In recent weeks, as the Cazenovia football team reestablished its usual position atop the Class B East division standings, it did so with a barrage of points – 128 of them – in home routs over Camden and South Jefferson.
But when the state no. 17-ranked Lakers ventured to Central Valley Academy on Friday night, it was the defense that made the loudest possible statement, shutting out the Thunder as Cazenovia prevailed by a 28-0 margin.
A couple of weeks ago, this game loomed as a championship showdown, when CVA had started 3-0 and the Lakers had absorbed its stunning home defeat to Utica-Notre Dame.
However, the Thunder had slumped with back-to-back losses to Mexico and Vernon-Verona-Sherrill by a combined 58-8 margin, and the Lakers weren’t about to pull them out of that slump.
A pair of first-half scoring drives put Cazenovia in control. Anthony Vecchiarelli converted on a 14-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, and Austin Enders found the end zone from 15 yards out in the second period.
That 14-0 lead looked a lot larger with the Lakers’ defense thwarting anything CVA tried to establish, and everyone seemed to contribute. Enders led the unit with seven tackles, while Ben Nichols had six tackles. Matt McLaughlin, Will Kmetz and Will Khalil earned five tackles apiece as Jack Eldred added four tackles.
Even with this, Cazenovia would score twice more in the third quarter. Enders went eight yards for his second TD of the night and Matt Regan followed with a 13-yard dash to the end zone, also making all four of his extra-point attempts.
All game long, Cody Thorp anchored the Lakers’ ground game, finishing with 190 yards on 17 carries, the longest of them going 65 yards. Vecchiarelli added 108 yards on 11 carries, one of them going for 40 yards.
While the Lakers improved to 5-1 on the season, Chittenango, with an opportunity to do the same and inch closer to a Class B West regular-season title, instead saw those hopes crippled with a 26-0 defeat to Homer.
Both the Bears and Trojans came into the game with 3-1 league marks, tied for first with Marcellus, a team Chittenango faces in next Friday’s regular-season finale.
Thus, with a chance to secure the outright league title with two wins, the Bears never got close to the first one, watching a Trojan side that struggled on defense early this season put together its second straight shutout, having blanked Westhill 21-0 a week earlier.
At least for a while, Chittenango’s defense, who has two shutouts of its own this fall, kept up well, only allowing a single Homer touchdown in the first half on Kevin Bush’s three-yard run in the first quarter.
It was still 7-0 in the third quarter, when Bush broke the game open with a 33-yard run to the end zone. Then Homer put things away by scoring twice more in the final period, on Jacob Rivers’ 18-yard pass to Matt Guerra and John Horner’s one-yard TD plunge.
Horner finished with 123 yards on 27 carries, while the Bears’ top rusher, Tyrrell Downer, had just 51 yards on eight carries. Cooper Young completed eight of 14 passes for 85 yards.
Defensively for the Bears, Young finished with a team-best 10 tackles. Sam Hill (nine tackles), Hunter Hendrix, Brian Coe (seven tackles each) and Diego Prado (six tackles) were close behind.Homer’s Lucas Sears led his team’s defense by recording 13 tackles, seven of them solo.
Despite the loss, the Bears are assured of a sectional playoff spot, Where it ends up in the B West standings depends on how it does against Marcellus next Friday, plus other league results.
Cazenovia, for its part, has a short week to get ready for Thursday’s regular-season finale at Oneida – which got a lot more important when the Indians edged rival VVS 13-12 to move to 4-2. Only a win assures the Lakers of, at worst, a share of the league title and a first-round playoff home game.
