(Photo credit: | Batavia’s Best)
| Tuesday, November 13, 2018 | BataviasBest.org
If you thought Ray Leach couldn’t get any better after scoring 6 touchdowns and rushing for over 300 yards in Batavia’s Section V Final win over Wayne, you were wrong. As a matter of fact, you were way wrong.
(Photo credit: | Batavia’s Best)
Leach went for 8 touchdowns and over 400 rushing yards in the Blue Devils’ first-ever win in the NYSPHSAA Class B Far West Regional, as they defeated Section VI representative Cheektowaga by a final score of 56-22.
“Ray Leach was a man-child out here,” said Batavia head coach Brennan Briggs after the win. “There’s no question about it, he’s the (Section V) Player of the Year in everybody’s mind – and should be. He’s a great football player.”
That might be the best way to describe Leach who looked like an absolute grown man playing amongst little children on Saturday night.
“It feels great,” said Leach about how it feels to put forth such an incredible effort. “Every play feels like it’s going to work.”
Here are videos of each of Leach’s scores on Saturday.
🏈 CLASS B FWR | Batavia v. Cheektowaga @SectionVFb @Sectionvi
•Batavia 7 Cheektowaga 0 11:06 1Q
•Blue Devils waste no time as Ray Leach is on for 6 in the blink of an eye @BHSScores #Football #SectionV pic.twitter.com/1J4Vi8MXa1
— Batavia's Best HS () November 10, 2018
🏈 CLASS B FWR | Batavia v. Cheektowaga @SectionVFb @Sectionvi
•Batavia 14 Cheektowaga 0 3:50 1Q
•Who else but Leach for his second score already tonight, Blue Devils up two TDs@BHSScores #Football #SectionV pic.twitter.com/Rc5zeZudzE
— Batavia's Best HS () November 10, 2018
🏈 CLASS B FWR | Batavia v. Cheektowaga @SectionVFb @Sectionvi
•Batavia 20 Cheektowaga 0 11:30 2Q
•The Warriors have no answers for Leach, he now has three TDs on that as the Blue Devils are rolling @BHSScores #Football #SectionV pic.twitter.com/ffmz8LYx78
— Batavia's Best HS () November 11, 2018
🏈 CLASS B FWR | Batavia v. Cheektowaga @SectionVFb @Sectionvi
•Batavia 27 Cheektowaga 0 11:16 2Q
•Cheektowaga fumbles the ensuing kickoff and Batavia makes it easy, Leach with 4@BHSScores #Football #SectionV pic.twitter.com/J0CBS9QJae
— Batavia's Best HS () November 11, 2018
🏈 CLASS B FWR | Batavia v. Cheektowaga @SectionVFb @Sectionvi
•Batavia 34 Cheektowaga 0 5:57 2Q
•I think everyone knows who scored this one so just watch and enjoy@BHSScores #Football #SectionV pic.twitter.com/lCLlrBMnIN
— Batavia's Best HS () November 11, 2018
🏈 CLASS B FWR | Batavia v. Cheektowaga @SectionVFb @Sectionvi
•Batavia 43 Cheektowaga 8 8:52 3Q
•Leach picks up where he left off, gashing the Warriors defense, he punched it in on the next play, Blue Devils back in control @BHSScores #Football #SectionV pic.twitter.com/fKjLNDReMR
— Batavia's Best HS () November 11, 2018
🏈 CLASS B FWR | Batavia v. Cheektowaga @SectionVFb @Sectionvi
•Batavia 49 Cheektowaga 14 4:35 3Q
•Ray Leach has 7 TDs and it doesn't appear he's slowing down anytime soon @BHSScores #Football #SectionV pic.twitter.com/WdrZfhgdtP
— Batavia's Best HS () November 11, 2018
🏈 CLASS B FWR | Batavia v. Cheektowaga @SectionVFb @Sectionvi
•Batavia 56 Cheektowaga 22 8:38 4Q
•One of the greatest individual games you'll ever see in HS football tonight, Ray Leach with his 8th TD on the ground, what a performance @BHSScores #Football #SectionV pic.twitter.com/dLKDO2lRgn
— Batavia's Best HS () November 11, 2018
Humble with his success, Leach credited his guys up front for clearing the way for him throughout the night.
“The line did great,” he said. “They opened up any hole that I needed.”
It truly was remarkable to watch the Batavia RB against Cheektowaga. As my compadre Mike Rose, who has done a great job with the Batavia in-game updates for the past several seasons, told me after the game: I don’t think I’ll ever see anything like it again.
In addition to his efforts offensively, Leach also led a supreme defensive effort from the Blue Devils with a big safety which served as the proverbial dagger in this one.
🏈 CLASS B FWR | Batavia v. Cheektowaga @SectionVFb @Sectionvi
•Batavia 36 Cheektowaga 0 4:16 2Q
•Ray Leach also plays defense, it’s a safety for the Blue Devils@BHSScores #Football #SectionV pic.twitter.com/2L1lRxReYF
— Batavia’s Best HS () November 11, 2018
“We knew we had to get after the quarterback,” replied Leach when asked about his team’s mindset defensively coming into this game. “He was the voice of their offense. We practiced all week on tackling low on the quarterback, (because) he’s a big kid. That’s all we had to do.”
And boy did they do it.
The Blue Devils’ defense held the Warriors attack to under 290 yards of total offense, as well as forcing the safety and two turnovers (1 FUM, 1 INT). LB Josh Barber, FS Ethan Biscaro, and LB Alex Rood did much of the damage for Batavia on that side of the ball.
“This group is a confident group,” said Briggs about his team. “They really did an excellent job out there tonight and I’m super proud of these guys.”
As I stated before, the Far West Regional game has been a bugaboo for this Batavia Football program, losing in their previous three tries – to Cheektowaga twice, and Dunkirk once. Moving forward, the Blue Devils will appear in the NYSPHSAA Final Four for the first time where they will meet Skaneatles out of Section III – who defeated Chenango Forks in their regional contest. The Lakers won the NYSPHSAA Class C Title in 2017 before moving up in classification this year.
“We just gotta get on the film and make sure we correct our mistakes, we made plenty tonight,” said Briggs to conclude his comments. “We’ll be ready to go (next week) and hopefully will put together a great week of practice.”
The NYSPHSAA Class B Semifinal between Batavia and Skaneatles will be played at Union-Endicott High School this Saturday at 3:00 pm.
