Four plays in the shadow of its own goal line got the Westhill football team rolling. Four touchdowns by Ja’Shai’ Jamison would propel them to a 3-0 mark few could have anticipated when the season got underway.
The surprising Warriors continued its red-hot September start on a cold Thursday evening, delighting a large crowd at its home opener by defeating the Skaneateles Lakers 35-6.
According to first-year head coach Jamie Casullo, Westhill had made it through wins over Fonda-Fultonville (28-20 at the Carrier Dome on Sept. 5) and Solvay (19-14 on Sept. 12) without getting all that it could out of its high-powered attack.
“In our first two games, we had drives that we didn’t finish,” said Casullo. “Tonight, we put it all together.”
No doubt, it helped to have the 5-foot-9, 165-pound Jamison present to spark the attack. Utilizing his speed and toughness, Jamison tore through the Lakers’ defenses with regularity, but even his heroics required a spark from the other side of the ball.
Westhill was shaky at the outset, going three-and-out in its first possession and fumbling on its second. But it shook off that turnover, stopping the Lakers at the Warriors’ 14-yard line, and then did something much bigger a few minutes later.
Griffin Lawson’s 26-yard pass to Aubrey Leverich put Skaneateles on Westhill’s one-yard line as the first quarter wound down. Three times, from a shotgun formation, Lawson tried to get in the end zone, and three times Westhill’s defensive line turned them back.
That led to fourth-and-goal at the one. Now Lawson tried an option pitch, to Noah Cliff on the left side. But linebacker Cody Badman tore in from the middle and dragged Cliff down short of the goal line.
“Our defense was completely solid,” said Badman, and Casullo agreed, saying that the goal-line stand “got everyone going.”
Specifically, it led right to a 10-play, 99-yard drive and the emergence of Jamison. Aside from Richie Easterly’s 27-yard pass to Casey Rogers, Jamison did most of the work, with two runs of 16 yards among his many carries, plus a five-yard TD run that put the Warriors on the board.
It didn’t even matter when Jamison had a 45-yard screen pass for a TD called back for a holding penalty, for Westhill quickly got the ball again and, with 1:26 left in the half, Easterly tried the same screen pass on the left side, and Jamison sped 39 yards on a scoring play that wasn’t called back.
Leading 14-0 at halftime, Westhill didn’t need much of a spark, but got it when, on the second play of the second half, Skaneateles fumbled a handoff, and Chase Gedney fell on it at the Lakers’ 20. Two plays later, Jamison ran 18 yards to the end zone, making it 21-0.
Even when Jamison didn’t find the end zone, he helped set things up, going 36 yards on Westhill’s next possession to set up Cole Murphy’s 13-yard scoring run midway through the third quarter.
And when Skaneateles finally got on the board in the fourth quarter on Lawson’s 26-yard TD pass to Tom Hagen, Jamison returned the ensuing kickoff 40 yards, leading to his fourth TD on a 13-yard run.
Westhill seeks four in a row next Friday when it travels to Phoenix, heavily favored to complete an undefeated September and head toward an anticipated Oct. 3 trip to Marcellus.
