Behind a 15-point first quarter from Brayden Smith, the Hornets jumped ahead early and never looked back in a 59-44 win against the Brocton Bulldogs in a non-league boys basketball game at Brocton High School on Friday night.

Brocton (0-1) scored the game’s first points just past the two-minute mark of the contest on a 3-pointer by Michael Garcia. Forestville (1-1) evened the score within a minute of play, then started to pull away.

The Hornets led 22-8 after the first quarter, as Smith had 15 points — 14 from the field and one point from the free-throw line. Many of his points came in transition after Forestville forced a turnover.

“We ran a press in a 1-3-1 against them, which I don’t think they were ready for,” said Forestville head coach Tom Dempsey. “That part of the game is what we did well.”

OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen Forestville’s Brayden Smith (3) defends as Brocton’s Michael Garcia (15) looks to receive a pass.

Smith finished with a game-high 23 points, with two in the second quarter and six in the second half.

“The turnovers led to transition points. … Brayden had a handful of points coming off steals for easy layups. We certainly made it easier on him and we need to make it easier on ourselves,” said Brocton head coach Collin Mulcahy.

The Bulldogs responded by outscoring the Hornets 12-5 in the second quarter, while holding Smith to just two points. The halftime deficit for the home Bulldogs was just seven points, 27-20.

“We made bad decisions and threw the ball away,” Dempsey said of his team’s performance in the second quarter.

In the third quarter, after neither team scored in the first 2:30 of the second half, Forestville began to pull away again with a 13-4 advantage in the period. The Hornets took a 40-24 lead into the fourth quarter and closed out the victory, despite allowing 20 points from the Bulldogs in the final frame.

“We actually did some things right,” Dempsey joked about his team’s second-half performance. “We put the ball in the basket.”

In addition to Smith’s game-high 23 points, Forestville got 13 points from Adam Pokoj and 10 points from Garrison Hemphill. Jackson Rebmann and Maxwell Vigue each added 5 points, while Joe Villafranca had 3 points.

The Bulldogs were led by Michael Garcia’s 13 points, including his game-opening 3-pointer. Nathan Laurito added 10 points for Brocton, while Kadin Ehmke had 7 points. Matt Steward had 4 points, Austin McIntyre had 3 points, and Jamie Wright, Jeremy Weisner and Donovan St. George all had 2 points each. Grant Gustafson also made the stat sheet as he split a pair of free throws in the first quarter.

Brocton found positives in that the final three quarters were only separated by one point on the scoreboard, and that the outburst by Smith in the first quarter equaled the difference in the final score.

“We’re growing together. It’s one game, we’ve got 19 more,” said Mulcahy. “The thing I’m most proud of is we played hard the entire game. For four quarters, the energy, the effort, our body language was fantastic.”

As the leader of a program that has struggled in recent years, Mulcahy was grateful for so many members of the community attending the season-opener Friday night.

“I appreciate all the support in the stands from the crowd. I know sometimes our gym hasn’t been as packed, but the support was fantastic,” said Mulcahy. “This community is fantastic. … I couldn’t be more proud of Brocton and being a member of the community.”

Each team travels to Falconer next, as Forestville takes on the Golden Falcons on Tuesday. Brocton heads to Falconer next Friday.

FORESTVILLE (59)

Smith 11 1 23, Pokoj 5 3 13, Hemphill 3 3 10, Rebmann 2 1 5, Vigue 2 0 5, Villafranca 1 1 3. Totals 24 9 59.

BROCTON (44)

Garcia 4 2 13, Laurito 3 4 10, Ehmke 2 3 7, Steward 1 2 4, McIntyre 1 1 3, Weisner 1 0 2, Wright 1 0 2, St. George 1 0 2, Gustafson 0 1 1. Totals 14 13 44.

3-point goals–Garcia 3, Hemphill, Vigue.

FORESTVILLE 22 5 13 19–59

BROCTON 8 12 4 20–44