BATAVIA – The Batavia football team had a chance to get healthy Friday night.
The Bulldogs sat a number of injured starters and ran roughshod over West Chicago, stuffing the stat sheet in a 48-7 win.
Just as it did in a win against Streamwood last week, Batavia rested regulars and won easily, scoring on five of its six first-half possessions in the easy victory against the winless Wildcats.
First-quarter touchdown runs from Anthony Scaccia (49 yards), Micah Coffey (7) and offensive lineman-turned-fullback Mitchell Krusz (5) provided an early cushion as Batavia (4-1) limited West Chicago (0-5) to just 38 yards of total offense in the first half.
Batavia coach Dennis Piron was happy that his team was able to spread the ball around both on the ground and in the air.
“The main thing is we wanted to come out fast and play great football in the first half,” Piron said. “These kids had a great work of practice and were obviously the superior football team. I’m really pleased with how Micah leads us, how explosive Scaccia is and how dominant our offensive line was.”
Coffey finished the first half strong, completing 12 of 19 passes for 173 yards, 36 coming on a touchdown pass to Jordan Zwart that gave the Bulldogs a 35-0 lead.
Batavia’s defense was equally impressive against the run-first Wildcats, limiting West Chicago to 31 rushing yards in the first half.
Batavia defenders were usually in the area when the Wildcats threw the ball, forcing West Chicago quarterback Jordan Lelito to throw two interceptions to Michael Moffatt.
Moffatt said the Batavia coaching staff has challenged the Bulldogs’ defense of late, pushing them to step up their effort.
Batavia responded, permitting only a late fourth-quarter touchdown when all of its starters were out of the game.
“Last week, I let up a deep ball, so coach talked to me about it and that I needed to wake up in games like this that are less intense,” Moffatt said. “Before the game, coach talked to us and said our defense wasn’t playoff ready and that we needed to show that that wasn’t true.”
Batavia forced the running clock on its first offensive play of the second half as Blake Crowder went straight through the middle of the line, going untouched for an 83-yard touchdown that put Batavia up, 41-0.
With Coffey taking the entire second half off, back-up quarterback Evan Acosta took advantage, finishing 3 for 4 passing for 38 yards while scoring a 1-yard touchdown run to account for Batavia’s final score that made it 48-0.
Like Coffey, Scaccia played only the first half but was dominant, carrying the ball eight times for 108 yards and a score.
BATAVIA 48, WEST CHICAGO 7
Batavia 21 14 7 7 – 48
West Chicago 0 0 7 0 – 7
HOW THEY SCORED First quarter BA – Scaccia 49 run (Aharoni kick), 11:12 BA – Coffey 7 run (kick failed), 5:41 BA – Krusz 5 run (2-pt good), 2:36 Second quarter BA – Moneghini 1 run (Aharoni kick), 10:47 BA– Zwart 36 pass from Coffey (Aharoni kick), 7:14 Third quarter BA – Crowder 82 run (kick failed), 8:38 WC – Ott 21 pass from Lelito (King kick), 0:00 Fourth quarter BA – Acosta 1 run (Aharoni kick), 5:13
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING – Batavia: Scaccia 8-108, Coffey 3-11, Krusz 1-5, Moneghini 1-1, Crowder 4-88, Green 1-13, Clark 1-1, Acosta 1-1. Totals: 20-228. West Chicago: Lazzerini 21-56, J. Lelito 5- minus 8, C. Lelito 2-1, Eckler 1 minus 2. Totals: 31-47. PASSING – Batavia: Coffey 12-19-173, Acosta 3-4-38. West Chicago: J. Lelito: 4-10-2-50, Sturm 0-3-0. RECEIVING – Batavia: Moffatt 2-21, Scaccia 2-19, Zwart 3-81, Green 3-41, Mullins 2-11, Siemsen 2-26, Berry 1-12. West Chicago: Ott 2-25, C. Lelito 1-3 Thakkar 1-22, TOTAL YARDS – Batavia 439, West Chicago 97