Excitement and tension were part of the Chittenango football team’s formula from the start of this 2015 season, so it only figured that its return to the Section III Class B playoffs would prove exciting and tense.
The Bears could not hold a double-digit second-half lead in Friday night’s Class B opening-round game against Mexico, but recovered just in time to get the big play it needed down the stretch and defeat the Tigers 34-26.
Every bit of Chittenango’s character was put to the examination when, up 26-13, it saw Mexico score twice in a two-minute span of the fourth quarter to catch up and pull even.
It started when Reed Fravor finished off a Mexico drive with a 10-yard touchdown run with 9:28 left, and the extra point made it 26-19. When the Bears got the ball back, an errant throw went into the hands of the Tigers’ Kyle Pettit, and he returned it 35 yards for six points.
Fortunately for Chittenango, Jordan Burdick missed a possible go-ahead PAT, so it remained 26-26, but the Bears had to show that the sudden turn of events did not rattle them.
Facing its most important drive of the season, Chittenango moved to Mexico’s 31-yard line. Then Connor Frederick found a scheme and, with textbook blocking, tore to the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown with 4:44 to play. Then Justin Gondeck ran in for two points.
Down by eight, Mexico still had a chance to pull back even and force overtime, but were stopped, Brian Coe making the sack on Dante Turo the game’s final play.
This was merely the final scenes of a game that had plenty of big plays and sprang to life in the second quarter following a scoreless opening period where the Tigers missed a chance to go in front, unable to score after a Bears fumble deep in its own territory.
Duncan Smith struck that first big blow, taking a Mexico punt and returning it 74 yards for a TD with 10:52 left in the half. Turo answered for the Tigers with a 12-yard scoring pass to Jace Eastman,
They were still 6-6 when, 1:40 before halftime, Smith, on fourth down, bolted 21 yards up the middle for six points. Before Mexico could recover, Hunter Hendrix intercepted Turo for the second time deep in Tigers territory, setting up Gondeck’s two-yard TD plunge.
That 18-6 lead at the break was not safe, though. Mexico cut the margin to five with a scoring drive early in the third period that Turo finished off with a one-yard run, only to have Smith take the ensuing kickoff on a 73-yard sprint to the end zone that included several changes in direction.
Gondeck’s two-point pass to Austin Seguin extended the margin to 26-13, but as it turned out, Mexico had one more rally in them, requiring Chittenango to demonstrate its late-game mettle again.
Smith and Frederick both finished with 118 yards on the ground, getting that total on just 15 combined carries. Hendrix had seven tackles on defense to go with his pair of interceptions.
Now Chittenango faces its biggest game in three years – a clash with Madison County neighbor Cazenovia in next Friday’s sectional Class B semifinal, which kicks off at 5 p.m. at Fayetteville-Manlius High School’s turf field.
This is the first time since the 2012 sectional final (won by the Lakers 35-21) that the Bears have met Cazenovia. Aside from local bragging rights, a trip to the Carrier Dome for next Saturday’s sectional final against Homer or Vernon-Verona-Sherrill is at stake.
