A large crowd gathered Tuesday night to see the last two Section III Class B boys soccer champions, Skaneateles and Marcellus, determine who is the early-season favorite to reign this fall
But they never got an answer.
Midway through the second half, with the score tied 1-1, the lights at the Mustangs’ home field went out, and when they were slow to return, officials decided to halt the game and resume at a later date.
That brought a premature end to what was developing into a typical classic between the two long-time rivals.
Both were coming off solid opening efforts on Labor Day weekend – Skaneateles shutting out Jamesville-DeWitt, Marcellus winning twice at Chittenango’s Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.
On its home turf, the Mustangs wasted little time going in front. Just 3:13 into the game, off a pass from the middle by Jose Rodriguez-Doran, Cal Filtch ripped a 25-yard shot past Jake Bird into the left side of the net.
It took a while, but Skaneateles finally got its own attack going midway through the half – and pulled even in the 22nd minute, just after Rodriguez-Doran banged a shot off the right post that nearly made it 2-0.
Ryan Farrell managed to hit his corner kick from the left side off the right post. Off the rebounds, Zach Brownlee punched it into the net.
As the game got more physical (no cards issued, though), the defenses got better. Bird made a diving stop on Rodriguez-Doran’s hard shot in the 50th minute, the best chance either team had in the second half.
But with more than 23 minutes to play, the lights flickered, then went off. After 15 minutes of work to get some of the lights restored, it was determined that the threat of another outage was too great to keep the match going.
So it will continue at a later date, and the two sides will have a rematch at Skaneateles on Oct. 1, too.
Following the abandoned Marcellus game, Skaneateles returned home Thursday and, without any kind of drama, bashed Solvay in an 8-0 shutout.
As he had been throughout the early season, Farrell worked in the forefront of the Laker attack, finishing with a three-goal hat trick.
Owen Stokes-Cawley was just as productive, with two goals and one assist, while Trevor Hinman and Mark Cannuciari each had one goal and one assist. Parker also scored, with Brownlee, Baier and Kelly Donigan adding assists.
Another busy week looms for the Lakers — four games in seven days, starting with a Tuesday trip to Westhill and ending with a tournament at the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, with a home game against Cazenovia in between.
