With four chances to get the single yard that would deliver an early lead in Thursday night’s game at Westhill, the Skaneateles football team kept pushing for it – and kept getting denied.
It was that defensive stand that would eventually cripple the Lakers while, at the same time, send the Warriors soaring to its third straight win as it defeated Skaneateles 35-6.
Entering the game with a 1-1 mark, the Lakers knew that a win here could propel it right into the Class B West division title hunt. Westhill had those same stakes, having surprised many with its 2-0 start under first-year head coach Jamie Casullo.
On Westhill’s second possession, a fumbled snap at its own 30-yard line gave the Lakers a great chance to score, and it moved to the Warriors’ 14, only to get stopped with a series of incompletions.
But what happened in a sequence that bridged the end of the first quarter with the start of the second period that caused the most damage.
After a punt put the Lakers at midfield, it moved to the Warriors’ 27 and, from there, saw Griffin Lawson throw a rollout pass to Aubrey Leverich. Running over tacklers, Leverich barreled all the way to the one-yard line, where it was first-and-goal.
Three times, while still using the shotgun formation, the Lakers tried to run it in. Three times, Westhill’s defense pushed them back, inches short of the goal line.
That led to fourth-and-goal at the one. Now Lawson tried an option pitch, to Noah Cliff on the left side. But linebacker Cody Badman tore in from the middle and dragged Cliff down, again just short of the game’s first touchdown.
Fired up by that goal-line stand, Westhill set off on a 10-play, 99-yard drive, which featured the emergence of tailback Ja’Shai’ Jamison as the game’s offensive star.
Aside from Richie Easterly’s 27-yard pass to Casey Rogers, Jamison did most of the work, with two runs of 16 yards among his many carries, plus a five-yard TD run that put the Warriors on the board.
It didn’t even matter when Jamison had a 45-yard screen pass for a TD called back for a holding penalty, for Westhill quickly got the ball again and, with 1:26 left in the half, Easterly tried the same screen pass on the left side, and Jamison sped 39 yards on a scoring play that wasn’t called back.
Leading 14-0 at halftime, Westhill didn’t need much of a spark, but got it when, on the second play of the second half, Skaneateles fumbled a handoff, and Chase Gedney fell on it at the Lakers’ 20. Two plays later, Jamison ran 18 yards to the end zone, making it 21-0.
Even when Jamison didn’t find the end zone, he helped set things up, going 36 yards on Westhill’s next possession to set up Cole Murphy’s 13-yard scoring run midway through the third quarter.
Skaneateles finally got on the board in the fourth quarter on Lawson’s 26-yard TD pass to Tom Hagen, but Jamison returned the ensuing kickoff 40 yards, leading to his fourth TD on a 13-yard run.
With a 1-2 mark, Skaneateles returns home to Hyatt Stadium next Friday to take on Solvay. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
