly wore an FDNY baseball cap to honor 9/11 firefighters. "We have great size, but executing the offense and playing good defense is more important as we move on. We did that today. And I was very happy to see Davies and Grass play so well."

Bronxville began the 2009 season with a 21-0 victory against Valhalla and added two more shutouts last year. The Broncos went 12-1 last season, losing the state championship game to Jamestown 40-14.

"Our goal is to keep opponents to zero points," Shoemaker said. "We know that teams will be gunning for us this year after our run last year," Shoemaker said. "We don't take anything for granted. We just want to play the best football we can. And we're not just big–we consider ourselves good athletes."

The Broncos next play at Haldane on Thursday, September 16.

 

Game Day Notes

The Bronxville junior varsity began its season Saturday with a 34-13 victory over Croton. Coach Danny Martin's crew was on hand on the sideline to support the boys on varsity. Watch out for JVer's Warren Kramer, Caelan Corr, Paul Ansdi, Declan Borcich, Parker Lapins and the rest of the up-and-coming underclassmen.

Members of the American Legion, including former County Legislator Vito Pinto, presented the colors as the crowd honored those who fell on September 11, 2001. … The Broncos' placekicking proved it was solid with first-stringer Ryan Grunseich hitting four straight for a 28-0 lead before Jack Grass kicked the last two point after kicks… Senior tackle Russell Minetti got credit for a safety when he was the closest Bronxville player to the ball on a botched Valhalla punt that landed behind the end zone… A sign hanging from the bleachers read: "Unfinished Business"–a reference to last year's loss in the Class C title game at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse.

Patch Prediction: 34-14.

Score: 44-0

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