by Warren Kozireski
Trailing 21-0 at halftime, running back Geoffrey Dear had two consecutive long first down touchdowns runs to bring Spencerport to within a touchdown, but fell short to Victor 34-24 in high school football.
Victor scored on its first two possessions for a 14-0 advantage before the Rangers had a 13-play drive, including a key fourth down pass for 21 yards from quarterback Brian Gerringer to Trent Egenlauf, stopped on a fourth down fumble at the Blue Devils 30 yard line.
The Blue Devils quickly drove down the field and scored with just 32 seconds remaining in the first half.
Spencerport received the second half kickoff and Dear ran off left tackle for a 62 yard touchdown for their first points. A fumbled snap squelched the extra point attempt.
The Rangers defense used that momentum swing to hold Victor to a three-and-out before Dear, again on first down, took a pitch and scampered down the right sideline for 85 yards and another touchdown – his second in 1:59 of play. The two-point conversion pass from Gerringer to Brett Renzi closed the deficit to just seven points.
The Rangers recovered a fumble at midfield on Victor’s next possession, but could not get any closer on their next three trips on offense.
That allowed Victor to score twice more in the fourth quarter to pull away.
“Turnovers destroyed us like it did in the first game,” Spencerport head coach John Dowd said. “We moved the ball, but so far this year we are mistake-laden.”
Dear finished with a team-high 187 yards rushing on 13 carries while Egenlauf finished with 99 yards rushing on 18 carries and added five solo tackles and seven assisted tackles on defense as the Rangers fell to 0-2.
9/22/13
