Maybe the Marcellus football team can just skip the prelminaries and go directly to the third quarter, because that’s when all the fun starts.
For the second week in a row, the Mustangs put up big second-half numbers, striking with five touchdown plays of 31 or more yards, this time resulting in a 35-20 victory over neighbor and rival Skaneateles on Friday night.
Despite five turnovers and a first half full of physical and mental errors, the Mustangs hit when it counted, even overcoming the loss of starting quarterback Mike Keegan as his back-up, Tom Fiacchi, came up with some clutch throws to pull out the win.
Having erased a 22-point deficit with 32 unanswered points to beat Solvay 38-28 on Sept. 5, Marcellus hoped for a better start against Skaneateles, who had returned to the Class B West division this fall after three seasons in Class C and had beaten Chittenango 40-13 in a far less stressful season opener.
But the Lakers were without its top quarterback, Devin Callahan, and mixing in three different signal-callers (Connor Hill, Griffin Lawson and James Hackler), the Lakers didn’t move the ball much in a first half full of bad snaps, penalties and other miscues.
Marcellus proved worse, though, turning the ball over three times (two fumbles, plus a Hill interception) and seeing two scoring drives come up empty inside the Skaneateles 20, so it was all too glad to go into the break 0-0, especially when compared with the deficit it faced at Solvay seven days earlier.
Just 56 seconds into the third quarter, though, the drought was broken, Ian McGloon doing the honors by breaking through two tackles on a 45-yard touchdown run up the middle, which ignited a wild third quarter that included 35 combined points.
Recovering an onside kick following McGloon’s score, the Mustangs promptly committed its fourth turnover, and the Lakers turned it into its first TD when, on fourth down, Hill scored on a six-yard run. Not content with that, Hill intercepted Keegan less than two minutes later and, for good measure, caught Lawson’s 37-yard pass over the middle for the go-ahead score.
Now trailing 14-7, the Mustangs took all of 19 seconds to respond, the length of time it took McGloon to blast through a massive hole on the left side 64 yards for six more points, only to have Hill (who else?) block the PAT to keep the Lakers in front, 14-13.
By now, Fiacchi had taken over under center, and he knew where to turn. From his own 32 late in the period, he threw to Will Coon over the middle, and the senior sped the rest of the way, 68 yards for the TD that, with Fiacchi’s two-point pass to Coon, put Marcellus ahead for good.
Early in the fourth quarter, Lawson’s 25-yard pass to Tommy Hagen set up Aubrey Leverich to score on a one-yard run, but now it was the Mustangs’ turn to block a conversion, and it clung to a 21-20 lead.
Whatever hopes the Lakers possessed, though, vanished on a pair of daring fourth-down calls by the Mustangs.
With 7:57 left, facing fourth-and-11 at the Skaneateles 36, Marcellus sent Fiacchi right on a run, only to have him throw back to McGloon on the left sideline. Following a series of blocks, McGloon went all the way for his third touchdown of the night.
That made it 28-20, and after Skaneateles went three and out, the Mustangs clinched it with 3:20 left, going for it again, this time on fourth-and-17 from the Lakers 31. Fiacchi threw to the corner of the end zone and Coon, despite good defensive coverage, hauled it in for the TD.
Marcellus will go for three in a row next Friday night when it hosts Chittenango at 7 p.m. The Bears are 1-1, having followed that loss to Skaneateles by blanking Phoenix 36-0, helped by Justin Gondeck’s trio of touchdown passes.
