In a see saw scoring battle, the HFL Cougars held on to a 1 point lead with one minute remaining in Friday night’s matchup against the Batavia Blue Devils. Both teams entered the game at 5-0.
HFL got on the board first late in the first quarter, quarterback Brody Young connecting with Nolan Smith to make it 6-0. Batavia answered with an Aiden Anderson touchdown run to make the score 6-7. Later in the first quarter, Javin McFollins recovered a fumble and later capitalized catching a long pass from Jesse Reinhart in the endzone to make the score 12-7, Carter McFollins scored on the two point conversion and the Blue Devils were up 14-7 at the end of the first quarter.
In the second, Aiden Anderson had a 55 yard run to put Batavia up 20-7. HFL’s Zach Meacham responded with 17 seconds remaining in the half to bring the Cougars within 7 points. HFL did not waste anytime, at the start of the third quarter, Benjamin Carson caught a nice pass and made his way to the endzone to bring the Cougars within one point, 20-19.
Kicker Xavier Carbonel made the extra point to tie the game at 20-20.
Later in the third quarter, Jesse Reinhart snuck in a quarterback keeper to make the score 26-20, but the extra point was no good. In the 4th quarter, the Cougar’s Zach Meacham tied the score after catching a pass from Brody Young and running it in to tie the score at 26-26. Kicker Xavier Carbonel came on to kick the extra point.
With one minute remaining in the game, HFL’s James Killenbee broke up the last pass play attempt to the endzone, tipping a Jesse Reinhart pass away from Javin McFollins. The final score was 27-26, HFL over Batavia. Next week, Batavia will travel to Newark for a Saturday afternoon game.
