Leading off today: A pair of Section 5 teams ranked No. 1 in the first set of New York State Sportswriters Association ratings lost on Friday.
And that was only the half of it in Rochester/Genesee Valley region football. There's not enough ink at newspaper printing plants or enough terabytes on the video storage cards of television cameras to chronicle one of the area's most exciting and memorable nights of high school football.
In fact, it may have been Section 5's most dramatic evening of regular-season football so far this century and probably for a good chunk of the last century. With that in mind, we're starting the day with this Section 5-specific recap and will return later with more football from around the state as well as other notes from Friday sports action.
Victor cruises past Pittsford: Eighth-ranked Victor roared to the lead in the second quarter and dispatched Pittsford 42-15. A 21-yard pass from Clay Bleier to Andrew Russell with 37 seconds remaining in the half completed the winners' 28-point second quarter.
The Blue Devils had already edged 2015 state champ Aquinas in Week 1.
"I'm very excited," senior running back Mitch Spindler told the Democrat and Chronicle. "We've played quite a few tough teams now. We've put in the work to get the reward that we have. It's been a great ride so far."
Spindler ran for three touchdowns against Pittsford for his first varsity hat trick and finished with 137 rushing yards on 19 carries. The Victor offense piled up 294 yards on the ground.
Hornell wins in dramatic fashion ...: Hornell drove 80 yards to the winning score with :08 to play in defeating Class C leader Bath 22-20.
Caleb Burdett scored the game-winning touchdown on a 4-yard reception from Jake Weyand.
Bath was leading 20-15 midway through the fourth quarter when double disaster struck on what looked to be a 60-yard touchdown pass. A holding penalty that would have negated the TD anyway was declined and Hornell took the ball instead as the Bath receiver fumbled the ball through the end zone.
The Red Raiders then drove to the winning score.
... and so does Batavia: Ray Leach caught a 23-yard touchdown pass with :07 left to lift Batavia to a 30-26 win over University Prep at Rhinos Stadium in Rochester.
Batavia is ranked ninth in the state in Class B and UPrep is 15th.
Touchdowns by Jeenathan Williams on a 19 yard reception and Terrance Bethal on a 19-yard run gave UPrep the lead with 2:41 to play.
Jerry Reinhart (13-for-22, 182 yards, three touchdowns) then drove the Blue Devils to the winning touchdown.
Wild Class D shootout: Junior Trevor Smith scored all seven Cuba-Rushford touchdowns in a 45-42 victory over Avon, ranked sixth in Class D.
In two blowout wins to start the season, Smith rushed for 327 yards and eight touchdowns on 29 carries. Against the Braves, be rushed 23 times for another 327 yards and six TDs (four covering 40 or more yards). His seventh score came on a 45-yard interception return.
"He's a big part of our offense, and we hadn't got to show that a lot the first two weeks because we were trying to work on different aspects," C-R coach Chris Fee told The Times-Herald. "But I think this week you got to see how good of an athlete he is -- against a very good football team."
