As it turned out, the Hillbillies definitely gave the Wildcats the business, rolling to a 43-22 quarterfinal victory.

A week after quarterback Ethan Fry called the Hillbillies “the best offense in New York,” he and his offense backed up the talk against Depew.

“This just proves my point,” said Fry. “We were explosive. … We came in here and handled our business.”

Fry completed 12-of-17 passes for 232 yards and four touchdowns. He added 77 yards rushing on seven carries.

OBSERVER Photo by Ashleigh Brown The Hillbillies’ Jameson Quinn jumps to catch a pass in front of Krystoff.

Jameson Quinn led the Hillbillies in receiving with four catches for 124 yards and touchdowns. Keegan Whitfield had six catches for 91 yards and a touchdown.

Micah Davis led Fredonia in rushing with 105 yards on 18 carries with two touchdowns.

“Our offense hasn’t been stopped yet,” said Fredonia head coach Greg Sherlock. “I’ve said that all year, if we’ve been stopped on offense, it’s because we stopped ourselves. It’s going to take a special defense to do it.”

But as much as the skill position players stood out on Friday night, the offensive line was just as dominant.

“People need to take more notice of our line. Those guys in the trenches, if you watch the film, they are dominating their guys up front,” said Sherlock. “When someone dominates our line, we’re going to lose a game and those guys aren’t going to have those stats.”

OBSERVER Photo by Ashleigh Brown Fredonia’s Keegan Whitfield looks for room to run during Friday’s Section VI Class C quarterfinal at Depew.

Davis agrees that his performance is thanks in part to the guys up front.

“Our line leads us. We’ve got solid tackles, we’ve got solid guards, we’ve got a solid center,” said Davis. “Everything I do is because of the line.”

The Hillbillies jumped out to an early lead after a 10-yard touchdown run by Davis just more than four minutes into the game. With just over two minutes left in the opening quarter, Fredonia doubled its lead on a 36-yard touchdown pass from Fry to Quinn on a slant over the middle.

Davis added a second touchdown of the half on the ground on a 7-yard run with 4:18 left in the second quarter to increase the lead to 21-0. Shortly before the half expired, Fry hit Brandon Wronski for a 9-yard touchdown. After a 2-point conversion, Fredonia took a 29-0 lead into the intermission.

Depew scored on its first drive of the second half, but on the next play for the Fredonia offense, Fry hit Quinn for a 65-yard touchdown on another slant over the middle. Quinn beat the cornerback off the line and was gone from the second he caught the pass.

“Our offense is so potent, you saw it on Jameson’s slant there,” Davis said of the big play. “We can score at any time and any point on the field.”

The Hillbillies put the exclamation point on the victory on fourth-and-3 from the Depew 43-yard line, as Fry ran a quarterback sweep as a run-pass-option play, then set his feet once he got to the edge to deliver a pass to Whitfield in single coverage downfield. The 43-yard play followed by an extra point put the Hillbillies ahead 43-6 late in the third quarter and put the game to bed.

Fredonia now heads to No. 1 Medina next week for a rematch of the Class C championship game from a year ago at Highmark Stadium. Medina defeated Eden/North Collins 48-7 on Friday.

“It’s all about performance. We’ve just got to execute. We have what we need,” said Davis.

“We’re definitely taking this game personal,” said Fry of facing Medina again. “We know how it last year. … It’s going to be different this year.”

Fredonia 14 15 14 0 — 43

Depew 0 0 6 16 — 22

Fre–Davis 10 run (Tabone kick)

Fre–Quinn 36 pass from Fry (Tabone kick)

Fre–Davis 7 run (Tabone kick)

Fre–Wronski 9 pass from Fry (Davis run)

Dep–Khalil 4 run (kick failed)

Fre–Quinn 65 pass from Fry (Tabone kick)

Fre–Whitefield 43 pass from Fry (Tabone kick)