Even before the month of September reached its midway point, the Jamesville-DeWitt and East Syracuse Minoa football teams may have already established themselves as the Class A American division’s top two sides.

If that is the case, then their clash next Friday night at Spartan Stadium might decide the league title, and if nothing else, both the Red Rams and Spartans go in there with a load of confidence.

J-D claimed its second consecutive road victory by venturing to Fulton on Friday night and, more than anything else, depending on its rapidly improving defense to deliver a 28-7 victory over the Red Raiders.

ESM, meanwhile, made the same trip to New Hartford that J-D had taken, successfully, seven days earlier, and piled up the points, most of it from Jeremy Perry’s six touchdowns, to win this Spartan clash by a 52-34 margin.

In J-D’s case, it was playing its league opener at Fulton, who had lost to Carthage 42-19 the week before, and would never get into the argument here against the stingy Rams.

Rahmel Smith, who netted three touchdowns at New Hartford in his team’s 48-21 opening win on Sept. 4, again provided the J-D spark against the Red Raiders when he caught a long pass from Josh Kowalczyk and took it 70 yards to the end zone in the opening period.

That big play was needed, since the rest of the first half belonged to the defenses. Every J-D stop was answered by a Fulton stop, and the Rams clung to that 6-0 edge going into the break.

Not until Smith scored a second time, on a six-yard run early in the third quarter, did the Rams’ getaway commence. Jhakeer Jamison, who had 62 total yards on the night, added a one-yard TD run, and Eli Williams scored from four yards out in the final period.

While this was going on, J-D’s deep, fast defensive unit continually pounded away at the Red Raiders, not letting them on the board until the final period, by which point the Rams’ win was secure.

ESM took a lot of confidence from its 38-33 defeat to neighbor Fayetteville-Manlius the week before, seeing how it could produce points in a hurry, even when trailing by 19 points before taking the lead on the Hornets in the fourth quarter.

Now, at New Hartford, that surge came early, to the tune of 40 first-half points. And Jeremy Perry, who had netted four touchdowns at F-M, got it going in the first quarter, catching scoring passes of 45 and 13 yards from Jake Rodman.

During that same opening period, New Hartford’s Dominic Pfisterer made a 94-yard dash to the end zone, and he would score again in the half – amid a decisive ESM flurry.

Four times in the second quarter, ESM crossed the goal line, and Perry had three of them, finding the end zone on runs of 12, six and three yards. Greg Buck joined in with a four-yard TD plunge, just for a bit of variety.

Perry’s fifth and sixth TD’s of the night, on runs of six and three yards, put him at double digits (10) for touchdowns this fall, the most of anyone in Section III. Now it’s up to J-D’s stout defense to try and figure out some way to keep him from more point-scoring mayhem.