With a 3-4 overall record, the Fayetteville-Manlius football team will miss the Section III Class AA playoffs, but with a 1-6 mark, Christian Brothers Academy will see post-season action.
Absurd as this seems, especially since F-M defeated CBA 40-16 in mid-September, that’s how things worked out in the wake of Friday night’s regular-season finales, despite the Hornets making a stirring fourth-quarter comeback to defeat Baldwinsville 42-35.
As the final Class AA-2 division standings shook out, F-M, B’ville and West Genesee (who defeated Rome Free Academy 27-14) all finished with 2-3 league marks, tying for third place behind Utica Proctor (5-0) and Cicero-North Syracuse (3-2).
The first-half points tie-breaker favored B’ville, so it went to third place in the standings. And because WG defeated F-M 25-23 on Oct. 11, it’s the Wildcats that will make the trip to AA-1 division regular-season champion Liverpool in next Friday’s opening round.
Bitter as this was for the Hornets to accept, it could at least take particular pride in the way it fought back against a B’ville side that, many different times, appeared ready to put things away, but could not.
Having surrendered a Braden McCard 55-yard interception return for a touchdown in the opening minutes, F-M answered with a scoring drive that Alex Dauksza finished off with a one-yard TD plunge.
The second quarter featured the Hornets twice finding the end zone on runs of five yards by Jack Nucerino (who finished with 181 yards on 25 carries) and 32 yards by Will Duncanson, which B’ville answered both times, leaving the two sides 21-21 going to halftime.
Pat May took over for the Bees, scoring on a 14-yard run and on passes of 20 and 37 yards from McCard, all of which bracketed Dauksza’s second TD on a three-yard run and left F-M trailing 35-27 in the fourth quarter.
It was Dauksza’s 15-yard TD pass to Jake Leuze, plus a two-point run from Duncanson, that tied it 35-35, and when the Hornets finally made a key defensive stop, it drove once more to the goal line, where Duncanson’s one-yard plunge won it.
That same night, CBA and Nottingham battled for fourth place in the Class AA-1 division, neither side having won a league game. With a late rally of its own, the Brothers gained a 41-35 victory over the Bulldogs and its playoff ticket.
Nottingham scored 21 first-quarter points, but didn’t get away because the Brothers found the end zone twice and, despite getting shut out in the second period, still was within range, 28-14, at the break.
During a tense second half, CBA proved unstoppable on offense, twice finding the end zone in the third quarter and then, still trailing 35-28, scoring two more times in the final period while its defense kept the Bulldogs quiet late.
CBA is headed for a first-round playoff game at Utica Proctor, while East Syracuse Minoa, in Class A, saw its post-season dreams take a hit at Auburn when it took a 43-14 defeat to the Maroons at Holland Stadium.
Having already lost league games to Whitesboro and Carthage, the Spartans could not afford another slip against Auburn, and when Tyler Bell dashed 10 yards to the end zone late in the first period, ESM had a 7-0 edge – but it didn’t last long.
Less than a minute later, a 46-yard catch-and-run connection from Troy Churney to Robert Morris, plus a two-point conversion, had the Maroons in front, but even bigger was a fourth-down stop by Auburn deep in its own territory early in the second period.
On the very next play after that stop, Shaheed Beal dashed 83 yards for a TD. As if that wasn’t damaging enough, Beal took an ESM punt deep in his own end and brought it back 80 yards for six more points.
By the time Churney had found Owen Spearing on a 49-yard scoring pass and Connor Mahunik had returned a Spartans fumble 63 yards for a TD, Auburn had rendered 36 unanswered points, all on big plays. ESM never recovered, only scoring again in the fourth quarter on Bell’s 32-yard pass to Nolan Palmer.
Like CBA, Jamesville-DeWitt was winless heading into this week, but finally broke that skid against PSLA-Fowler, the Red Rams earning a 35-16 victory over the Falcons.
Short scoring runs of one yard by Carter King and two yards by Evan Dougherty had J-D up 15-0 by the end of the first quarter. King then struck deep for a 58-yard scoring pass to David Stewart that made it 22-0 going into halftime.
PSLA-Fowler did score twice in the third period, including a remarkable punt return where Bryant Delavega took the Rams kick on his own two-yard line, found a seam and dashed 98 yards the other way.
But J-D was able to get clear with two more touchdowns of its own late, Dougherty getting free for a 34-yard scoring dash and Caleb Smith finding the end zone from 28 yards out.
