In a span of just 14 days, the Fayetteville-Manlius football team has wiped out three opponents by a combined margin of 122-43 and made a loud claim as one of the top Section III Class AA championship contenders.
Now comes the tough part – staying on top, beginning with next Friday’s big home clash with fellow contender Utica Proctor.
To set things up for Proctor, the Hornets had to go back to a familiar location Thursday night to polish off the Fowler Falcons by a score of 49-6 to improve its mark to 3-0.
Since Fowler doesn’t have a home field this season, it’s playing home games in other spots – including Sunnycrest Park, the same turf where F-M had beaten Henninger 31-21 in its Sept. 3 season opener.
Not even two weeks later, the Hornets were back at Sunnycrest, and while the start was a bit slow, a 28-point barrage in the second quarter erased all doubts.
F-M had gone out in front 7-0 in the first quarter, moving the ball to Fowler’s seven-yard line before Kyle Toscano plowed in for the touchdown.
But there wasn’t an immediate follow-up, and a murmur of concern arose among the Hornet faithful, especially when Falcon quarterback Kelvin Amparo ran 11 yards for a TD early in the second period.
What followed was F-M’s emphatic response – four touchdowns in a matter of minutes as big plays and Fowler mistakes led to repeated end zone trips.
Toscano began the outburst with his second TD, a one-yard plunge. Andrew Fletcher and Ryan Jones quickly followed with matching nine-yard scoring runs, and quarterback John Wittig capped it off by throwing a 25-yard TD pass to Ari Waffle.
Ahead 35-6 at the break, F-M did not let up at all in the third quarter as Toscano returned to get his third TD on a six-yard run and Langston Lightcap found the end zone from 15 yards out. Waffle, in addition to his receiving chores, made all seven extra points he attempted.
F-M’s coaches and players would make yet another trip to Sunnycrest on Saturday – this time to watch Utica Proctor as they went up against Henninger, a game that would determine just how big the Hornets’ duel with the Raiders would become.
