No doubt, the Jamesville-DeWitt football team felt good about itself, coming off back-to-back wins, and wanted to get a good measure of exactly where it stood as October got underway.
The answer, from the Red Rams’ next-door neighbors in the Class A American division, proved to be a rude one.
East Syracuse-Minoa secured its tight hold on second place in the league by going to J-D Friday night and taking over in the game’s middle stages and beating the Rams 33-7.
The cold, wet and soggy conditions favored J-D, especially since ESM had played just one of its first five games on a grass field.
But the Spartans’ hard-nose defense caused trouble early in the first quarter, as J-D fumbled deep in its own territory and James Landry returned the loose ball 15 yards for a touchdown.
Down 7-0, J-D answered with a scoring drive of its own, reaching the Spartans’ five-yard line before quarterback David Sacco ran in for the TD.
Faced with a 7-7 tie, ESM returned to its most reliable offensive force, and began to take over.
Taking the ball at his own 20-yard line early in the second quarter, Dustin Moss took off through a big hole and didn’t stop until he was in the Rams’ end zone 80 yards later. The Spartans would not trail again.
Moss scored on a two-yard run to make it 20-7 at halftime, but then went back to the big-play mode in the third quarter, this time taking off on a 76-yard touchdown run, his 13th score of the season. Zach Smith got ESM’s last score on a one-yard run.
Having improved its mark to 4-1, the Spartans return home next Friday to face Fowler at 6:30. Meanwhile, J-D (2-3) visits Cortland, a game crucial to the Red Rams’ hopes of making the Class A playoffs.
Bishop Grimes fell to 1-5 on the season on Saturday, beaten 35-23 by Port Byron. Dave Campese erased an early 7-0 deficit in the first quarter with a 40-yard TD pass to Tavon Moore, but that would be the Cobras’ high point.
The Panthers scored 28 unanswered points over the next two periods, capped by Jake Ross returning a fumble 15 yards for a score in the third quarter. Grimes did get on the board late with Campese’s second TD pass to Moore (from 30 yards out) and Darrel West running 20 yards for another six points. Grimes ends its regular season on Saturday, hosting Onondaga at 1 p.m.