Turning opportunities into results is what separates the Cazenovia football team from most of its brethren – including that other Laker team within the Section III Class B ranks. When Skaneateles visited Buckley-Volo Field Saturday afternoon for the opening round of the Class B playoffs, it played right with the heavily favored hosts in the first half, but a damaging sequence just before the break set Cazenovia flying toward a 46-13 victory – and a date with Marcellus in next Saturday’s semifinals, to be played at 2:30 at Chittenango High School. As Cazenovia was battling through the Class B East division with an unbeaten mark, Skaneateles was in the process of a revival under first-year head coach Tim Green. Though it only went 3-4 in the regular season, Skaneateles earned its first playoff berth since 2001, while adapting to a spread offense and getting solid work from sophomore quarterback Conor Herr, who replaced an injured Troy Green in the second game of the season. And at least in the initial stages of its long-awaited post-season return, Skaneateles did not back down, outgaining Cazenovia in the first quarter. It spent nearly six minutes driving from its own 25-yard line to the Cazenovia 13, aiming to move ahead. Just then, though, a bad snap eluded Herr’s grasp and went into the hands of Cazenovia’s John Greacen at the 36. In just two plays, Jeff Hopsicker moved his side deep into Skaneateles territory, finding Doyle Judge for 18 yards and Greacen on a 37-yard screen pass. On the first play of the second quarter, Hopsicker rolled out and found Judge near the sideline for an 11-yard touchdown pass. Down 7-0, Skaneateles put together two more long drives in the half. Once, it got stopped at the Cazenovia 20, but the next time Herr led his team 59 yards, many of it covered on a 26-yard pass to Brandon Barron. When Herr hit Jacob Cooney on a nine-yard TD pass, Skaneateles cut the margin to 7-6, but could not get the conversion. When Ryan Dick intercepted a tipped Hopsicker pass late in the period, Skaneateles looked, at worst, to have stayed within that single point going into halftime, something that few people expected before the game started. But in the last 90 seconds of the half, it all turned violently in Cazenovia’s favor. Two plays after the Dick interception, Max Weiss fumbled, and Cazenovia’s Connor Whiteman fell on it at the Skaneateles 10. One play later, Hopsicker ran in for the touchdown, and a Nick Christakos extra point made it 14-6. Skaneateles could not get a first down on its next possession and Cazenovia, saving its time-outs, forced a punt that Jose Wells returned to the Skaneateles 38, with time for one more play in the half. It proved to be quite a play. Cazenovia lined up in a “Wildcat” formation, with Greacen taking the direct snap, then handing off to Wells, who then gave it to Hopsicker, who had lined up at receiver. Hopsicker threw deep and found a wide-open Judge, who outran the defenders to the end zone for a devastating touchdown just 1.5 seconds before time expired in the half. Instead of a close, hard-fought battle, Cazenovia now led 20-6, and it would gradually pull away in the third quarter, putting together back-to-back scoring drives that culminated with short TD runs by Hopsicker and Wells. Greacen would add two more TD’s in the final period on runs of 11 and two yards as Herr would tack on one more scoring pass, 10 yards to Barron. Overall, Hopsicker threw for 221 yards on 12-of-20 completions and ran for 90 yards, just behind Greacen, who had 92 yards on the ground for an attack that burned Skaneateles for 462 total yards. Now the Lakers get ready for Marcellus, who had to come from behind to beat Holland Patent 27-17 in its first-round game, with the winner going to the Carrier Dome Nov. 7 to face VVS or Oneida for the Class B championship. The Mustangs (7-1), who lost to Westhill in last year’s sectional final, shared the B West regular-season title with Westhill and Homer and saw Kyle Hastings ably replace record-setting Will Fiacchi at quartertback. Meanwhile, senior running back Ricky Alfreds nears 1,000 yards for the second straight year, and the Mustangs’ defense, led by Zach Wiley, Joe Felicia, Jason Decker and Steve Raven, is one of the area’s best. Skaneateles, meanwhile, contemplates its 3-5 run. The road from long-time punching bag to able puncher is a difficult one, but Green and his Lakers have taken several crucial steps in that evolutionary process, and from all indications, the growth is far from over.