CENTRAL NEW YORK – All that eight consecutive wins and a spot near the top of the state Class C rankings did for the Cazenovia football team was set up an imposing test with a berth in the Section III finals on the line.
It will pit the 8-0, state no. 2-ranked Lakers against 7-1 General Brown, who has averaged more than 52 points in its seven victories and whose lone defeat came 30-27 to Adirondack, who meets Holland Patent in the other semifinal..
Cazenovia’s eighth straight win was earned at Buckley-Volo Field Saturday when it took on Vernon-Verona-Sherrill and did all of the damage in the early going to help put away the Red Devils 36-19.
The only reason the margin ended up there was because the Lakers, who built a 30-0 advantage by halftime, rested its starters in the fourth quarter, when VVS notched all of its points.
Prior to that, it was yet another fine all-around effort by Cazenovia that, in the first quarter, featured one drive – and one score, J.P. Hoak going 34 yards to Jack Byrnes for the touchdown.
That 6-0 margin grew during a second-quarter barrage of big plays, starting with Hoak, from his own 34, throwing deep and finding a wide-open Christian Schug, the TD covering 66 yards as Jack Donlin added a two-point run.
Minutes later, it was 22-0 as Hoak, from the VVS 31, again found Byrnes, who took it to the end zone. And right before halftime, it was Hoak connecting with Schug on a 37-yard scoring pass.
All told, Hoak, in less than three quarters on the field, completed 13 of 17 passes for 295 yards, making it five TD strikes when he hit Byrnes from 39 yards out for the Lakers’ only points of the second half.
Schug finished with 184 yards on seven catches, with all of Byrnes’ 104 yards coming from those three TD completions.
Also starring on defense, Byrnes recorded a team-best eight tackles plus three assists. Jed Olkowski chimed in with four tackles as Brad Gagnon assisted on six tackles.
All this happened after a Class B opening-round game Friday where Chittenango played at Camden and saw one big play turn things in the Blue Devils’ favor as the Bears ultimately took a 44-21 defeat.
Camden was 6-1 and no. 20 in the state rankings, and had prevailed 43-24 over Chittenango when the two sides had met back on Sept. 9.
Yet the Bears did not let things get away early, answering a pair of Blue Devils touchdowns with a second-quarter drive that led to Kyle Werhlin’s three-yard scoring dash and a Chase Brummer extra point.
Having cut the deficit to 14-7, Chittenango was one play from keeping it that way going into halftime.
Then, from the Bears’ 39-yard line, on the last play of the second quarter Camden quarterback Connor Dean threw to the end zone, a pass that Brian Gonzalez hauled in for a TD that ignited the home crowd.
Instead of a one-score margin, it was 21-7, and Chittenango saw Camden dominate the third quarter, adding two more TD’s, one of them on a punt return.
Jack Lamphere would throw a pair of fourth-quarter TD passes, but it proved too late. Lamphere, overall, was nine-for-17 for 121 yards as Dean completed 12 of 15 passes for 153 yards.
Defensively, Shamus Eiffe led the Bears with 7.5 tackles. Quentin Mohamed added 4.5 tackles to go with his team-best 54 yards on 13 carries. Chitteanngo finished at 3-5 as Camden advanced to face defending champion Homer in the sectional semifinals.
