Impressive victories over Holland Patent and Canastota landed the Skaneateles football team at no. 2 in the first state Class C rankings of the fall, behind only Section IV’s Susquehanna Valley.
And the Lakers sure weren’t going to fall after Friday night’s Homecoming festivities at Hyatt Stadium, where it jumped all over Port Byron/Union Springs with 49 first-half points on the way to defeating the Panthers 63-21.
Four different times in the first quarter, the Lakers found the end zone, each time with a James Musso touchdown pass, the longest going 35 yards to Max Wamp as Nick Wamp caught a pair of four-yard scoring passes and Musso connected with Cody Nesbitt from 15 yards out.
Skaneateles continued to move the ball at will during the second quarter, with Musso nearly matching the school record-tying seven TD passes he threw two weeks earlier against Holland Patent.
Nesbitt caught Musso’s fifth TD strike from 30 yards out and Patrick Herr got his turn with a three-yard scoring pass. Also, Grayson Brunelle ran 10 yards into the end zone just before halftime.
Brunelle added a 44-yard TD run in the third quarter, part of a tremendous night where he gained 203 yards on the ground on just 12 carries. Musso was 13-for-18 for 165 yards as Jack Comer added 66 yards on six carries.
As that went on, Jordan-Elbridge shook off a pair of season-opening defeats by claiming its Class C West division opener at John Howes Stadium, pulling away in a 25-6 victory over the Hannibal Warriors.
Whatever struggles the Eagles had in the early stages was masked by a string of Hannibal fumbles. Twice, they led to scores for J-E as Alex Pond threw an 12-yard TD pass to Erik Ryan and Luke Pinckney ran four yards for another score.
The Warriors did hang on to the ball long enough in the second period to cut J-E’s advantage to 13-6, but a long return by Trent Thomas on the second-half kickoff to the Hannibal 29 set up Pond’s second TD pass to Ryan, this one covering 15 yards.
To clinch it, the Eagles covered 60 yards in just four plays in the final period, Pinckney going the final 23 yards for the touchdown. All told, Pinckney gained 83 yards on 13 carries as Pond completed nine of 13 passes for 112 yards.
Up in the Class AA ranks, West Genesee was 1-1 going into its league opener against Baldwinsville at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, only to have the winless Bees rise up and defeat the Wildcats 20-12.
A big moment came early. WG’s defense had B’ville pinned on its own one-yard line. Instead of the ground game, Braden McCard threw 32 yards to Pat May, and the momentum shifted as McCard later scored from one yard out.
B’ville’s defense kept the Wildcats quiet until the middle of the second period, when a 40-yard pass from Braeden McNeil to John Benson set up Exavier Brumfield’s one-yard TD plunge..
But the Bees blocked the extra point and quickly answered with a drive of its own, McCard ending with a seven-yard scoring toss to Cameron Jessen. The extra point had B’ville in front 14-6, where it stayed at halftime.
Late in the third quarter, WG put together another solid drive that McNeil finished by scrambling four yards for a TD. Again, the Bees were able to stop the tying conversion attempt, Pat May tackling Brumfield just before he could dive past the goal lines.
So it was 14-12 and, midway through the final period, B’ville moved to the Wildcats’ 30-yard line, where Mike Letizia followed perfect blocks as he dashed to the end zone with 5:35 to play. All told, Letizia ran for 143 yards, a majority of the Bees’ total of 228 yards on the ground.
Though the Bees missed the two-point attempt, its defense kept the Wildcats from moving the ball in the final minutes. Having fallen to 1-2, WG is back home next Friday to face Utica Proctor as Skaneateles gets its turn against Hannibal and J-E hosts Cato-Meridian.
