Forestville’s Javier West takes the ball up the court during Wednesday’s boys basketball game between the Forestville Hornets and the Brocton Bulldogs at Forestville High School. OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms.

FORESTVILLE — Wednesday night in Forestville was not just a regular boys high school basketball game between the Forestville Hornets and the Brocton Bulldogs. It was the “Love For Luca” benefit game that featured basket raffles and a 50/50 drawing that sent the proceeds to the family.

“Mrs. Buehler is a sixth grade teacher and her grandson passed away. Obviously they’re having a difficult time dealing with and coping with everything, we thought this would be a perfect opportunity to show our support,” stated Forestville head coach Jon Feniello.

Before the game started Forestville’s Javier West and Gavin Christian spoke to crowd and talked about the importance of the night and how it was to benefit Luca S. Calanni the local youth who recently passed away. Winning was certainly not the most important thing on the agenda Wednesday night, but the Forestville Hornets got one anyway to make it even sweeter, as the duo of West and Christian led the Hornets offensively to a 54-33 nonleague boys basketball victory.

The score was pretty close at halftime with Forestville leading 23-17, but the Hornets changed their defensive gameplan for the second half and went with an aggressive press that translated into a turnover after turnover for the visiting Bulldogs. Forestville outscored the Bulldogs 19-3 in the third quarter as they began to pull away.

“I thought we played really well for about the first sixteen minutes of the game,” stated Brocton head coach Collin Mulcahy. “Six point going into halftime, we were just having a tough time converting on the offensive end. Missed shots inside and just not finishing was our achilles heel tonight.”

Forestville seemed to be able to get the runs when Brocton was struggling and the leads that were built seemed like a mountain to climb for the struggling Bulldogs. Forestville opened the game with an 8-0 run, while Brocton’s first four points of the game had to come from the free throw line. Michael Steward finished the first quarter with a corner 3-pointer for Brocton to make the score 12-7 in favor of the Hornets.

Both team’s in the second quarter kept going to the long ball, as West hit two 3-pointers and Michael Palmer hit one for Forestville and Gabe Morello hit one for Brocton. Forestville’s defense and effort under the basket got stronger as the game went on and really started to pick up before halftime.

Dalton Hastings was an animal under the basket for the Hornets as he seemed to be in on every rebound, getting a total of 12 boards. Hastings cashed in with a few put backs and finished the evening with seven points, four steals and four blocks.

“It was a great game, it was a great cause that we did this for,” Forestville’s Dalton Hastings stated about the game. “I’m happy that we did this in Luca’s memory. I got a lot of blocks tonight, my boys played great on defense and I’m happy that we got it done on offense too.”

After the third quarter the Hornets had a significant lead over Brocton, 42-20. Forestville continued to apply pressure offensively, but began subbing to the bench for minutes. Christian led the team with 19 points while West had 12 points.

Despite trailing by double-digits the entire second half, Brocton’s effort never stopped. The Bulldogs had their most productive quarter in the final period, but came up short 54-33. While they did lose by 21, the young Brocton roster played one of their better defensive games after giving up 65 points plus in the last three games.

The Bulldogs are back in action tonight when they host Clymer and Forestville plays Franklinville on Friday.

Forestville Jayvees won 58-21.