Special Teams brings Williamsville North Their First Win of the Season

On an afternoon in which their offense struggled, the Williamsville North Spartans’ special teams carried them to victory.

The Spartans had both a kickoff (Prabhjot Singh) and punt (David Bass) returned for touchdowns leading to a 32-14 win over the Niagara Wheatfield Falcons Saturday.

“You know David Bass, our special teams, played very well,” Williamsville North coach Mike Mammoliti said. “Singh’s return was big too.”

Connor Murphy helped set up Williamsville North’s first score with an interception. That gave his team the ball on their opponents’ side of the field. A few plays later, Michael Catanzaro scored on an 11-yard run giving the Spartans a 6-0 lead.

After a failed fourth down play by the Falcons, Williamsville North was able to take advantage of the situation and begin play on their opponents’ 41-yard line.

A 28-yard run by Zaire Leonard again had the Spartans inside the red zone. Singh scored the first of his touchdowns of the day extending the lead to 12-0.

The Spartans remained solid on defense and continued to force punts.

A 49-yard punt from the Falcons put Williamsville North inside their 10-yard line. NW forced the Spartans back into their own end zone; Demarie Hilson sacked the quarterback for a safety, cutting the deficit to 12-2.

The momentum continued to roll for the Falcons. Week one hero, Matt Lysiak, returned the following kickoff to the Williamsville North nine-yard line. However, the Spartans’ defense stood strong and made a goal line stand.

“We had three opportunities in the first half inside the red zone, and we only got one of them,” Niagara Wheatfield coach Russ Nixon said. “It’s a different game, it’s a game of momentum, and we weren’t able to capture any of it.”

Even with the turnover, the Spartans weren’t able to move down the field as they would have liked. Miscommunication led to a dropped handoff that Hilson picked up and returned all the way back to the nine-yard line.

Though Williamsville North had a convincing win, it wouldn’t come without several unnecessary turnovers in addition to the lost punt.

“It was three giveaways on our part,” Mammoliti said. “We were our own worst enemies on those three plays. We made three mistakes, on the running play the back went the wrong way, and obviously the other two things happened. It’s all part of it.”

The Falcons wouldn’t let this opportunity pass them by. Chris Gordon found Jaden Baker for an eight-yard touchdown pass bringing NW within a score of the Spartans, 12-8.

On the ensuing kickoff, Singh returned what ended being the game-winning score. After bobbling to grab it from inside his own twenty, Singh went the length of the field to give his team the 18-8 lead at the half.

Things got off to a quick start for the second half.

Similar to his previous kickoff, Singh was able to carry the ball down to the Falcons 41-yard line. Leonard stamped the drive with an eventual touchdown run, as the Spartans took a 24-8 lead.

Later Bass impressed the away team crowd by returning a punt into the end zone for the final score of the day.

Despite how the rest of the game went, the Niagara Wheatfield offense Saturday’s affair on a positive note, as Gordon led a 70-yard scoring drive that was capped off by an Andy Klebaur nine-yard touchdown catch.

Next: Williamsville North will go on the road to Hamburg at 7 p.m. Friday. Niagara Wheatfield will host Orchard Park on Saturday at 2 p.m.