A large portion of the regular season remains for the Jamesville-DeWitt and East Syracuse-Minoa football teams, including all of their play in the Class A American division.
But when the two neighbors clash next Friday at ESM Stadium, they’ll do so sporting 0-2 records after the Red Rams’ valiant comeback fell short in a 24-21 defeat to Whitesboro and the Spartans took a 32-21 defeat to Indian River.
And while that was going on, Bishop Grimes, trying to go to 2-0 just five days removed from an overtime win over New York Mills in the Carrier Dome, nearly pulled it off, but in yet another OT drama, it fell to the Onondaga Tigers 18-12.
J-D had faced Indian River in its season opener, falling behind 38-0 before taking a 38-21 defeat. Back home, the Red Rams again found itself in a catch-up mode against the same Whitesboro side it shut out 14-0 in the opening round of the Section III Class A playoffs a year ago.
The game was scoreless until the second quarter, when the Warriors scored twice to grab a 14-0 lead. And when Donte Filleti found Nick Giruzzi for a 58-yard touchdown pass early in the third quarter, J-D trailed 21-0 and, again, appeared out of the contest.
Here, though, was where the cliche of having the most improvement from the first game to the second game kicked in for J-D. All it took was one big play – Jhakeer Jamison taking a handoff and racing 74 yards to the end zone, the extra point making it 21-7 going to the fourth quarter.
Fired up by that play, the Rams’ defense made several consecutive stops, and J-D started pounding away with its ground game in a pair of fourth-quarter scoring drives.
Ernest Shaw finished one of them with a five-yard run. After a missed conversion, the Rams drove to the Warriors’ one again and, after Shaw scored his second TD, Jamison ran in for two points, tying the game 21-21.
The only negative was that it left Whitesboro enough time to move down the field and eat up the remaining portion of the regulation clock. Stalled at the J-D 15, the Warriors sent in Gary Caseb, and with three seconds left his 32-yard field goal split the uprights and produced the winning points.
It didn’t come down to a kick at ESM, but the Spartans, trying to recover from a season-opening 47-13 defeat to Vestal in the Dome on Sept. 5, would get that many points in the first quarter against an Indian River side that tried not to look ahead to next week’s sectional finals rematch with Carthage.
ESM struck on the defensive side when Scott Irons picked up a Warrior fumble and returned it 30 yards for a TD. Then K’Hari Flagg scored on a 22-yard run, and the Spartans had a 13-6 lead.
But in the game’s middle stages, IR’s defense took over, blanking ESM during the second and third quarters and giving the visitors ample time to move in front.
Densel Barnes, who had already scored on a 44-yard run, threw 12 yards to Gary Ruckman for a TD, and the two-point play gave the Warriors a 14-13 halftime lead. Then Barnes threw a second scoring pass, 30 yards to Connor Brown, and Dustin Sharitt found the end zone on a 40-yard run.
Now trailing 26-13, ESM didn’t surrender easily, and closed the gap on RiQuelle Othman’s two-yard TD run and a two-point conversion that made it 26-21, but seconds later IR’s Dequan Brown offered an emphatic answer, going 60 yards for the clinching TD.
For sheer excitement, though, nothing compared to what happened at Onondaga. Bishop Grimes didn’t let the possible fatigue of playing twice in six days prevent them from yet another terrific OT effort against the Tigers, who were seeking its first win of the season.
Christopher Jamie scored the only points of the first half for the Cobras on a six-yard TD run in the second quarter. Down 6-0 at the break, OCS pulled even in the third period on Evan Gantly’s five-yard scoring run.
Through a tense fourth quarter, it remained unresolved, Grimes shaking off a fumble in the end zone that the Tigers’ Kevin Krause recovered for a TD and putting together a late scoring drive that Jamie finished off by scoring from four yards out.
Finding itself in OT again (each team gets a possession on the 20-yard line), Grimes made a defensive stop, but with a chance to win it on its possession, the Cobras could not convert.
Then, when Grimes went first in the second OT, it fumbled, and the Tigers recovered. Seconds later, Brett Milligan took off from the 20 and went in for the TD to help OCS survive and prevail.
