With a season-opening win at the Carrier Dome against Gates-Chili in the books, the Fayetteville-Manlius football team was confident that it could get to 2-0 when it visited Nottingham on Friday night.
The Bulldogs had also won its season opener, handling West Genesee 28-7, and whoever won this game would take a 2-0 record into league play.
It turned out to be Nottingham, who overcame a slow start with a timely defensive stand and big plays that ultimately overwhelmed F-M, who took a 24-13 defeat.
All looked fine for F-M when, just as in the Gates-Chili Game, it scored on its first possession, an 80-yard march where quarterback Henry Josephson converted three different third-down-and-long situations before Eric Coley scored on a six-yard run.
Still with that 7-0 lead, the Hornets again drove inside Nottingham’s 10 early in the second quarter, only to get stopped and, worst of all, see Mike Porter’s 25-yard field goal get blocked after a high snap.
From there, the entire game turned in Nottingham’s favor. Bulldogs quarterback Jevon Jones scrambled 66 yards moments after the field-goal block, setting up Malcolm Nelson to score from two yards out.
Striking again, Jones intercepted Josephson at the Bulldogs’ 15 to break up another possible F-M scoring drive. Nottingham moved to F-M’s 40, where with 1:30 in the half Jones found Carthell Flowers deep over the middle for the go-ahead TD.
Not content with a 12-7 halftime lead, the Bulldogs took the second-half kickoff and marched 72 yards, all with runs. Nelson had the big blow, a 30-yard sprint to set up Jones’ two-yard scoring plunge.
Meanwhile, Nottingham’s fast, aggressive defense contained Coley and anything else F-M tried, making several key stops in the second half. Jalin Hudson clinched the Bulldogs’ victory by going 26 yards for a touchdown with 3:31 left.
Tough as the loss was for the Hornets, it was a non-league game. And at least F-M got to play, unlike its AA-1 counterparts from Christian Brothers Academy.
On Saturday night, the Brothers found itself in the Buffalo suburbs, expecting to take on St. Francis, But heavy thunderstorms hit Western New York just before sunset, and the players never took the field, the game eventually canceled.
Thus, the Brothers only have one game in the books when it opens Class AA-1 division play against Henninger this Friday at 6:30 at Alibrandi Stadium. The Black Knights, a sectional champion as recently as 2014, lost each of its first two games to Cicero-North Syracuse and Auburn.
Then, at 7 p.m., F-M starts its home opener against Rome Free Academy, who is also 0-2, but did score 67 combined points in defeats to Utica Proctor (35-32) and Liverpool (49-35).
Bishop Grimes, who had played in the Carrier Dome on Sept. 4 and lost a 22-14 decision to Port Byron/Union Springs, fell again on Friday in a 3-0 decision to Waterville.
All game long, Grimes did a terrific job thwarting Waterville’s offense. Liam Cavanaugh had a team-high seven solo tackles and 11 overall, while Chris Jaime had eight tackles and Dom Delvecchio added seven tackles. Nigel Duffus got six tackles. Skyler Gashi recorded 1 ½ sacks.
Yet every time the Cobras tried to get something going, the Indians proved just as stingy. Cavanaugh ran for a team-high 77 yards on 13 carries, but Gashi was held to 27 yards and Newman threw only five passes, completing two of them for seven yards.
Waterville would march to the Grimes goal line late in the fourth quarter. Stopped at the one, the Indians brought in Nick Palm to kick an 18-yard field goal, the distance shorter than an extra point. That kick split the uprights, and proved to be the winning points.
Off this week, Grimes will have its rescheduled game with New York Mills on Sept. 20 in advance of a rematch against Port Byron/Union Springs four days later.
