Cohen, Javorsky Lead Bobcats to Triumph of Westlake
By Andy Jacobs
A lot has changed since the Byram Hills and Westlake football teams met nearly five months ago in the Section 1, Class B championship game.
But one thing remained the same when the teams resumed their rivalry on Saturday afternoon — the outcome.
With senior quarterback Jared Cohen throwing for two touchdowns and rushing for two others and junior running back Gavin Javorsky accumulating nearly 200 yards on the ground in a breakout performance, the Bobcats rolled to a convincing 41-7 rout of the host Wildcats, who found themselves trailing by three touchdowns at halftime and never recovered after that.
“It feels great,” said new Byram Hills head coach Simon Berk shortly after earning his first victory at the Bobcats’ helm. “We lost a tough, physical game last week against Ardsley, so to be able to come out and force our will on the ground, especially, I think set the tone for these kids. It let ‘em know they could have a good day.”
That good day began with the Bobcats marching 71 yards in a 16-play opening drive that used up over seven minutes. Cohen put Byram on the board with a one-yard run and Luke Weiler added the extra point as the Bobcats seized an early lead in the battle of two schools that each lost nearly every starter from the spring to graduation.
The Bobcats struck again early in the second quarter when, faced with a first-and-20 after a penalty, Cohen handed the ball to Javorsky, who ran to his left and then outraced everyone down the left sideline for an electrifying 55-yard touchdown. The PAT was no good, but with 10:15 to go in the half Byram had built a 13-0 margin.
Westlake threatened to cut its deficit midway through the second quarter, but on a third-and-six play from the Bobcats’ 21-yard line turned the ball over with a fumble. Byram took advantage, blowing the game open with an eight-play, 79-yard drive that ended with Cohen tossing over the middle to Javorsky, who quickly slipped a tackle and then bolted into the end zone for a 31-yard touchdown. Weiler’s point-after gave the Bobcats a 20-0 cushion with 2:27 left before halftime.
“Yeah, momentum is real at all levels, especially in high school sports,” said Berk. “You let a home team, especially one with a lot of pride, think they can continue to compete and things can go south pretty quickly.”
The Wildcats got the ball to start the second half and advanced the ball down to the Byram 29-yard line, but on third-and-11, quarterback Anthony Arrichiello, who had run for three TDs in the season-opening win over Putnam Valley, had his passed tipped and it was picked off by George Gjelaj. The Bobcats took over at their own 45 and soon ended any doubt about the outcome.
Their nine-play drive ended when Cohen returned from a one-play absence on third-and-22 and promptly tossed a high-arching pass to a wide-open Justin Barad in the right corner of the end zone for another 31-yard touchdown. With Weiler’s kick, Byram’s lead grew to 27-0 with 4:20 remaining in the third quarter.
Westlake did manage to answer with its only points of the day on the next possession, getting a 55-yard run down the right sideline from Arrichiello to the Bobcats’ 11, followed two plays later by a 16-yard touchdown run from Glen Ahern. Josh Gelman’s PAT narrowed the Wildcat deficit to 27-7 with 33 seconds left in the third quarter.
The Bobcats added their fifth touchdown of the day just over three minutes into the final quarter as Cohen capped a seven-play, 44-yard drive with an eight-yard run. They struck again moments later when another Arrichiello pass was tipped and then intercepted by junior defensive back Colin McManus, who ran 15 yards along the right sideline for another Byram touchdown, much to the delight of his giddy teammates.
“We have so much growth potential,” said Berk, who took over a team with virtually no returning starters after the memorable undefeated spring season. “There’s a bunch of juniors who didn’t play a great deal last year and even the seniors didn’t see a lot of time. It was such a senior-laden team last spring that a lot of guys came in pretty raw.”
Westake head coach Jon Castellano certainly knows the feeling. He, too, is faced with the daunting task of starting over with new faces all over the field.
“We’re so young,” he said. “As I told everybody, we graduated 16 seniors who held down 21 starting positions. There’s one returner on defense, that’s it. We’re playing with three sophomores, we’re playing with juniors that are up from the JV, varsity that didn’t play last year. It’s no excuse. We knew this going in. I knew it when I started camp. Our job is just to get better every day, get better every day.”
Castellano is optimistic about what’s ahead for these Wildcats as they gain experience, but he also knows other games similar to Saturday’s await his team.
“When you’ve been in this business as long as I have, you just know what you have and how long it’s gonna take to develop it,” he said. “And we’re a long way away. So we’ll take our lumps. But I think we’re gonna be pretty good going into the future.”
Andy is a sports editor at Examiner Media, covering seven high schools in the mid-Westchester region with a notebook and camera. He began there in the fall of 2007 following 15 years as a candid photographer for the largest school picture company in the tri-state area.
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