WILLIAMSVILLE — On Halloween night, the Grand Island rushing attack gave Williamsville North nightmares en route to an upset win.
Running back Dominic Nucci and quarterback Anthony Mantione combined for 217 rushing yards to lead No. 8 Grand Island to a 28-7 road win over the top-seeded Spartans in the Section VI Class A quarterfinals.
“It doesn’t matter what the seeding is, we don’t think too much about that,” said Grand Island head coach Dean Santorio. “A playoff win always feels good.”
After a slow start offensively with back-to-back three-and-outs, the Vikings found themselves trailing 7-6 at halftime with their lone score coming on an 11-yard touchdown pass from Mantione to tight end Aiden Galligan late in the second quarter.
Grand Island knew the game was there for the taking in the second half, and its dynamic rushing duo came out hungry.
Nucci capped off a lengthy Grand Island drive to open the second half with a 4-yard touchdown. Then, two plays after Santino Favorite intercepted Will North quarterback AJ Weissenburg, Mantione sprinted in for a 23-yard score that put the Vikings up 22-7.
The 16-point sequence turned the game on its head in under two minutes.
“I think our guys loosened a little (after the first touchdown drive),” Santorio said. “Once we got the run game going, and we started feeling comfortable, it just started clicking. … It’s just a matter of believing in what you do.”
Defensively, the Vikings were dominant, holding the Will North offense scoreless and to just over 100 total yards. The Spartans’ lone touchdown came on a 30-yard punt return by Eamon Mouyeos in the first quarter.
After a Mantione fumble gave the Spartans a lifeline late in the third quarter, the Vikings defense came up with a huge stop on fourth down in the red zone to take back possession. On the ensuing drive, Grand Island marched down the field once again, killing over seven minutes of clock and capping it off with a 15-yard Mantione rushing score that all but sealed the win.
Mantione finished with a career-high 120 rushing yards to go with his three total touchdowns, an impressive playoff debut for the sophomore quarterback in his first year as Grand Island’s starter. For Nucci, a four-year starter who was previously 0-3 in the playoffs before Friday, he could not be prouder to have Mantione at the helm.
“He’s a dog,” said Nucci, who tacked on three tackles for loss on defense in addition to his strong rushing performance. “He has that mentality that just, he won’t go down first contact, he won’t go down the fifth contact, and he drags piles more than I do sometimes.”
Fresh off their first playoff win since 2019, the Vikings will now face a familiar foe in No. 4 McKinley in the semifinals. The Macks defeated the Vikings 28-14 one week ago in a game Grand Island led at halftime.
McKinley is led by a formidable rushing attack of its own between quarterback Kalaugn Ford and running back Anthony Moore III, both of whom have eclipsed 1,000 yards rushing on the season.
Santorio knows his defense will have their hands full to pull out a win and a trip to Highmark Stadium for the Class A final, but he’s confident they can avenge their loss by focusing on one straightforward, albeit tricky, task: bring down Ford.
“We really think we played a pretty good ball game, but you got to tackle (Ford) a little better,” Santorio said of Grand Island’s first matchup against the Macks. “I don’t care if he’s a quarterback, running back, receiver, he’s probably the best pure runner around. … If you tackle the kid, you’ll be alright. If you don’t tackle him, you’re not going to be alright.”
The semifinal matchup between Grand Island and McKinley is set to be played at All-High Stadium, but the date and time has yet to be finalized.