Barely three minutes had passed in Friday night’s game at Holland Stadium, and the Fayetteville-Manlius football team trailed at Auburn, its followers concerned that a defeat disastrous to its own post-season hopes was on the horizon.
But that was the last time the Hornets would worry.
Unleashing the same high-powered attack that produced 45 points in a loss to Baldwinsville a week earlier, F-M was this time rewarded with a victory, roaring past the Maroons 50-22 to improve to 2-1 in the Class AA-2 division, and 3-2 overall.
Concerns about F-M’s defense rose again when Auburn’s Nasir Smith broke loose on a 70-yard touchdown run that, combined with a two-point conversion, created that early 8-0 deficit.
A mere 19 seconds later, though, Matt Truman broke loose for his longest run of the season, a 67-yard dash to the end zone, and the Hornets got the two points to get even, 8-8, Then the Maroons fumbled the ensuing kickoff, leading to a second Truman TD that got F-M ahead for good.
Before the quarter had ended, Anthony Nucerino had scored on an 80-yard run, his longest play of the season, and the Hornets had forced a second turnover, which led to Ryan Cicci’s TD run less than a minute into the second period.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Maroons fumbled another kickoff, leading to a third turnover and another TD off of it, from Nucerino. By the time they reached the half, F-M had piled up 41 unanswered points, ending the drama.
To some degree, the Hornets eased up in the second half, but its defense continued to cause Auburn enough problems and didn’t let things get close again. Jared Shaw added a one-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.
A lot rides on next Friday’s game between F-M and visiting Cicero-North Syracuse. Both sides are 2-1 in league play, tied with Utica Proctor, one game behind Baldwinsville. The winner here still has a chance at a piece of the league title, with the Hornets visiting Proctor and the Northstars meeting B’ville on the last weekend of the regular season.
