FRANKLINVILLE — Another week, another checkmark in the Randolph football team’s quest to repeat atop the Section 6 Class D standings.
After defeating Clymer/Sherman/Panama 35-18 a week ago, the Cardinals faced their second straight test against perennial small-school contenders and passed with only a few missteps along the way. Randolph handed F/E its first loss of the season, 28-12, powered by another big game by the Cardinals’ senior tailback, Xander Hind.
Hind ran for 293 yards and two touchdowns on 36 carries (8.1 yards per attempt).
Randolph struck first with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Carson Conley to Jaiden Huntington — Conley’s only pass attempt of the night — to finish a 10-play opening drive.
While F/E had an impressive response, capped by a leaping touchdown run on a scramble by quarterback Gian Nuzzo to cut the lead to 8-6, Randolph had an immediate answer. On the second play of Randolph’s ensuing drive, Hind took a handoff 55 yards to the Titans’ end zone to rip back any momentum and give his team a two-score lead again.
Hind scored again on the following drive for a 22-6 lead. Randolph nearly added another before, but a trick play reminiscent of the “Philly Special” saw receiver Owen Nelson picked off by F/E’s Beau Bielecki in the end zone as time expired.
The reigning Big 30 Player of the Year, Hind carried the bulk of Randolph’s offensive output with 293 of its 371 total yards. Brown also commended Hind’s defense. The speedy, hard-hitting 5-foot-9, 185-pounder moved from linebacker to safety this season.
“He played a good game at safety tonight,” Brown said. “He came up, made a few good tackles. Their quarterback (Nuzzo) was definitely a threat and Xander kind of cleaned that up a few times.”
Randolph never punted in seven possessions, scoring four times and turning the ball over twice and holding the ball as time expired in the fourth. F/E’s Tyler Gibas pounced on a third-quarter fumble.
Hunter Smith led the F/E offense with 13 carries for 59 yards and a touchdown, gaining the bulk of his yardage on a fourth-quarter touchdown drive.
“Our guys could have come out and laid down in the second half and they didn’t, they continued to fight the whole game and we were real proud of the effort that they put out in the second half,” F/E coach Jason Marsh said. “If we can put a first half together, maybe we’ve got something going there. But the first half we made a few mistakes, we gave up that one long run. We were making them work for most of the night, but they broke a couple on us. But we’re proud of our guys’ effort. That’s a good football team and you’ve got to play a perfect game against them and we didn’t quite do that tonight.”
Smith led the F/E defense with nine tackles while Owen Chudy and Ben Brol ahd seven each.
Hind led Randolph with five tackles while Tristan Farnham had a sack.
Randolph already has two of the toughest league wins on hand, plus a Week 1 non-league win at Salamanca. The Cardinals won’t face Portville (3-0, 2-0) until the regular season finale Oct. 21. Brown doesn’t expect his team to slow down, regardless of the opponent.
“We’ve got stuff to work on still,” Brown said. “So it’s not like we’re just going to show up. When you get into some of those games and the kids have a tendency not to play full-speed and that’s when somebody gets hurt. So we will definitely be focused on keeping our intensity where it’s at, playing full speed because when you’ve got to play the games.”
F/E, meanwhile, has a clash with Portville next week in Ellicottville. Marsh’s team knows it must improve if it will compete for the sectional championship.
“Bottom line is if you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best and they’re the ones we’ve got to beat,” Marsh said of Randolph. “We know a lot of this goes through them. There’s a lot of good teams in our league: CSP is a good football team, Portville is a good football team and obviously Randolph is one of the best. We just know that’s the challenge that’s set forth for you. We know we have to be able to beat a team like that in order to move on and we’re still a work in progress. Hopefully we can find a few things to hit on and fix some things and catch a couple breaks along the way.”
