Matt Lee and the Alvirne team he coaches, shown last year after beating Central in the opener at Gill Stadium, repeated that on Friday night at Gill Stadium, 35-14. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

MANCHESTER — The Alvirne High School football team raced out to a 28-0 halftime lead and cruised over Manchester Central, 35-14, in its 2024 season-opener at Gill Stadium on Friday night.

Alvirne was nearly as perfect as the weather on this early-September night where the sun set seamlessly and the clouds kept at bay under ideal high 60s-low-70s conditions.

Bronco junior running back Michael Landmesser had three rushing touchdowns and 159 yards on 24 carries. Senior captain quarterback Charlie Crawford, back after a Week 3 broken collarbone sidelined him for the season last fall, came back with a bang: 9-for-13 and 138 yards with one rushing TD and one passing TD to Ryan Rocheleau (five catches, 83 yards).

That pretty much came in 2.5 quarters as Alvirne Coach Matt Lee sent in the reserves with a comfortable lead.

The game-changer? A 21-point second quarter that left the home crowd quiet and the visiting Broncos with a four-touchdown lead heading into the break as darkness descended into the Queen City night.

“I thought we played well and we won a game, but we’re not celebrating because we won one game,” Alvirne coach Matt Lee said. “You feel like, all right, we beat a good team, but we’ve got a lot more good teams down the line. … But we’re really proud of the guys.”

While Landmesser racked up 112 first-half yards on 15 carries and Broncos’ quarterback Crawford completed eight out of 12 passes for 124 yards, the defense was lights out in the opening 24 minutes, allowing just 88 total first-half yards.

Alvirne’s Shawn Boudreau pressured the QB all night, and his defensive mates were stellar. Lee cited Rocheleau in particular. Central’s five drives went nowhere in the first half, two of them dying in the red zone.

You could argue defensively the Alvirne Player of the Night was Jeremiah Yi, who had two interceptions. His first came early in the second quarter when the Little Green hosts had the ball on Alvirne’s 3-yard line on a first-and goal and only down, 7-0. He picked off Caydin Salvi’s pass in the end zone and raced to the 30-yard line.

“That’s a terrible play call by me,” said Manchester Central Coach Ryan Ray, his team trying to turn things around after going 2-9 last year, including a 45-7 loss here to the Broncos in that season’s opener. “We did a great job getting down inside the 3-yard, and then a bad, bad play call by the head coach. And that was definitely a turning point.

” … You can’t take any credit away from Alvirne. They are a really good team right now. And when you play a really good team, you can’t make mistakes.”

In the opening quarter, Alvirne drove methodically down the field and scored on its first drive. The nine-play drive culminated in Landmesser’s 16-yard touchdown run up the gut on a fourth-and-1.

Alvirne stopped Central inside the red zone on its first drive but quickly turned the ball back over when Kole Preston intercepted a Crawford pass.

To start the second quarter, Central took it to the 3-yard line of Alvirne but failed to capitalize because of Yi’s interception in the end zone.

Alvirne did cash in on the first Yi pick when quarterback Crawford dashed in untouched from the 1-yard line on a keeper with 7:56 left in the first half for a 14-0 lead.

After his earlier interception, Crawford was on a mission. He himself had the big play on the drive – a 36-yard connection in the air to Boudreau that brought the Broncos to the Central 10-yard line.

“He’s such a good athlete, but he’s been an injury-plagued kid his whole career,” Lee said of Crawford. “He’s just a great kid, great student, All-American kid. It’s nice having him back.”

Crawford again on the visitors’ next drive was on fire. He went 3-for-3 for 40 yards, the last five of those yards going to his favorite target of the night — Rocheleau, who caught the 5-yard TD pass for a 20-0 lead. The receiver had four catches for 68 yards alone in the 21-point second quarter. Boudreau was 5-for-5 on PAT kicks and was living in or near the end zone on his kickoffs all night.

Broncos’ two-way lineman Andrew Deely went down with a dislocated elbow near end of first half for Alvirne and did not return. Deely was part of an offensive line crew that helped pave the way for the offensive onslaught along with Cam Steed, Shayne Mackey, Liam Bowie and Devin Scott.

Manchester Central gave the home crowd some life in the third quarter. A bad snap on Alvirne’s first punt attempt put the hosts on the 10-yard line inside of eight minutes, and Trevor Wong raced in on the next play to cut the lead to 28-6.

Alvirne’s Chris Darbe had an interception in the fourth quarter. The Broncos take on Salem next Friday in their home opener at 7 p.m. in Hudson.