Displaying a newfound emphasis on the passing game, the Solvay football team survived an opening-night thriller with Hannibal in Saturday night’s Kickoff Classic at the Carrier Dome.
The Bearcats prevailed, 33-27, over the Warriors, pulling it out when Ronn Bidwell found his twin brother, Ryan, in the end zone on a five-yard touchdowns pass with just five seconds showing on the clock.
So capped a clutch final drive by Solvay, which had seen a 26-14 lead vanish during the fourth quarter, all part of a back-and-forth affair that carried on the whole night.
Even as Paul Clisson opened the scoring with a two-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, the Bearcats were finding out that Hannibal, a new team in Class B West (having moved up from Class C), would not be an easy mark.
Sure enough, the Warriors cut Solvay’s lead to 7-6 when Josh Lewis scored on a one-yard plunge, then moved in front when a Bearcats fumble led to Blair Taylor returning the loose ball 44 yards foar another TD.
From that point until the end of the third quarter, the Bearcats would take over, moving ahead 14-12 just before the half on John Savo’s six-yard run.
Then the Bearcats went to the air. Ronn Bidwell, who threw for 172 yards on the night to complemment Clisson’s 100 yards on the ground, found Ryan Bidwell on a 20-yard TD pass in the third period.
Returning the favor, Solvay’s defense forced a fumble that Mark Schafer returned 20 yards for six pionts, and the Bearcats were on the brink of getting away.
Hannibal wouldn’t let it happen, though, putting together a pair of drives in the fourth quarter that ended with Taylor getting his second and third TD’s of the night, on runs of five and 10 yards.
Solvay would have the last push, though, and claim a Class B West division victory as it looks forward to visiting Homer this Friday at 7 p.m. The Trojans beat Skaneateles (spoiling the coaching debut of Tim Green) 33-20 in its opener.
In stark contrast to the Bearcats’ experience in the Carrier Dome, Bishop Ludden ran into a ferocious machine in the form of the Cazenovia Lakers, who smothered the Gaelic Knights by a score of 56-0.
Armed with a very young (18 sophomores and freshmen out of 31 players) roster, first-year head coach Mike Rogers had to deal with a Cazenovia team that, like Hannibal, moved up to Class B this season.
What the Lakers showed was that it could be a title contender once more, holding Ludden to a scant 53 yards while producing 439 yards of its own.
A 35-point second quarter broke the game open as Laker running back John Greacen scored twice on runs of 35 and 17 yards to add to the 24-yard scoring run he put up in the opening period. Greacen finished with 167 yards on just 10 carries.
Ludden will seek points again Friday in a much-anticipated home opener against Syracuse Institute of Technology Central – the first-year varsity program coached by former Ludden boss John Cosgrove. In its debut, the Eagles stunned Tully 22-19, clinching the victory with a last-second goal-line stand.
