A short regular season in high school football means that there’s little time to commiserate after a defeat, and that a slump must be avoided.
Knowing all this, the Chittenango Bears ventured to Phoenix on Friday afternoon and, in an efficient manner, rolled past the Firebirds 36-0, bouncing back from its 40-13 defeat to Skaneateles that opened the season seven days earlier.
At the very least, what the Bears wanted to do was take care of the ball. A large reason why it lost at Skaneateles was turnovers, three of which turned into Laker touchdowns.
Chittenango took care of that problem and, more importantly, made the big plays when they were necessary. Late in a scoreless first quarter, facing third-down-and-25, Justin Gondeck converted it with a 37-yard pass to Austin Seguin, setting up Anthony Lozipone’s eight-yard touchdown run.
Just as the period ended, Phoenix, pinned in its own end, made a big error with a fumble that Justin Cox pounced on at the Firebirds’ one-yard line. Josh Diable scored one play later, and when Mike Addison ran int for two points, the Bears had a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter.
Though Chittenango did commit another turnover, it didn’t cost them, and when the Bears’ defense held, Addison struck again, taking off for 27 yards and then, from the Firebirds’ six, finding the end zone on a TD pass from Gondeck. Though the conversion failed, the Bears were up 20-0, where it stood at halftime.
Not wanting Phoenix to hang around, Chittenango used its first possession of the second half to score again. From the Firebirds’ 41, Gondeck went deep, found Duncan Smith and watched Smith streak in for six points, and Addison add two more on a conversion run.
Gondeck, who completed all 10 of the passes he attempted for 179 yards, added a third TD pass later that period, 21 yards to Hunter Hendrix, but even with that big lead the Bears’ defense maintained its full effort, preserving the shutout with a series of stops.
It will get much tougher when Chittenango ventures to Marcellus next Friday at 7 p.m. The Mustangs are 2-0, having erased a 22-point halftime deficit to beat Solvay 38-28 and then scored all of its points in the second half to stop Skaneateles 35-20.
All told, Marcellus has put up 67 points in the second halves of its pair of wins, and the Bears need to curb that if it wants a 2-1 mark going into its long-awaited home opener Sept. 26 against Homer.
