Batavia overwhelms St Charles East

Updated: September 23, 2011 11:59PM

Nothing gets under the skin of a defense quicker than giving up a touchdown.

So when St. Charles East did exactly that early in the second quarter Friday night at Bulldog Stadium, Batavia’s defense got its dander up.

“I think that’s the first touchdown we’ve given up in the first half this year, and they (the Bulldogs’ defense) were pretty upset,” coach Dennis Piron said.

That turned out to be a good thing for Batavia (5-0, 2-0 in the Upstate Eight River).

The Saints could do nothing the rest of the game and Batavia rolled to a 43-7 victory.

Yes, Batavia’s offense also had a magnificent outing for homecoming. Senior quarterback Noel Gaspari picked apart the St. Charles East secondary to the tune of 12 of 20 for 247 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Gaspari, who connected with six different receivers, tossed touchdown passes of 20 yards to Evan Zeddies and 11 yards to Cole Gardner and hooked up with Jon Gray four times for 114 yards, including a 52-yard bomb.

Alec Lyons also had a night to remember. One of the leaders of that nasty defense, Lyons scored on runs of 1 and 2 yards.

Still, the Saints (0-5, 0-3) came to play. After scoring their second-quarter touchdown, with the help of three 15-yard penalties on the Bulldogs, the Saints trailed only 10-7.

“Part of those penalties are our aggressiveness and that will happen,” Piron said. “I take my hat off to those kids. They’ve come to play all year long and their speed and the way they move to the ball makes it difficult (for opponents) to deal with.”

Batavia intercepted three passes, blocked one punt, partially blocked another punt and recorded a safety when the snap sailed into the end zone where punter Chris Segretto recovered it and was immediately swarmed by the Bulldogs.

All in all, it was just the type of homecoming you’d script.

“Homecoming week in any program is a week you always fear as a coach because there’s so much going on (and) you use a lot of energy. So, you’re really concerned,” Piron said.

All that was really needed was take the leashes off that defense.

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