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OP’s Big Plays Through The Air Doom JHS

Jamestown coach Tom Langworthy will head into the postseason with a 4-3 record. P-J file photo

ORCHARD PARK — The Jamestown Red Raiders’ game plan Friday night was simple in theory: Stop the Jack Sharp-to-Nic Bruce aerial combination.

That proved easier said than done.

Sharp connected with Bruce four times for 118 yards and three touchdowns — all in the first half — to lift Orchard Park to a 28-14 Class AA victory over the Red Raiders.

The win improves the Quakers’ record to 4-3 overall and 4-2 in the league, while Jamestown ends the regular season 4-3 and 3-3. That means the Red Raiders will hit the road next week for the first round of the playoffs against a team to be determined.

“I think the game was relatively even, except they just made big plays,” Jamestown coach Tom Langworthy said. ” … To win at Orchard Park you can’t give up big plays.”

Sharp and Bruce cornered the market on those last night, connecting on scoring strikes of 26, 69 and 13 yards, which helped the Quakers build a 21-7 lead at halftime.

The Red Raiders also had a couple of huge plays — freshman Savon VanSickle returned a kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter and junior quarterback Drew Boggs connected with junior running back Fran Rodriguez on an 80-yard scoring strike on the first play of the third quarter — but the Quakers just made more.

“We knew going in that (Bruce) was their best player,” Langworthy said. “If we took him away, we’d win. We just didn’t. It’s just difficult against him. The kids tried to cover him, but the quarterback threw a couple great balls and gave him a shot at it and he’s really difficult to cover one on one. Our safety had a hard time getting over there a couple times.”

Of course, Sharp’s passes — he finished 13 of 21 for 260 yards — were right on the mark, too.

His first TD pass to Bruce was set up by a Jamestown fumble on the visitors’ second play of the game. Six plays later, Sharp found Bruce open in the end zone from 26 yards out. Brian Strybel connected on his first of four successful point-after attempts and the Quakers led 7-0 with 7:35 remaining in the first quarter.

It didn’t take long for the Red Raiders to respond as VanSickle took the ensuing kickoff back for a touchdown, and when junior Jayden Schultz’s extra-point try was successful — he was 2-for-2 on the night — the game was tied with 7:18 left in the period.

“The kickoff return was great,” Langworthy said. “(VanSickle) was very patient. … I like to get our guys up inside and he let that block develop. It looked like our blocker took out two guys, Savon dipped it in and dipped it out and slowed the defender down enough to hit the sideline. He’s really fast and it was a real shot in the arm.”

But after the teams exchanged punts, Sharp and Bruce put Orchard Park in the lead to stay when they connected on a 69-yard scoring strike on the first play of the second quarter.

And after another Red Raider punt, the Quakers found paydirt again. Taking over from their own 36, the hosts used a 39-yard run by Dylan Bieler to set up a 13-yard TD pass from Sharp to Bruce with 7:04 remaining in the period that increased the lead to 21-7, which was the score at halftime.

Jamestown started out the third quarter with a bang when Boggs threw a beautiful pass to Rodriguez down the sideline and the latter used his sprinter’s speed to reach the end zone 80 yards later, cutting Orchard Park’s lead to 21-14.

“We drew up that play at halftime,” Langworthy said. “We talked about Fran getting down the sideline, because he is so fast. It was a great throw and it was a nice shot in the arm. We just didn’t do enough.”

Immediately after the Boggs-to-Rodriquez TD pass, the Quakers responded with a scoring drive that was highlighted by Sharp’s 59-yard pass to Bieler and capped by David Perkins’ 9-yard touchdown run that pushed Orchard Park’s lead to 28-14 with 9:21 remaining in the third quarter.

“We had the momentum, they made a play and took it all the way down the field and scored,” Langworthy. “That was a pivotal part of the game and we just didn’t take advantage of that momentum.”

The score remained that way the rest of the game.

“I’m disappointed in our performance, but not disappointed in our effort,” Langworthy said. “Our kids always play hard. I’m proud of them. We just have to play better. The good news is we had a really good start to he season and it got us in the playoffs, so we’re in the tournament and now it’s win and stay in.

“We’ll figure out who we have to play next and get back to work (this morning) and watch the film.”

NOTES: Perkins finished with 101 yards rushing, Beiler added 44 yards on the ground and also caught five passes for 93 yards. … For Jamestown, Boggs was 19 of 35 through the air for 182 yards and a touchdown. … Andrew Pumford caught seven passes for 59 yards, Jeff Seager had six receptions for 39 yards, rodriguez added three receptions for 109 yards and Kanin Tanner had three catches for 29 yards. … Rodriguez rushed for 53 yards and VanSickle added 41. … Noah Turzillo led Jamestown’s defense with eight tackles, six assists, one sack and three tackles for loss; Tanner had five tackles and four assists; Taige White had five tackles and three assists; and Steven Wofford added five stops.

Jamestown 7 0 7 0 — 14

Orchard Park 7 14 7 0 — 28

OP — Bruce 26 pass from Sharp (Strybel kick)

JHS — VanSickle 97 kickoff return (Schultz kick)

OP — Bruce 69 pass from Sharp (Strybel kick)

OP — Bruce 13 pass from Sharp (Strybel kick)

JHS — Rodriguez 80 pass from Boggs (Schultz kick)

OP — Perkins 9 run (Strybel kick)

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