Nine months later, the scene was the same, if not the stakes.
Again, the Cazenovia football team was in the Carrier Dome, but instead of finishing off a state Class B championship run, it was trying to commence another adventurous journey to this same venue in November, where Section III and state honors wait again.
Mexico provided the opposition in Saturday’s Kickoff Classic – and gave Cazenovia a major scare, the Lakers not taking the lead until the fourth quarter, where it scored 21 points in a span of less than four minutes and prevailed by a score of 28-18
It was no small irony that Austin Enders, whose injury in the 2015 opener at the Dome against Amsterdam forced him to watch most of the state title run from the sidelines, scored the go-ahead touchdown with 6:24 to play. And it was Enders sacking Mexico quarterback Dante Turo on fourth down a minute later to thwart the Tigers’ hopes of a late comeback of its own.
Cazenovia was putting several new starters into key roles, including Matt Regan at quarterback. They all knew that replicating the magic created by the likes of Jake Shaffner, T.J. Connellan, Kevin Frega and Cole Willard wouldn’t prove easy.
Immediately, the Lakers discovered that containing Turo, a 6-foot 2, 205-pound senior, was a challenge. From his own nine, Turo passed and ran the Tigers to Cazenovia’s six-yard line on an opening drive that consumed more than seven minutes of clock.
Then a botched handoff was recovered by Enders at Mexico’s 22, and on the very next play a double pass saw Regan lateral it to Anthony Veccharelli, who threw deep and found Cody Thorp, the play covering 57 yards.
But that didn’t lead to points, and Mexico, from its own 31, marched right down the field again, Turo using rollouts and an accurate left arm to put the Tigers on the Cazenovia seven, from where Jace Eastman scored on the first play of the second quarter.
To this point, the Lakers had only run five plays. Yet its offense answered Mexico’s touchdown with a 66-yard drive where Regan and Veccharelli took turns gobbling up yards until Regan found Thorp for a 37-yard TD reception and then added a go-ahead extra point.
Another long Cazenovia drive that ran off the last five-plus minutes of the half stalled at Mexico’s 16, keeping it 7-6 at the break. Right away, the Lakers were facing a major challenge to its long-held spot atop the Class B East division.
Turo again showed his versatility with a 21-yard run as part of another long Mexico drive in the third quarter where it faced third down and 33 – and still got the first down with two Turo pass completions, one of them to Kyle Petit on fourth-and-11.
Ultimately, the drive went 93 yards and ate up nearly seven minutes of clock before Mike Ladd’s three-yard TD run gave the Tigers a 12-7 lead, where it stayed going to the final period.
Cazenovia needed a big play, and got it when, on third-and-10 from the Mexico 40, Regan engineered a play-action fake and found Thorp for a 26-yard gain. Five plays later, Enders found the end zone, and on the two-point try Matt McLaughlin took an option pitch and then threw to Anders Hansen for the conversion.
When Mexico decided to go for it on fourth down at its own 30, Enders sacked Turo. Thorp turned that stop into points when he scored from 22 yards out with 4:21 left, and after another defensive stop, Regan needed just one play to sprint 34 yards to the end zone with three minutes left.
Next Saturday at 2 p.m., Cazenovia goes on the road for a rematch of the 2015 sectional Class B final against Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.
