Long before he stepped onto the Carrier Dome turf Saturday night with his Fayetteville-Manlius football teammates for the Kickoff Classic, Eric Coley was touted as the sort of player that might prove a difference-maker.
That hype was certainly matched by the initial results.
Coley did it all as the Hornets defeated Section V opponent Gates-Chili 35-19, both launching F-M into the lead early, and then converting again when the Spartans attempted a late comeback.
For the game, Coley had 21 carries for 218 yards, scoring three touchdowns. He also ran wild on the defensive side, recording 11 tackles, three of them sacks.
It didn’t take long for Coley to make a big impact. On the Hornets’ opening possession, Coley, from the Gates-Chili 42-yard line, took a handoff and found a lane to the end zone for his teams’ first points of the season.
Later in the first quarter, F-M was again at the Spartans’ 42. This time around, Coley went wide, took a pass from Henry Josephson and didn’t stop until he had his second touchdown of the night.
The Hornets’ lead expanded again in the second period with a drive to the Gates-Chili 15, from where James Rettinger finished it off, the TD and Mike Porter extra point (he went five-for-five on conversions) making it 21-0.
Perhaps surprised at how well things were going, F-M relaxed – and nearly blew the lead before halftime.
Gates-Chili got on the board with Jaquan Gilbert’s five-yard scoring run with 5:42 left in the second quarter. Barely three minutes later, the Spartans struck again, Chrisean Davis-Pinckney breaking loose on a 53-yard TD sprint with a missed PAT.
When Corey Powell picked off Josephson, the Spartans had a chance to tie it, but the Hornets’ defense did make the stop here, so it was 21-13 going into the break.
F-M then proved generous at the start of the third quarter, trying an onside kick that didn’t work. Gates-Chili, with the short field, drove to the end zone, Gilbert netting his second TD on a three-yard run.
Though a possible tying two-point try didn’t work, the Spartans were within two, 21-19. Someone was needed to revive the Hornets – and Coley did so, capping off a drive by going 20 yards to the goal line for his third touchdown of the evening.
That made it 28-19, and Coley, striking again on defense, earned a key sack to help F-M get the ball back in Spartans territory in the fourth quarter. F-M clinched it when Brody Phelan scored on a four-yard run with 4:57 left.
A night later, Bishop Grimes opened its season at the Dome against the combined Port Byron/Union Springs side, and put up quite a battle, only to fall to the Panthers 22-14.
Grimes only had the opportunity to play in the Dome when South Lewis canceled its regular season in late August. From there, the schedule was rearranged, and the Cobras would replace the Falcons as Port Byron/Union Springs’ Dome opponent and then face them again later in September.
Perhaps too fired up to play on the big stage, Grimes hurt itself with penalties throughout a scoreless first quarter. Then the two sides traded scoring drives in the second period, the Cobras getting on the board with Jordan Newman’s 18-yard TD pass to Sean Gashi, followed by Newman running in for two points.
PB/US saw Devontae House score from seven yards out and add his own conversion, and it was tied, 8-8, at halftime. During the third quarter, the Panthers again took the lead on Nick Valentino’s two-yard scoring run, and again Grimes answered, Liam Cavanaugh netting the TD on a seven-yard sprint.
So it was 14-14 going to the final period, where PB/US took its third lead with a long scoring drive capped by Valentino’s three-yard scoring pass to Chris Hickey. House added the two-point run and, try as it could, Grimes could not forge a third deadlock and get it to overtime.
The 1-0 Hornets pay a visit to Nottingham Friday night at 6:30. The Bulldogs also won its season opener, handling West Genesee 28-7. That same night, Bishop Grimes visits Waterville.
