Two games in, Fredonia sure appears to be right where it belongs.

For the second time this week, Fredonia blew out a Class A foe. Thanks to an overwhelming first quarter, Fredonia’s successful opening week finished with a 64-40 win over the Cheektowaga Chargers at Dods Hall on the campus of SUNY Fredonia.

“If nothing else, I think it sends a message to ourselves that we can compete. I’m not worried about what other people are thinking,” Fredonia head coach Nick Bertrando said.

Fredonia (2-0) waited nearly two minutes to score its first points of the game, with Cheektowaga (0-1) up 2-0 just past the 90-second mark. Fredonia’s first point was a Donovan Dowdy free throw, as he split the pair by making the second. Dowdy also made Fredonia’s first shot from the field, with 4:44 left in the first quarter, to lead 3-2.

OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen Fredonia’s Donovan Dowdy (2) surveys the defense during Friday’s nonleague boys basketball game against the Cheektowaga Chargers at SUNY Fredonia.

While Fredonia waited a bit to get going, once a few buckets dropped, the floodgates opened. The Hillbillies finished the quarter with 20 consecutive points, including several fastbreak layups, paced by the defense of R.J. Koopman.

“Our defense all around was really good. Throughout the whole game we were talking really well,” Koopman said. “… It was a great first quarter for us. We knew what we had to do.”

Bertrando agreed that the defense led to the offensive output in the first quarter. “Honestly it was our defense. We executed what we wanted to pretty well on the defensive end, and those turnovers helped us get into our offensive flow,” Bertrando said.

The quarter ended with a flurry, as a run of 11 points in 1:40 was punctuated by a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Max Cuthbert that banked off the glass.

“I was pumped,” Koopman said of the shot from his teammate.

The shots stopped falling for the Hillbillies in the second quarter, but Dowdy kept Fredonia afloat with seven of the team’s eight points in the period.

Despite being outscored 12-8 in the second quarter by Cheektowaga, Fredonia still held a comfortable 28-14 lead at halftime. Dowdy led all scorers with 11 points in the first half, while Koopman had seven.

“We sort of fizzled out a little bit in the second quarter and hit a little bit of a lull,” Bertrando said. “I told the guys at halftime that I wasn’t upset about the second quarter, because we got looks. … The fact that we were getting those was a positive.”

Fredonia pulled away in the third quarter, and Koopman was the biggest reason why. Fredonia’s point guard had 12 points in the third quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers, in a 22-11 third period for the Hillbillies. Fredonia doubled up Cheektowaga through three quarters, 50-25.

“It wasn’t our best shooting night overall, but once we started clicking, it just felt good,” Koopman said.

Colin Luce scored six of his 12 points on the night in the fourth quarter as the Hillbillies finished off the contest for a second win of more than 20 points in three nights, following Wednesday’s 66-44 win over Lake Shore.

Koopman led all scorers on the night with 21 points, but he also managed nine steals in the contest. He also had seven rebounds and three assists. Koopman shifted from shooting guard to the point this season after Luca Gullo graduated. From an acrobatic finger roll in the first quarter to several flashy passes throughout the night, Koopman certainly seemed comfortable in his new spot.

“I don’t practice those in practice. Bertrando doesn’t love to see those,” Koopman joked about the highlight reel plays he made on Friday. “When I feel the moment, I just do it, and it turns out well.”

Dowdy finished with 17 points, eight rebounds, and five assists on the night for Fredonia. Luce had 12 points on 6-for-10 shooting.

Playing at Dods Hall was nothing new to Fredonia, as Bertrando makes an effort to play in college gyms as much as possible during the regular season. He schedules with the end goal of winning a Section VI championship in mind, so that his team is ready when the postseason comes.

“We’ve always been big proponents here to not have a cupcake non-league schedule and to really challenge ourselves early in the hopes that down the road, that will really pay big dividends,” Bertrando said. “We always talk about beginning with the end in mind.”

Up next, the Hillbillies host another Class A school, the Charter School for Applied Technologies, on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in the first game of the year held at Fredonia High School.