Pleasantville Earns Its First Victory With a Rout of the Bears
As much as the Briarcliff football team would probably like to forget about what took place on its home field Saturday afternoon against neighboring rival Pleasantville, chances are, Panther fans will spend the next 365 days providing reminders every chance they get.
That’s because quarterback Anthony Godino tossed three touchdown passes and the Panther running attack collected 225 yards on the ground as Pleasantville turned the latest rendition of the two teams’ rivalry into a rout, winning 39-0 on a spectacular late summer day that surely didn’t seem quite as sunny on the Bears’ side of the field.
“They had the ball in our end it seemed like the whole game and we did nothing on offense except hurt ourselves,” said Bears coach John Consorti shortly after his mistake-plagued team had been blanked by the Panthers for the second straight year. “Disappointing that we set up a lot for them. But credit to them. They converted on it.”
Even though the Bears turned the ball over on their own 21-yard-line on the game’s second play from scrimmage and the Panthers began all three of their first-quarter possessions inside Briarcliff territory, the game remained scoreless for the first 12 minutes. But the second quarter started with Godino connecting with a wide open James Leyden over the middle for a six-yard touchdown pass that opened the floodgates.
By the time the first half came to an end, the Panthers had added three more touchdowns and the outcome was no longer in doubt. Nick Pedlow, who finished with a team-high 86 yards rushing the football, scored the last two TDs with runs of five and 16 yards a minute and a half apart. Almost fittingly, the Bears, who struggled mightily out of the shotgun, fumbled the football one last time on the final play of the second quarter.
“It wasn’t like they were going up and down the field on us,” said Consorti. “We were setting it up and they were cashing it in. So it was disappointing from that aspect. It’s just disappointing because we really hurt ourselves a lot early in the game.”
The Bears were still within seven points of Pleasantville nearly midway through the second quarter as they prepared to punt the ball away. But an errant snap enabled the Panthers to gain possession at the Bears’ 11-yard-line. Four plays later, Godino threw another six-yard scoring strike over the middle, this time to big target Charlie Montgomery, and the Panthers had a 13-0 cushion.
Another Briarcliff turnover on its next possession gave the Panthers the ball at the Bears’ 45. On the first play of the drive, Pedlow ran to his right, broke tackles and took the ball all the way down to the 12-yard-line. Two plays later, he ran left and found the end zone, stretching Pleasantville’s lead to 19-0. Greg Drillock soon picked off a Frankie Gentile option pass, returning it to the Bears’ 25 and setting up Pedlow’s second TD within two minutes that all but clinched the Panthers’ first victory of the season.
“It’s huge,” said Panthers coach Tony Becerra about his team’s initial win after opening the season with a disappointing effort against Croton-Harmon. “They wanted a total reversal of fortune from last week. But what I’m gonna tell ’em is that it only gets tougher from here on out.”
The Panthers’ total reversal of fortune from week one of the season continued into the second half as they went 80 yards on seven plays to start the third quarter, culminating with Godino and Montgomery connecting on a 28-yard touchdown pass.
“My hope initially was not having to utilize Charlie,” admitted Becerra. “He was a little banged up this week. But they played us tough in the first quarter and I didn’t really wanna go to the air right away. He is a weapon, so had to use him.”
Pleasantville added its final touchdown in the fourth quarter, going 47 yards in eight plays, highlighted by Enrico Ruotolo’s 17-yard run in which he took a good portion of the Bears’ defense along for the ride. Steve Sicignano then ran in from three yards out and Barrett Rosenbaum added a line-drive PAT to conclude the day’s scoring.
Becerra had high praise for the job both Ruotolo and Sicignano did carrying the ball in relief of starters Pedlow and Nick Greto. “They don’t run like twos and threes,” he said, “and they’re gonna get more reps because they opened the coaches’ eyes. Also, the ability of Patrick Bathon to come in there whether it’s mop-up or something happened to our quarterback. We trust Patrick. We consider him a top-level quarterback.”
The Panthers will be hoping last Saturday’s success at Briarcliff continues when they host Putnam Valley on Friday evening. “Even though we’re home the next four weeks, we’re gonna see very tough teams the next four games,” cautioned Becerra. “So we’ve gotta get better. We just have to because these slow starts aren’t gonna cut it.”
The Bears’ Consorti will obviously also be looking for improvement when his team, now 1-1, plays at Kennedy on Saturday. “Well, now the decision has to be made by them,” he said of his players. “What direction do they wanna go? Today was a real off day for us. You have to get over it and move forward. So if we’re willing to move forward and learn from some of the things we did today, then we’ll be alright.”
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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