Warhawks' defense leads comeback win over GI, 21-18
AMHERST — West Seneca West had a pretty clear objective heading into Thursday night’s Section VI Class A Football championship: Find a way to stop Grand Island’s dynamic dual threat quarterback, Anthony Mantione.
It took a while, but West finally found a way at UB’s Broadview Stadium. After falling behind early and allowing Mantione to generate three touchdowns in the first half, the Warhawks shut down the Vikings in the last two quarters and rallied for a 21-18 victory and their first sectional title in nine years.
Mantione rushed for 209 yards, but it took him 36 carries to do it. After piling up 222 total yards in the opening half, he had just 79 in the second half as West Seneca West’s defense took control of the game. Special teams were a key for West, as they stopped all three two-point conversion attempts by Grand Island and turned the game around with a blocked punt for a touchdown.
In a matchup of two great young QBs, West Seneca West sophomore Mason Anderson threw for 306 yards on 18 of 36 passing. Anderson made two clutch plays on West’s winning drive in the third quarter. He ran for 15 yards on a third-and-8. Three plays later, he threw a 12-yard TD pass to Alex Quarantello (8 catches, 129 yards) late in the third quarter for the decisive score.
Grand Island suffered its first loss of the season, but they’re not done yet. The Vikings will move on as an at-large team under a rotating system that, because only seven sections have teams in Class A, allows one section to put two teams into the regionals.
Mantione was a one-man wrecking crew for Grand Island in the first half. The junior quarterback accounted for all but one of the Vikings’ 223 yards, rushing for 153 yards on 19 carries and completing 6 of 10 passes for another 69 yards and a touchdown.
The Vikings jumped to a 12-0 lead in the first quarter. On a third-and-11, Mantione found senior wideout Blake Deloreto running free down the left side for a 21-yard touchdown. Later, Mantione took a handoff from Jayden Neville, broke a tackle and raced around the left side to the end zone for a 33-yard TD.
Early in the second quarter, Grand Island stopped Anderson on a keeper inside the 5-yard line on fourth down to stop a Warhawks drive. West Seneca (9-2) had fourth-and-goal from the Vikings’ 4 midway through the quarter. Another failure deep in opposition territory would have been a huge blow. But Anderson threw a 4-yard TD pass to Bobby Simmons to make it 12-7, Grand Island.
On Grand Island’s next possession, Quarantello blocked a punt and Owen Koziol scooped it up in stride and ran 24 yards for a touchdown. In the space of under two minutes, West Seneca West had gone from a 12-0 deficit to a 14-12 lead. But with two minutes left before half, Mantione wasn’t done yet.
On third-and-1, Mantione broke off a 46-yard run to the Warhawks’ 12-yard line. Two plays later, he wired a 12-yard touchdown pass to Jack Heider to lift the Vikings into an 18-14 lead. They wouldn’t find the end zone again.
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