Once at 0-2, the Marcellus football team has built a month-long win streak and is charging toward another appearance in the Section III Class B playoffs.
The Mustangs made it four in a row Friday night when, in front of the home crowd, it broke a tight battle with Phoenix open in the third quarter on its way to beating the Firebirds 28-14.
Never trailing, Marcellus struck in the first quarter, moving to Phoenix’s one-yard line before quarterback Kyle Hastings plunged in for the touchdown and Nick Nye added the extra point.
Later in that period, Phoenix’s Josh Morse broke through the Mustangs’ defense and took off on a 57-yard scoring run, only to see the Firebirds miss the conversion, keeping it 7-6.
And there it stayed, through a scoreless second period, as the teams went to halftime still separated by a single point. But in the third quarter, Marcellus exploded for 21 unanswered points.
Nye was responsible for most of it. A star on both sides of the ball, Nye had his best offensive effort to date, scoring on a 27-yard run early in that pivotal third period.
Minutes later, Nye burned Phoenix’s defense again, this time going 54 yards for six points to make it 21-6, and before Phoenix could regroup, Marcellus put together one more scoring drive that Chris Martin finished with a one-yard plunge.
Though Morse hit Tyler Button on a 52-yard TD pass in the final period and hit Jonathan Cross for two points, Phoenix could not get any closer.
By contrast, Westhill, heading out of the post-season picture, watched Chittenango clinch the Class B West regular-season title Friday night, taking a 45-14 loss to the Bears.
The Warriors could not recover from Chittenango’s 20 unanswered points in the first quarter, which included Devin Phelps scoring on a 29-yard run and throwing a 34-yard TD pass to Steve Billington.
And the deficit grew to 26-0 by halftime. Briefly, Westhill would regroup, as Christian St. Amour twice found the end zone in the third quarter on runs of 19 and 22 yards, cutting the margin to 26-14.
All that did, though, was make the Bears angry, and the hosts took over for the rest of the night. Both Phelps and Devin Christopher earned three touchdowns as the state Class B no. 12-ranked Bears improved to 6-0.
Westhill faces Mexico on Friday, just as Solvay and Marcellus close the regular season with each other to play for the Tom Anthony Memorial Cup. The Bearcats, still winless in 2011, took a 48-0 shutout loss to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill last Saturday afternoon.
