In a span of just two weeks, a Westhill football team headed in the wrong direction has turned around.
With Friday night’s 35-7 romp over visiting Marcellus, the Warriors improved to 3-2 and have given itself a chance to still control its own fate in the Class B West division since it faces the top two teams, Chittenango (4-1) and Homer (5-0), to close out the regular season.
Meanwhile, Solvay, 0-4 going into October, finally got into the win column, using a pair of outbursts, one late in each half, to beat Syracuse’s Institute of Technology Central 26-14.
Westhill had routed ITC 48-16 the week before, beginning its revival that it would continue in a big way against 2-2 Marcellus, with a chance to move up in the standings at stake for both sides.
At first, it was the Warriors’ air attack that wounded the Mustangs. Zavion Barrett threw a pair of first-quarter touchdown passes, going 16 yards to Chase Gedney and 31 yards to Jesse Chester as Silvino Argentieri added extra points on both occasions.
Then with Marcellus so worried about the passing game, Westhill turned to running back Shaleek Giles, who would carry the ball 27 times for 139 yards and score each of the Warriors’ last three touchdowns.
A nine-yard scoring run by Giles made it a 21-0 margin by halftime. Then Giles scored twice more on short runs of four and three yards in the third quarter, balancing out the work of Barrett, who completed eight of 14 passes for 125 yards.
Defensively, Westhill continued to show vast improvement from its early struggles, only allowing Marcellus to find the end zone once, on Nate Garlow’s five-yard run in the third quarter. Ramy Guindy led the front line and even recorded an interception.
Solvay had fallen to Westhill in a tight 17-15 decision on Sept. 11. A pair of one-sided defeats followed, only making the Bearcats more determined to break out of its doldrums against ITC – which it did.
Much of the first half was scoreless, but Solvay broke through with 6:50 left in the second quarter with Brandon Bamba’s nine-yard TD run.
Then, just 28 seconds before intermission, the Bearcats made it 12-0 when Jake Dippold, on an option, found a wide-open Mike Yaizzo for a 38-yard scoring reception.
Trevor Stone’s eight-yard scoring run, plus a two-point conversion, cut Solvay’s margin to 12-8 and were the lone points of the third quarter, but that was as close as it would get.
Bamba found the end zone a second time on a 10-yard run with 11 minutes to play, and Dustin Harris ran in for two points to make it 20-8. After an ITC score on Jujuan Cousins’ 11-yard run, the Bearcats took the ensuing drive to a clinching touchdown, Colin Lucio scoring from one yard out with 4:17 left.
It was breakout performance for Bamba, who had 101 yards on 15 carries and also starred on defense, earning an interception and eight tackles.
Harris added 72 yards on 13 carries, with Dippold, Josh Chrysler and Garrett Lee each recovering fumbles and Dippold adding an interception. Nasir Clarke and Zach Chrysler had six tackles apiece as Solvay ventures to Cortland next Friday for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
