Just 1-7 a season ago, the Bishop Grimes appears well on its way to major improvement in 2009.
At the very least, head coach Brad Keysor’s Cobras have matched last autumn’s win total, having done so Friday night at Cato-Meridian by erasing a halftime deficit and beating the Blue Devils 37-24. From the very start, Grimes has been competitive, nearly making a fourth-quarter comeback in its Sept. 5 opener before falling to New York Mills 26-20. Neciefe Reddick’s pair of second-quarter touchdowns had Grimes ahead of the Marauders 14-12 at halftime, but Mills used 14 third-quarter points reclaim a 26-14 edge. Dave Campese’s TD pass to Tavon Moore in the late stages pulled Grimes within six, but Mills held on. Six days later, much the same kind of game took place at Cato-Meridian – only it was the Cobras making the big second-half move with a near-perfect offensive balance. Twice in the first half, Campese found Moore for TD passes, the latter a 15-yard connection.
In between, Cato got on the board with Joe Gray’s 85-yard kickoff return for a score. That, plus Joey Giuffrida’s TD run and a pair of two-point conversions, allowed the Blue Devils to go to the break ahead of the Cobras 16-15. Campese continued to move the ball with regular efficiency in the second half, completing 11 of the 22 passes he attempted for 184 yards as Grimes put together three scoring drives. All those times, Darrel West got to finish, scoring all three of the Cobras’ second-half touchdown, two of them with five-yard runs, and also with a one-yard run. In fact, West had lots of chances to carry the ball. Behind the blocking of Andrew Lasnicki, John Smith and Ben Riddley, West carried the ball 32 times for 197 yards. Grimes returns home Saturday to face Weedsport at 1 p.m. The Warriors have started 2-0, having beaten Port Byron 21-12 in its last outing.