Where the Fayetteville-Manlius football team was a season ago was a place that Henninger, the reigning Section III Class AA champions, now finds quite familiar.
Back in 2014, no one could stop the Black Knights, whose senior-heavy lineup produced an undefeated regular season, a Section III Class AA title and a ride all the way to the state semifinals before falling to eventual state champion Jamestown.
But then the seniors graduated and, worse yet, long-time head coach Dave Kline left to take the position at Ciccero-North Syracuse.
What’s followed, under new head coach Kevin Ryan, has proven painful for Henninger, with lopsided defeats to Newburgh Free Academy (64-0) and Corning (42-21) before F-M paid a visit to Sunnycrest Field on Saturday afternoon.
Of course, the Hornets had no intention of making things easier, and with timely big plays and a defense that showed signs of improvement, F-M defeated the Black Knights 27-21 in the Class AA-2 division opener, improving to 2-1 overall.
It only took a matter of seconds for F-M to find itself trailing like it did when it lost to Vestal on Sept. 11. Henninger’s Emetri Allen took the opening kickoff, picked up some blocks and ran it all the way back for a touchdown.
That didn’t seem to bother the Hornets one bit, for it promptly took the ball on its own 16-yard line and marched 84 yards to a tying score. Henry Josephson went in the end zone, and the extra point tied it, 7-7.
They stayed that way until late in the second quarter, when another F-M drive ended in Kyle McGee’s one-yard scoring plunge. Now it was the Black Knights’ turn to counter, and it quickly marched to the Hornets’ three, from where Deven Redden put it in.
By far, the game’s biggest play took place with 33 seconds left in the half. Situated right near midfield, Josephson, seeing duty at quarterback in place of Jared Shaw, threw deep – and found Matt Truman, the 51-yard scoring strike giving F-M a 21-14 edge at the break.
Fired up by that play, F-M’s defense proceeded to blank Henninger in the third quarter, and the Hornets again found the end zone, Truman scoring for the second time from one yard out.
Still, it wasn’t done. The Black Knights moved within one score on Shawn Johnson’s TD pass to Kewan White, but F-M stopped Henninger from there and held on.
Now the Hornets are back home on Friday to face Baldwinsville (2-1) at 7 p.m. The Bees are coming off one of the most remarkable comebacks in the program’s long history, when it erased a 26-0 deficit to stun Auburn 50-46, so F-M knows another wild, exciting contest may await them.
