The 6-foot-1, 275-pound senior was not at his customary right tackle position, but it was time to have some fun.

As Rush took the snap, fellow senior lineman Tyler Kuzdale leaked into the left flat as an eligible receiver and was wide open as Rush found him for the conversion to give the Hillbillies a 34-13 lead over Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton.

From there, Fredonia rolled over the Thunderbirds en route to a 59-19 victory to cap the season and careers of 19 Hillbillies seniors.

“I think this says a lot about the kids who stuck it out,” Fredonia head coach Greg Sherlock said. “We know how this works when you don’t make the regular playoffs. They think they have nothing else to play for, but I give a lot of credit to the seniors we’ve had around for the last three or four years because they are the ones who carried the attitude all the way through this and made sure kids didn’t take anything lightly.”

Fredonia’s Davion White (2) tries to bring down Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton’s Carson Fairbank. P-J photo by Ashleigh Brown

The Funke Bowl trophy wasn’t the hardware Fredonia envisioned itself holding at the end of the 2023 season, but was still a positive conclusion to what became a tumultuous campaign for the Hillbillies.

Running behind seniors Rush, Kuzdale and Simon Price as well as juniors Colin Crowell and Ian Storey, senior Sam Atrzrott ran 17 times for 230 yards and two touchdowns, while Brady Helmer, Jameson Quinn, Davion White, Donovan Dowdy and Ben LaGrow each added a touchdown run for Fredonia.

“This has probably been the best three years Fredonia has ever had. That line, you’d be hard-pressed to find a line better than what we had,” Sherlock said. ” … Even when we had six starters out, we ran for 250 yards at Salamanca. That’s the line.”

Helmer scored on a 2-yard run and Atzrott added a 54-yard score as the Hillbillies led 12-0 after the first quarter. The lead grew to 20-0 on the second play of the second quarter when Atzrott scored on a 24-yard run on fourth-and-6.

Asher Olson got the Thunderbirds on the board with just over eight minutes remaining in the second quarter on a 70-yard interception return for a touchdown, but Fredonia answered on a 30-yard touchdown pass from Dowdy to Quinn.

On the next play from scrimmage, Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton quarterback Brayden Gibbs connected with Carson Fairbank for a 59-yard touchdown pass and after the Thunderbirds defense got a stop, it looked like they may make a game of it.

“I thought those reps going into next year were huge. … We’re going to build on this and get back to work tomorrow,” Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton head coach Ryan Gibbs said. “Our skill guys since March have been doing really well, but we need the big fellows in. To see this group of seniors from Fredonia dominate for a long time gave our linemen something to shoot for.”

But White picked off Gibbs on Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton’s next play and returned it 67 yards for a touchdown. That’s when Rush and Kuzdale connected on their 2-point conversion to make it 34-13 with 4:16 left in the first half.

“We put that in this week. These kids have been on me all year. … Owen Rush has been a first-team All-Western New York baseball player. He’s a big boy, but he’s very talented,” Sherlock said. “It was nice to see the center leak out. … We had a problem with the snap, then it was the throw, then it was making sure Ty actually got into the end zone. … There was nobody near him. He probably had 20 yards. I was worried the ball would hang up or he would sit open too long.”

White tacked on a 1-yard touchdown run before Dowdy, Quinn and LaGrow had second-half touchdowns to make it 59-13.

The Thunderbirds created some good vibes heading into the offseason when Mason Whitesell ran for an 8-yard touchdown on their final offensive play of the season.

“The word for the day was finish. … I thought we did that,” Coach Gibbs said. “The third quarter wasn’t pretty, but in the fourth quarter I thought we finished.”

After Sherlock talked to the team at midfield, Fredonia honored its seniors by having them run through a tunnel of underclassmen and then taking care of their equipment at the end of the night.

Rush was the biggest senior out there. Both literally and figuratively.

“You don’t replace Owen … but he’ll be the first to tell you we have some good linemen coming back,” Sherlock said. “They wanted to win. They got up early and we’re able to enjoy the whole experience of it being the last game. Only the state champ is going to win their last game, other than having these bowls.”

NOTES: Dowdy completed four passes for 87 yards and a touchdown with Mike Hahn catching three passes for 57 yards. LaGrow ran five times for 79 yards and a touchdown. … Whitesell ran 15 times for 78 yards and a touchdown. Gibbs was 12 of 26 for 199 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions. Mikail Lawrence caught four passes for 58 yards and Fairbank caught four for 81 yards and a touchdown.

Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton 0 13 0 6 — 19

Fredonia 12 28 12 7 — 59

Fre–Helmer 2 run (pass failed)

Fre–Atzrott 54 run (run failed)

Fre–Atzrott 20 run (Field pass from Dowdy)

CL/W/B–Olson 70 interception return (Fairbank kick)

Fre–Quinn 30 pass from Dowdy (kick failed)

CL/W/B–Fairbank 59 pass from Gibbs (kick failed)

Fre–White 67 interception return (Kuzdale pass from Rush)

Fre–White 1 run (kick failed)

Fre–Dowdy 5 run (pass failed)

Fre–Quinn 68 run (pass failed)

Fre–LaGrow 16 run (Czekanski kick)

CL/W/B–Whitesell 8 run (pass failed)