SYRACUSE — Whether it was four years without a Section III Class A title, or the pain of dropping last November’s title game to the eventual state champions from Indian River, the East Syracuse Minoa football team didn’t need to look far for motivation when it returned to the Carrier Dome for Friday night’s Section III Class A final against Whitesboro.
Just like 2014, though, it didn’t end the way the Spartans wanted it to.
Three first-half turnovers, including two interceptions returned by Matt Parkinson for touchdowns, proved too much for ESM to overcome as it lost, 30-12, to the Warriors.
Spartans head coach Kevin DeParde said those early turnovers had an effect on his team, forcing them to press the issue, and added that Whitesboro didn’t give anything to them, staying relatively mistake-free for the night.
Much of the lead-up to the game centered around whether Whitesboro’s defense could keep ESM’s primary weapon, Jeremy Perry, from adding to his Section III-best total of 35 touchdowns and running over the Warriors’ championship dreams.
Yet the Spartans had showed, in its 34-15 semifinal win over Fulton on Oct. 30, that it could diversify the attack and have tailback Greg Buck produce the same kind of yards that Perry could.
Immediately, Perry made his presence known, returning the opening kickoff 44 yards to midifeld. But on the third play from scrimmage, Matt Parkinson stepped in front of Jake Rodman’s pass and returned it, untouched, 50 yards for a Whitesboro touchdown.
Down 7-0, and with the game less than a minute old, ESM reverted to form, running Perry nine times in an 11-play drive, only to get stopped at the Warriors’ 28. One possession later, Rodman got intercepted again, this time by Jon Wheeler on the sideline at the Spartans’ 40.
Mixing up runs from Darnae Camp and Mike Cirasulo, Whitesboro drove to the ESM one, where a fumbled snap forced the Warriors to settle for Gary Casab’s 21-yard field goal with 8:40 left in the half.
continued — Again, ESM drove deep into Whitesboro territory and, again, got stopped on downs. These missed opportunities added up, and the Warriors’ defense wasn’t done inflicting untimely pain.
Trying once more to get on the board in the last minute of the half, ESM instead saw Parkinson intercept Rodman a second time and, picking up blocks, go 90 yards to the other end zone for his second TD of the night.
Thus, instead of a three-point deficit, it was a 17-0 margin ESM had to overcome. Yet the Spartans knew that, one year earlier, it trailed Whitesboro 35-10 in the sectional semifinals and rallied for a 38-35 victory.
Of course, the Warriors were quite aware of that same fact, but still couldn’t keep ESM from getting on the board late in the third quarter. A two-yard Casab punt set up a 63-yard, 13-play Spartan march that finally produced points when Perry scored from two yards out.
As the fourth quarter got underway, ESM faced fourth-down-and-two on its own 40. Head coach Kevin DeParde chose to go for it, but a toss to Buck got stacked up by Whitesboro near the sideline.
Ultimately, that gamble would dissolve the Spartans’ rally. Changing the field position, Whitesboro turned a short field created by Cirasuolo’s 23-yard punt return into six points when Cirasuolo returned to score from 15 yards out with 8:47 to play.
Less than two minutes later, ESM, trailing 23-6, regained some ground when Perry scored on a two-yard run set up by Rodman’s 27-yard pass to Ty Barkins. But Cirasuolo locked it up for the Warriors when he scored on a 30-yard run with 2:35 left.
So there was no comeback this time, and Whitesboro earned its first sectional title since 2010, along with the chance to end mighty Maine-Endwell’s state-record 61-game win streak in next Friday’s regional final at Binghamton’s Alumni Stadium as ESM’s season ended with an 8-2 record.
