A big, physical dose of reality struck the Chittenango football team when it ventured out of familiar home ground for the first time in the 2015 season.
It was defending Section III Class B champion Homer applying that force in Friday night’s Class B West division first-place showdown, the Trojans’ defense holding the Bears to 52 total yards of offense and prevailing by a 25-0 margin.
Against a bigger lineup, Chittenango never got moving. Aside from those 52 yards, the Bears had just three first downs all night, one of them gained by a roughing-the-kicker flag on a punt.
All of this provided a stark contrast to what Chittenango enjoyed getting off to a 3-0 start in September, all of the victories coming at home as the Bears, scoring 92 combined points in those three games, rose to no. 18 in the state Class B rankings.
Homer was in the no. 7 spot in those same state rankings, five places behind the Cazenovia team it beat in the 2014 sectional final, but against Chittenango, the Trojans performed like someone who had no intention of letting go of its crown.
For one quarter, the Bears’ defense contained Homer and kept the game 0-0. But early in the second period, the Trojans moved to Chittenango’s 39-yard line, from where Jacob Rivers found Dylan Williams-Buchman, who tore down the right sideline and found the end zone.
Trailing 7-0, Chittenango was already in trouble unless its own offense could get going. Instead, it went backwards, and quarterback Justin Gondeck got tripped within his own end zone, leading to a safety.
That turned out to be a five-point play because, on the ensuing free kick, John Horner returned it 43 yards deep into Bears territory, and while it didn’t lead to a touchdown, Joel Christopher’s 21-yard field goal extended the margin to 12-0, where it stood at halftime.
The break did little to change things, though. Every time it had the ball, Chittenango found itself pushed around, unable to move anywhere. To make things worse, Gondeck exited the game early in the fourth quarter with an arm injury.
With no need to do anything fancy, the Trojans gave it often to running back Ryan Wainwright, who earned most of his 147 yards on the ground in the last two periods and scored twice, on a one-yard run at the end of a 10-play, 61-yard march and again on a 14-yard TD run.
Chittenango won’t know if Gondeck will be back when it returns to the same area next Friday to face Cortland, who is 2-2 following a 23-14 loss to Marcellus. Game time is 7 p.m.
