CENTRAL NEW YORK – From turnovers to penalties to dropped passes, many different things went wrong for the Cazenovia football team in Friday night’s key Class C-1 division game at Marcellus.
Yet the Lakers demonstrated patience and resilience, storming back to prevail 28-21 over the Mustangs, stay undefeated and prove that it can with with far from its best performance.
Not until late in the fourth quarter, when J.P. Hoak fired a 27-yard touchdown pass to Jack Byrnes with 4:15 to play, did Cazenovia ever lead in this game, one where, for much of the night, it did not resemble the state’s no. 3-ranked Class C squad.
Christian Schug had muffed a punt on his own 10-yard line in the game’s opening minutes, with Jacob Kermes scoring one play later. A long Lakers drive in the second quarter halted due to a fourth-down holding penalty on a long Hoak run.
By the time Pat Louer had thrown a 10-yard scoring pass to Eliot Austin with 1:03 to play in the half, Cazenovia found itself trailing 14-0 and desperate for any kind of spark.
Taven Reilley provided it, taking the kickoff after Eliot’s score near his own goal line and dashing 98 yards to the other end zone. Though the extra point was blocked and Marcellus led 14-6 at the break, Cazenovia had, with one big play, altered the game’s course.
Reilley wasn’t done, putting up another long kick return to open the second half as the Lakers with a short field, promptly scored on Jack Donlin’s nine-yard run and a two-point pass to Reilley tied it 14-14.
Marcellus hit its own big play to go back in front late in the third quarter when Louer, from his own 16, rolled right, threw deep and found Mitch Donegan at midfield, Donegan going the rest of the way on an 84-yard catch-and-run TD.
But the game’s biggest sequence came early in the final period. The Mustangs had the ball at the Lakers’ 30 when Louer rolled out and hit Doryn LeClair in the end zone, which would have made it 27-14 – but it got called back on a holding penalty.
One play later, Connor Adams intercepted Louer, setting up a Cazenovia drive. Hoak’s 45-yard pass to Byrnes set up a shorter five-yard TD pass to Reilley, which cut it to 21-20 as the go-ahead two-point attempt was stopped.
Quickly, Cazenovia’s defense got the ball back. Hoak hit Reilley on a short completion that Marcellus disputed, but stood, and the Lakers reached the Mustangs’ 28, where it soon became fourth-and-five.
Instead of a safer play, Hoak went for it all – and Byrnes, who earlier in the week announced that he was attending Hobart College for baseball and had a top-five finish in the OHSL boys golf tournament, got behind the secondary and caught it in the end zone.
Moments later, Hoak found an open Schug for two points, and the Cazenovia defense made one more defensive stop on fourth down at the Marcellus 40, able to run out the remaining clock.
Hoak completed 10 of 17 passes for 149 yards and ran for 107 yards on 15 carries. Byrnes caught four passes for 90 yards as, defensively, Brad Gagnon led with six tackles and 10 assists, Jed Olkowski also getting 10 assists to go with his three tackles.
Up in the Class B ranks, Chittenango, once 0-3, put together a second consecutive lopsided victory against visiting 3-1 Westhill, the Bears bashing the Warriors 41-14.
Jack Lamphere’s 15-yard TD pass to Kyle Wehrlin helped forge a 6-6 first quarter tie. Quentin Mohamed scored early in the second period.
Then, with the score tied 14-14 just before halftime, Lamphere made the game’s biggest play, throwing deep from his own 27 and finding Hunter Taylor for a 73-yard touchdown.
That gave Chittenango the lead for good, and it spent the second half shutting down Westhill while Mohamed added two more short TD runs and Wehrlin scored for the second time on a 50-yard dash.
