Compared to its usual standard, the Cazenovia football team found itself sloppy, unfocused and making mental errors throughout the first quarter of Saturday’s Section III Class B opening-round playoff game against Skaneateles at Buckley-Volo Field.
And it didn’t matter one bit.
Despite all the mistakes, Cazenovia still put up a pair of touchdowns in that opening period, added four more in the second quarter and roared past those other Lakers 54-8.
This advances Cazenovia (8-0), no. 3 in the state Class B rankings, to the sectional semifinals against Westhill (7-1), who eliminated Mexico 42-28 in its first-round game. One more win sends the Lakers back to the Carrier Dome for the Nov. 9 title game against Homer or Oneida.
Everything had clicked for Cazenovia in its regular-season finale, a 64-18 destruction of Oneida. To expect a similar performance against an overmatched foe like Skaneateles, who only went 3-4 in its return to Class B after a three-season stint in Class C) was probably stretching it.
Still, there was, on Cazenovia’s opening possession, a TD run called back on a holding penalty and another scoring pass to Alex Devine that was dropped in the end zone, all part of a no-huddle spread that Cazenovia used throughout the first half.
Those were just hiccups, though, and the next time Cazenovia had the ball, Dan Phillips broke free on a 33-yard run to set up his own seven-yard TD dash. Before the period ended, it was 14-0 as, after a bad Skaneateles punt snap deep in its own territory, Keaton Ackermann found T.J. Connellan on a 19-yard scoring pass and added his second straight extra point.
Both through the air and on the ground, Ackermann helped lead the second-quarter runaway. His 39-yard scramble set up a second TD pass to Connellan on a slant, this one of 18 yards.
Three minutes later, it was 27-0, with Ackermann hitting Jake Wozniak from 13 yards out for the score. Pete DeCew intercepted Griffin Lawson on the next Skaneateles possession, leading to Ackermann’s fourth scoring pass, a 14-yard strike to a wide-open Sam Langan.
More of Cazenovia’s air attack showed itself right before halftime, Ackermann finding Jake Shaffner for 22 yards and Paul McLaughlin for 14 yards on another scoring drive that Ackermann himself finished with a four-yard jaunt to the end zone.
With the score 41-0 at halftime, and the game in hand, they used a running clock in the second half, though Ackermann scored again on a 15-yard run before Skaneateles finally got on the board on Lawson’s short TD run with 7:43 left. Shaffner, taking a turn under center, hit McLaughlin for his first touchdown of the season late in the period.
For the game, Ackermann ran for 136 yards on 13 carries, and completed 10 of 22 passes for 156 yards. Dan Phillps added 82 yards on the ground as Hayden Polhamus, with seven tackles, and Cyle Dennis, with six tackles, paced the defense.
Attention now turned to Westhill, a team that didn’t have high expectations when the season got underway, but flourished under first-year head coach Jamie Casullo thanks to a strong passing attack led by quarterback Richie Easterly, the running of Ja’Shai’ Jamison and an aggressive defense with a big front four, anchored by Casey Rogers and Chase Gedney.
Another factor will be Cazenovia adjusting to its first game on an artificial surface after playing all eight of its previous contests on grass. All but one of the Warriors’ games have taken place on various “Field Turf” venues, including the Dome, where it beat Fonda-Fultonville in the Sept. 6 season opener and where it wants to return at the expense of the two-time defending sectional champions.
