CAZENOVIA – For the Cazenovia football team, just having a season during the 2020-21 school year was a triumph unto itself, given the uncertainty that persisted throughout the fall and winter.
So it was ironic that the season’s final game, at Buckley-Volo Field Wednesday afternoon, involved the kind of chilly temperatures and snow in the air more common to late fall than to spring.
Cazenovia lost, 21-7, to Skaneateles in a rematch of the March 31 opener at Hyatt Stadium, with that other group of Lakers able to complete an undefeated season by building upon its 18-0 victory in that initial encounter.
Doing a better job moving the ball than it did a few weeks earlier, Cazenovia picked up 162 total yards. Peter McCole was responsible for much of it, gaining 66 yards on 15 carries.
A.J.Rothfeld threw for 48 yards on four of 11 completions while running for 48 yards, but did a lot more damage on defense, recording 17 tackles, four of them for losses, and assisting on 11 others.
Jack Byrnes added six tackles and three assists, with Jedrek Olkowski and Pat Livingston each getting five tackles as Hunter Pickard finished with four tackles. Patrick Linck earned an interception.
Rothfeld accounted for Cazenovia’s lone touchdown on a one-yard sneak in the fourth quarter, with Byrtnes adding the extra point, but that only came after Skaneateles had built a 21-0 advantage.
James Musso led the visitors, completing 11 of 18 passes for 151 yards and scoring on a 41-yard scramble, while Grayson Brunelle churned up 185 yards on 34 carries and one TD.
Cazenovia finished at 1-3 overall, its lone victory over Solvay, who had beaten the Lakers in the opening round of the 2019 Section III Class B playoffs. Just four months from now, the Lakers hope to be practicing again for a proper fall sesaon in September and October.
