WESTFIELD — With a little over two minutes remaining the Fredonia Hillbillies (3-2) trailed the Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton Thunderbirds (2-3) 23-22 and they needed to drive 86 yards to score.

Sophomore quarterback Nick Whitfield came up big when it mattered most and drove the Hillbillies down the field, but still had to fight the clock. With seven seconds remaining, on fourth down and 22 yards, Whitfield scrambled left, found Grayson Krzyzanowicz just across the goal line and hit him with a pass right between the numbers to give the Hillbillies a thrilling 28-23 victory as time expired.

“He got us out of some problems there,” Fredonia head coach Greg Sherlock said about Whitfield. “He really extends plays and in high school if you can extend plays and look downfield that’s huge.”

The Hillbillies started exactly how they wanted to, with two consecutive drives that found themselves in the end zone. Jake Skinner carried the offense in the early going as he rushed for 59 yards on the first drive and capped it off with a 5-yard touchdown, Dalton Gardner then caught the 2-point conversion to make it 8-0.

On the second drive, Fredonia pounded the ground between Skinner and Gardner carries. The Hillbillies capped off that drive with a Whitfield rushing touchdown and another Gardner 2-point conversion.

The Thunderbirds saw the big deficit early in second quarter, but the Thunderbirds offense went to the air and got a long touchdown reception from Luke Ormsby followed by a 2-point conversion to make it 16-8 before halftime.

The Thunderbirds offense woke up in the second half and started moving like a well-oiled machine. They made it down to the 5-yard line and a Ryan Jafarjian touchdown made it 16-16 after the 2-point conversion.

Jafarjian then broke free for a 28-yard touchdown run to give the Thunderbirds the 23-16 lead.

“We kept our composure,” Thunderbirds head coach Bryan Bongiovanni said. “We preach do your job each play. Our guys didn’t get too rattled, they just went one play at a time and before you knew it we were right back in the game.”

In the fourth quarter, Fredonia found out they needed to find some success through the air as the Thunderbirds adjusted to the Hillbillies’ running game. Whitfield connected with Gardner on a game-changing 50-yard touchdown across the middle to make it 23-22.

Whitfield and the Hillbillies capped off the comeback on the final drive with his big 22-yard touchdown pass to Krzyzanowicz.

GOLDEN COUGARS

EARN FIRST WIN

GOWANDA — Cassadaga Valley/Falconer (1-4) racked up 294 yards on the ground and was just as good on defense, rolling to a 25-0 win over Gowanda/Pine Valley (0-5) on Friday for their first win of the season in Class C South action.

Noah Abram carried 20 times for 102 yards and scored on runs from 9 and 13 yards out, while Landon Mower grabbed 83 yards on six carries. Chase Johnson rushed seven times for 40 yards and a score while Collin Mower added 30 yards and a touchdown on five touches. Those two bruising backs saw extra time in the backfield as the Golden Cougars switched to their “big-boy” package.

“We’re a physical team and we just wanted to use our athletes in the best position,” head coach Joel Sopak said. “We just wanted to change things up and pound the ball a little bit. We’ve been so close, we are 1-4 but we are three plays away from being 4-1. The kids have kept their heads up and stayed positive. We wanted to do some new things with a power package.”

Collin Mower added 12 tackles on defense to lead a unit that gave up just 49 yards of offense, and Brock Johnson added four tackles and a sack.

“I want to give a shout out to our defensive coordinator Norm Smith,” Sopak said. “When you shut down someone like that for a total of 50 yards and one first down that is significant.”

Gowanda 0 0 0 0 — 0

Cassadaga Valley/Falconer 6 6 13 0 — 25

CV/F–Abram 9 run (kick failed)

CV/F–Mower 9 run (run failed)

CV/F–Abram 13 run (run failed)

CV/F–Johnson 5 run (Pierce kick)

WOLFPACK BLANKS SALAMANCA

SALAMANCA — Gerrit Hinsdale was 9 of 12 for 158 yards and three touchdowns through the air as Clymer/Sherman/Panama beat Salamanca 40-0 in Class D action.

Connor Cooper ran eight times for 88 yards and two touchdowns while Cameron Barmore caught five passes for 103 yards and a touchdown for the Wolfpack (4-1, 2-1).

Zach Chase led the Clymer/Sherman/Panama defense with nine tackles and a fumble recovery; Barmore had six tackles, a sack and a forced fumble; and Jordan Svetz had six tackles and a sack. Matt White and Jarvis Bivins each recovered a fumble.

Salamanca (2-3, 1-3) had just 108 yards of total offense in the game.

Clymer/Sherman/Panama 13 21 6 0 — 40

Salamanca 0 0 0 0 — 0

C/S/P–Cooper 29 run (Svetz kick)

C/S/P–Swabik 11 pass from Hinsdale (kick failed)

C/S/P–Cooper 15 run (Svetz kick)

C/S/P–Overton 28 pass from Hinsdale (Svetz kick)

C/S/P–Barmore 9 pass from Hinsdale (Svetz kick)

C/S/P–Swabik 2 run (kick failed)

CARDINALS

HOLD OFF C-LV

CATTARAUGUS — Randolph (3-2) was able to hold off Cattaraugus-Little Valley (1-4) in Class D action on Friday night with a 34-22 win.

The Timberwolves would score two touchdowns in the final quarter of play on a short throw from Josh Halterman to Nick Williams and an 8-yard run by Nick Burroughs, but by that time the Cardinals were already too far ahead.

Isaac Hind finished off a 10-yard run to open up the scoring and Tyler Hind ripped off scoring runs from 29 and 4 yards out in the second quarter to give the visitors a cushion.

The Randolph defense extended that lead when Colton Holbrook returned a fumble 20 yards to paydirt.

Randolph 7 14 6 7 — 34

Cattaraugus-Little Valley 8 0 0 14 — 22

Ran–IHind 10 run (Brown kick)

C-LV –Furl 61 run (Burroughs run)

Ran–THind 29 run (run failed)

Ran–THind 4 run (pass failed)

Ran–Holbrook 20 fumble return 20 (Brown kick)

C-LV–Williams 3 pass from Halterman (Higgins run)

C-LV–Burroughs 8 run (pass failed)

FRANK, LOGEL

SHOW WAY

FRANKLINVILLE — Logan Frank ran for two touchdowns and passed for two more to highlight Franklinville/Ellicottville’s 46-0 victory over Section V Bolivar-Richburg in a nonleague game.

Nicholas Logel was on the receiving end of both Frank touchdown passes from 77 and 4 yards and he also recovered a blocked punt in the end zone for another score. Meanwhile, Tyler Clear and Clayton Rowland added a rushing TD apiece for the Titans (5-0, 4-0), who held a 320-84 edge in total offense.

The Titans led 26-0 after the first quarter and tacked on 13 points in the second period to put the game out of reach.

Bolivar-Richburg 0 0 0 0 — 0

Franklinville/Ellicottville 26 13 7 0 — 46

Fra–Nicholas Logel recovers blocked punt in end zone (Butler kick)

Fra–Frank run (kick fail)

Fra–Frank 10 run (Butler kick)

Fra–Logel 77 pass from Frank (run fail)

Fra–Rowland 15 run (pass fail)

Fra–Logel 4 pass from Frank (Butler kick)

Fra–Clear 16 run (Butler kick)