When they both signed on to play in the season-opening Kickoff Classic in the Carrier Dome, the Oneida and Westhill football teams agreed, at the same time, to play their next game together just five days later.
The little time spent breathing between games only seemed to exasperate the vast differences between the Indians and Warriors at this point in the 2008 campaign.
For when they got together last Friday night in Oneida, the healthy, experienced Indians steadily took the raw Warriors apart on its way to a 50-7 victory and a 2-0 start, while Westhill fell to 0-2.
The last time these two teams had met was in 2004, in the Section III Class B final in the Carrier Dome. Oneida saw a 14-point fourth-quarter lead disappear as the Warriors prevailed, 36-35, on a two-point conversion by Micah Coger with 42 seconds to play.
Nothing even close to that excitement took part on the soggy Oneida turf this time around. Instead, the trends of what took place in the Kickoff Classic continued.
Oneida had crushed Ithaca 47-13, getting all of its points in the first half and sitting its starters the rest of the way. Westhill, by contrast, had lost 35-17 to Bishop Kearney (Rochester) and still had no idea if, or when, senior quarterback Mike DeCarr was coming back from a shoulder injury suffered in pre-season practice.
Ryan Kramer, so dangerous as a passer for the Indians, burned Westhill with his legs in the early going, taking off on a bootleg and not stopping until he had gone 72 yards for the longest touchdown run of his career. Also, he threw a two-point pass to Joe McCormick.
The lead grew to 22-0 in the second quarter, mostly through a relentless ground game. Rick Rossi scored from two yards out, also earning two points, and then Kramer returned for his second TD run, going 10 yards this time.
Dan Ross continued to run Westhill’s offense in DeCarr’s absence, but he couldn’t prevent mistakes as the Warriors committed five turnovers, allowing the margin to grow.
Rossi’s one-yard TD plunge in the third quarter, combined with Kramer’s two-point run, made it 30-0, and McCormick scored for the second time on a 10-yard run.
Only in the fourth quarter, when Ross returned a kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown, did Westhill get on the board. Nathan Hall squeezed in a pair of TD runs in that homestretch for Oneida as the starters rested.
In Class B East league action this Friday night, the Indians will meet Holland Patent, who is 1-1 after a 29-22 win over Holland Patent. Westhill plays at home for the first time this season against Homer as Class B West play gets underway. The Trojans have lost close decisions to Cortland (32-26, in overtime) and Chittenango (29-28) so far.
