Not in 18 years has the Chittenango football team started so well – and not since 2004 has it grabbed even a piece of a regular-season title, either.
But this group of Bears is casting aside plenty of recent struggles and making some history of its own, further helping the cause with Friday night’s 45-14 home victory over Westhill.
This win pushed Chittenango, no. 13 in the latest state Class C rankings, to claim the outright Class B West division regular-season championship, having completed a perfect run through the league.
That it was finished off against Westhill was entirely appropriate. In recent years, the Warriors had dominated B West, winning a string of regular-season titles and Section III championships, too, the last of them in 2009.
However, the Westhill team that came to Chittenango on this night was 1-5 and on its way out of the post-season. To this, the Bears showed little sympathy, bolting out to a 20-0 lead by the end of the first quarter.
Devin Christopher capped off Chittenango’s opening drive, diving two yards for a touchdown. When the Bears got the ball back, it was Devin Phelps finding the end zone on a 29-yard run, and Phelps struck again by hitting Steve Billington on a 34-yard scoring pass.
Though the Bears cooled off a bit in the second quarter, its defense, led by Tyler Chmielewski (six tackles), continued to shut down anything Westhill tried. And Phelps tacked on a 28-yard TD run, extending Chittenango’s lead to 26-0 at the break.
Only in the third quarter did the Warriors get on the board, on TD runs of 19 and 22 yards by Christian St. Amour that cut the margin to 26-14.
Unruffled, the Bears reclaimed control with a trio of scoring drives that covered a good portion of the second half. Kyle Zimmer helped with this, running for 101 yards on 17 carries.
Phelps, who finished with 110 yards on nine carries, added his third TD on a six-yard run, and Christopher found the end zone twice on one-yard plunges.
Chittenango will play its neighbors from Cazenovia next Friday night to close the regular season – and possibly offer a preview for the Section III finals in early November. Game time is 7 p.m.
