All through this special 2019 season, a rallying cry for the Solvay football team was the number 6.5 – which represented the distance, in miles between their high school and the Dome at Syracuse University, where Section III championships are decided.
Now the Bearcats will make that coveted 6.5-mile trip, having survived a tense 42-39 battle with New Hartford in Friday night’s sectional Class B semifinal at Jamesville-DeWitt where it nearly surrendered a 16-point fourth-quarter lead, but were rescued by big plays on defense.
Marcellus almost joined Solvay in the Dome, but in its Class B semifinal against undefeated Oneida at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s Sheveron Field, the Mustangs squandered two different second-half leads, including one in the final minutes, to take a painful 41-34 defeat to the Indians.
Solvay fully expected 7-1, state no. 12-ranked New Hartford to push them, yet for a while it looked to be far less stressful than the previous two weeks, when it trailed both Homer and Cazenovia before prevailing.
It was the Bearcats’ defense striking first when Elijah Wright intercepted a Spartans pass at midfield and took it back for a first-quarter touchdown. New Hartford answerd by having Colin Oczkowski intercept Brock Bagozzi and then catch a 36-yard scoring pass from Camron Story, though the conversion was missed.
Leading 7-6 going to the second quarter, Solvay almost got away here, thanks to Justin Scott, who broke open and caught a 72-yard TD pass from Bagozzi and then intercepted a pass to set up Jaimen Bliss going 12 yards to the end zone.
When Russell Tarbell scored from 48 yards out with two minutes left in the half, the Bearcats owned a 28-6 advantage – but New Hartford managed to answer right before intermission on Tyler Potocki’s 15-yard TD scramble.
That foreshadowed the drama of the second half. Potock’s 48-yard TD pass to Logan Kraft, plus a two-point conversion, cut Solvay’s advantage to 28-20 and, worse yet, Bliss had to leave the game with an injury.
Scott flipped the momentum again when he matched Wright in returning a New Hartford interception 27 yards for a TD, but again the Spartans fought back, Potocki’s six-yard run making it 35-26 going to the fourth quarter.
Bagozzi’s four-yard scoring pass to Wright and the extra point turned out to be the winning points because New Hartford, trailing 42-26, would not go away.
A pair of Spartans drives led to TD runs by Vinny Fannelli of two and 17 yards, and with four minutes left Marvin Nelson intercepted Bagozzi near the end zone, giving New Hartford a chance to move out in front.
From near midfield, Potocki threw deep, and looked to have an open receiver – but Scott took the ball away for his third interception of the night with 2:10 left. A long run from Wright then allowed the Bearcats to run out the clock – and reach its first sectional final since 2003.
Marcellus badly wanted to join Solvay in the Dome, and if not for a late-game kick return, may have done so against an Oneida side that entered the night 8-0 and no. 10 in the state Class B rankings.
Undaunted by the Indians scoring on its first possession of the game, the Mustangs used its ground game to set up Sean Tierney’s one-yard TD sneak and, less than a minute into the second quarter, took a 14-7 lead when Tierney again scored on a sneak.
Neither team passed until Oneida’s Jordan Clark hit Zander Farr on a 64-yard TD pass seconds after the Mustangs went in front. A missed conversion allowed Marcellus to maintain a one-point edge that it expanded when again it scored on the ground with Nick Kermes’ eight-yard run.
The 21 points the Mustangs scored in the first half topped what the Indians had allowed in any full game this season, and then Marcellus added more in the third quarter as Kermes scampered 52 yards to set up his own four-yard scoring dash.
Though up 28-13, the Mustangs proved far from safe.
Stephen Cafalone ran 53 yards to set up his two-yard TD plunge, and after the Indians blocked a Marcellus punt, Farr dashed 22 yards to the goal line, though another missed conversion meant that it was 28-27 with one period left.
Suddenly, the Mustangs’ offense stalled, and Oneida drove again, Clark scoring from one yard out with 7:04 to play to get his team in front. Undaunted, Marcellus put together a clutch drive, consuming more than four minutes of clock.
Kermes had the key run inside the Indians’ five, and he finished off the drive with 2:11 to play. Though the two-point attempt missed, the Mustangs led 34-33, and thought it only needed one defensive stop.
Instead, on the ensuing kickoff Clark, picking up the ball at his own 27, found a wall of blockers and dashed 73 yards down the left sideline for a go-ahead touchdown. Cafalone then added a two-point conversion.
Time remained for the Mustangs, and helped by a fourth-down pass from Tierney to Brian Suarez, it drove to the Indians’ 26. One more good throw was needed, but instead Tierney was picked off by Will Merrell in the end zone.
So it’s Oneida, in pursuit of a first sectional crown since 2008, against Solvay. Ironically, the Bearcats’ last title in 2002 was claimed over the Indians.
Next Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Dome, they meet again for a championship.
