This time, the East Syracuse-Minoa football team swore it would be different, that it could turn things around and, for once, ruin the championship dreams of New Hartford.
But ESM fans were, instead, treated to another exit at the expense of those other Spartans, this one coming in 38-14 defeat during Friday night’s Section III Class A semifinals at Chittenango High School.
For the third year in a row, New Hartford ended ESM’s title run, and in the process advanced to next Friday’s Class A final against archrival Whitesboro, who beat Fulton 35-20 in the other semifinal.
Both of those previous exits, in 2007 and ’08, had come in the first round, at ESM Stadium. Reversing that trend would require ESM to topple an 8-0 New Hartford squad that had risen to no. 4 in the state Class A rankings and had averaged 42 points per game with its dreaeded “spread” offense.
ESM glimmered some hope from the fact that New Hartford quarterback Anthony Acevedo had injured his hip a week earlier, in the first round against Nottingham, and might not be at full strength.
That turned out to be a non-issue. Acevedo still ran for 203 yards and three touchdowns, while backfield mate Joe Carcone had 118 yards on the ground. New Hartford finished with 464 total yards, 375 of them rushing yards.
Three early drives proved to set the tone for the whole night. New Hartford went first, going 86 yards on 10 plays late in the first quarter, including a rare Acevedo pass (32 yards, to Fred DelGenio) to set up the quarterback’s first touchdown, a one-yard plunge.
Down 8-0, ESM nearly answered, moving 75 yards in 14 plays, only to get stopped on downs after reaching New Hartford’s 26 early in the second quarter.
Acevedo took over again, this time getting most of the gains on a 10-play, 74-yard march and, once again, scoring from one yard out. The two-point conversion made it 16-0.
Now Carcone stepped in, using two big plays to help New Hartford get away. First, he caught a screen pass from Acevedo and, getting great blocks, tore 57 yards for a TD in the last minute of the half.
The margin grew to 30-0 early in the third quarter as Carcone took off on a 48-yard run, setting up his own three-yard trip to the end zone.
As it all this wasn’t discouraging enough for ESM, it fumbled at the New Hartford one-yard-line just as it was about to break up the shutout late in the third quarter. And on the very next play, Acevedo, intending just to sneak the ball out of the shadow of his own goal line, followed a block on the right and took off on a sprint the length of the field, 99 yards to the other end zone.
Finally, ESM got on the board in the fourth quarter as Tyler Johnson threw a 38-yard TD pass to Bobby Campese and Dustin Moss, who had 34 carries for 196 yards, scored on a five-yard run.
ESM’s season ended with a 7-2 mark, as Moss would put up 1,929 yards for the year. Though he departs, ESM has a large group of underclassmen, including Johnson, that will come back for 2010, so the winning should continue.
