Now the East Syracuse Minoa and Jamesville-DeWitt football teams are certain to have at least one more home game once the regular season is complete, having all but locked up the top two spots in the Class A American division.
Both the Spartans and Red Rams rolled through this week’s opponents on home turf, ESM doing so Thursday in a 59-8 romp over Oswego, J-D following up a night later by turning back Fowler 28-14 thanks to a strong second-half effort on both sides.
Something unusual happened in the first quarter between ESM and Oswego – Jeremy Perry did not find the end zone, something he had done 17 times in the first month of the season as the Spartans started 3-1 and made it to no. 22 in the state Class A rankings.
Still, thanks to Greg Buck’s 26-yard touchdown sprint and Buck’s subsequent extra point less than five minutes into the contest, ESM went up 7-0 on the Buccaneers, and it was only a matter of time before Perry took over again.
Early in the second quarter, Perry ran deep, took a pass from Jake Rodman and went 78 yards to the end zone. Less than three minutes later, Perry scored again, this time on defense as he picked up a Bucs fumble and took it back 59 yards to paydirt.
ESM led 27-0 at halftime thanks to Rodman’s second TD pass of the night, 19 yards to Ty Barkins, but the Spartans didn’t stop there. Perry tacked on two more TD runs in the third quarter, from 49 and seven yards, and in the final period Rodman threw a 24-yard scoring pass to Darian Crossman, with Ny’zhier Jefferson contributing a 13-yard TD run and Cody LaRoche finding the end zone from 35 yards out after the starters left.
Moving to Friday night, J-D, having christened its new artificial turf field with a 33-14 win over Carthage a week earlier, looked for its own 4-1 mark against Fowler, minus the fanfare of the new field and Homecoming – and got it, though it wasn’t that easy.
Mike Schwedes got the Red Rams on the board with a big play, catching a 50-yard scoring pass from Josh Kowalczyk. The extra point was made, which was crucial because Fowler missed its conversion after Raysan Evans’ 77-yard TD sprint.
But they were even by halftime, even though Schwedes struck a second time with a 16-yard scoring run. Again, the Falcons burned the Rams with a big play, Evans this time sprinting deep and catching an 80-yard scoring pass from Mikaj Weaver before the two-point conversion tied it, 14-14, going into the break.
Sensing the danger, J-D’s defense clamped down in the second half, not allowing Fowler to get any kind of drive going while, at the same time, giving its offense ample time to find the points it needed.
And it was Jhakeer Jamison putting the Rams ahead for good with his two-yard TD run in the third quarter. Still, the game wasn’t locked up until Rahmell Smith, author of so many key plays early in J-D’s season, broke loose on a 74-yard sprint to the end zone in the final period.
Now it’s J-D’s turn to play Oswego, which takes place next Friday as ESM hosts Fulton, looking for its fifth win in a row and a perfect 4-0 run through the American division.
