Carlson Sets Record As Starpoint Gets Revenge On West Seneca East

Joe Carlson still hasn’t forgotten his first varsity football loss. A year ago, Starpoint traveled to West Seneca East for a battle of unbeaten and left with a resounding 37-point loss.

Payback came on Friday night in a game with first place in Class A-2 on the line.

Carlson scored a school-record five touchdowns and the Spartans rolled to a 41-17 win over the Trojans in front of a large and loud Homecoming crowd at Tudor Stadium.

“It really motivated us,” Carlson said. “”All week, every day that game was mentioned. It’s still in our memory. We put it on them in the first half and then we went into the locker room and said, ‘It’s 0-0.’ And then we came out in the second half and put it on them again.”

Carlson got the party started early for the Spartans, intercepting a pass on the first series of the game and returning it 90 yards for a touchdown. He followed that up with four receiving touchdowns of 4, 20, 47 and 25 yards from sophomore Carson Marcus.

“I’m glad Joe’s on my team,” Starpoint coach Al Cavagnaro said. “He’s fabulous, he’s dynamite. Every time he touches the ball, he can go.”

Carlson – a second-year varsity standout – had seven catches for 132 yards, ran for 30 yards and made five extra points. He has nine touchdowns on the season for the 3-0 Spartans.

“He’s an absolute stud,” Marcus said. “It is unreal the plays that kid makes. When I’m throwing to him, I feel like I can throw that ball wherever I want and he’s going to go get it.”

Marcus continued to dazzle in his first year as the starter, replacing the program’s all-time leading passer Aaron Chase, who was in attendance on Friday. He threw for 194 yards and added a fifth touchdown pass, a 20-yarder to Jake Dean, in the fourth quarter.

West Seneca East fell to 2-1 with the loss.  The Trojans had their highest offensive output last season in a 59-22 win over Starpoint in Week 4 on their path to the state championship game. It took 364 days but the Spartans got their revenge.

“They had our number tonight,” Trojans coach Jim Maurino said. “We put up 60 on them last year so I told our guys they were going to be ready and they were. We had too many things not go our way early and it was too much to overcome.”

Brady Frys threw for a pair of touchdowns – a 14-yarder to Garret Walker and an 89-yard connection with Devare Mathis, who topped 200 all-purpose yards on the night for West Seneca East.