Football season openers for Wellsville, Bolivar-Richburg halted due to severe weather Friday night; both teams currently lead in 2nd quarter of contests
* Additional reporting on Pembroke/Wellsville by John Anderson *
WELLSVILLE/BOLIVAR — The 2024 Wellsville Lions are on a mission to stop the talk about the past 12 years without a winning record. During that time, the program dropped from 11-man to 8-man football. But with good numbers and a roster filled with athletes, there is hope and optimism as the 2024 season opened, Friday night.
Wellsville, 2-6 a year ago, was taking on the defending New York State 8-man Champions from Pembroke. The Dragons downed the Lions, 71-42 last season.
But the Lions were young and there has been a commitment to the weight room and buying into second-year coach Tim Keenan's program.
While the Lions and Dragons barely played a half on Friday night, the new-look Lions showed why football is back. Wellsville leads Pembroke, 8-6 with four minutes left in the first half. The Lions drove down to the Pembroke 13-yard-line when lightning stopped play.
Keenan said the athletic directors are looking into a new starting time, but with a shortage of referees, playing this weekend might be a tall order.
Wellsville lost the coin flip but took the opening drive to the 2-yard-line. On a 4th-and-goal from the 2, Pembroke's Caleb Felski, Octavius Martin and Madden Perry made a huge stop and the Dragons took over with momentum.
Just as Pembroke's first drive crossed into Wellsville territory, Wellsville linebacker Matt Ritter forced a fumble that was recovered by Trent Green. The Lions had another long drive, converting on three fourth downs, but Pembroke's Caleb Kimmel stepped up with some tough defensive plays.
As the second quarter started, junior quarterback Brennen Geffers hit Jack Davis, David Clark, Xander Outman and Green with passes. On a third down, Geffers connected with Jayvontay "J.J." Howard on a 21-yard touchdown strike. Geffers then hit Howard for the two-point conversion pass and an 8-0 Wellsville lead.
Ritter would force another fumble and the Lions took over again. However, once Pembroke got the ball back, Felski, a senior quarterback, ran a draw play for a 63-yard touchdown sprint. The Lions special teams forced another fumble, as Tyler Rahr, Clark and Damon Davis came up big. Another Pembroke drive was stalled as Outman, Bryce Davis, Terrence Benz, Gabe Black and Derek Coleman made tackles.
On the final offensive drive, runs by Outman and Coleman mixed in with passes had the Lions inside the red zone. The game should resume with Wellsville having a first down on the Pembroke 18. A referee saw lightning and blew the whistle after Green caught a pass from Geffers. Green ran from the 18 to the 15 where he dove down, but the whistle blew three yards earlier as he was going down and forward.
No reschedule date for the continuation of this game has been announced, as of yet.
Off to the west and over the summit from Wellsville, the Wolverines of Bolivar-Richburg were also in action for their first game of the season at Dunsmore-Latimer Field against the Holley Hawks. Across just over 20 minutes of play on the gridiron, the Wolverines currently hold a 24-16 lead with 2:54 remaining in the first half when torrential rain began to fall, forcing an early postponement of the action.
The Wolverines and Hawks will tentatively resume play right back in Bolivar on Tuesday at 5 p.m.
