What took place for the Chittenango football team at Skaneateles on Sept. 23, when it saw an eight-point lead with less than a minute to play turn into a 19-16 defeat, had the potential to alter a promising season.
But the Bears didn’t let that happen.
In its only non-league game of the fall, Chittenango went to Dryden Friday night and saw its defense again take charge, recording its second shutout of the season and twice getting on the scoreboard as it defeated the Lions 27-0.
Hunter Hendrix, as he has done so many times before, proved the leader of Chittenango’s defense. He recorded 20 tackles, earned an interception and offered the game’s exclamation point by picking up a fumble deep in Dryden territory and returning it eight yards for a touchdown.
But that wasn’t the Bears’ first defensive points. That came thanks to a safety that followed the first TD of the night, a 30-yard run by Christian Cerio, who was just one small part of a diverse ground attack.
Griffen Smith’s 61-yard run capped a night where he had 99 yards on just nine carries. Conner Fredericks had 87 yards on 13 carries, with Cerio adding 68 yards and Antonio Cutrie 48 yards.
It was Cutrie netting the Bears’ second TD of the night on a three-yard run and Fredericks scoring from five yards out to make it 19-0 after Matt Collado made the extra point. Chittenango did offer a passing game, too, as Cooper Young completed five of 14 passes for 131 yards.
While this was going on, the Class B West race got tighter. Marcellus beat Skaneateles 35-24 and Homer blanked Westhill 21-0, so the Mustangs and Trojans are tied with the Bears with equal 3-1 league records.
Thus, the regular-season league title will go to Chittenango if it wins its last two-regular season games, against Homer and Marcellus, with the 4-1 Trojans visiting Bear Country next Friday at 7 p.m.
