One victory separates the Marcellus football team from gaining part, or all, of the Class B West division regular-season championship while securing, at the same time, the top seed from the league for the Section III playoffs.
The Mustangs are tied with Homer for first place B West, but the Mustangs hold the head-to-head tie-breaker because of its Sept. 9 win at Homer. Since then, the Trojans haven’t lost, including back-to-back shutouts over Westhill and Chittenango the last two weeks.
Marcellus has its own game against Chittenango to close the regular season, but only after Friday’s game against Syracuse’s Institute of Technology Central, who led at halftime before the Mustangs took over in the last two periods and put away the Eagles 35-16.
That margin didn’t reflect the stress of the early going. Nate Lukins and Shane Rohe both found the end zone for Marcellus in the first half, on runs of five yards (Lukins) and four yards (Rohe), but ITC’s defense didn’t let Tom Fiacchi and the rest of the Mustangs’ passing game take charge.
Lukins’ touchdown was answered when the Eagles’ Ny’shawn Jennings returned the ensuing kickoff 90 yards for six points and Chaunel Flowers found Jordan Marcano for two points. And after Rohe converted, it was Flowers going to the end zone on a 39-yard strike to Jujuan Cousins before Jennings ran in the two-point conversion.
With that, Marcellus fell behind, 16-14, where it stood at halftime, something that didn’t sit well with the Mustangs, whose used physical play to wear ITC down throughout the second half.
Fiacchi put his team ahead with a long third-quarter drive that led to his own one-yard scoring sneak, with Rohe adding the two-pointer. That put Marcellus ahead, 22-16, but it struck a bigger blow early in the fourth quarter when Fiacchi, from his own, 42, threw deep and found Nate Garlow, who went to the end zone. Just to sew it up, Fiacchi scrambled 25 yards for another TD in the final minutes.
If Marcellus can beat Chittenango this Friday, it would get the top sectional playoff seed ahead of Homer, who has its own game ITC to close the regular season.
Far from all this, Westhill would see its post-season hopes dashed, and since it was playing a non-league game against Rochester Bishop Kearney, there was not much it could do about that fate.
Still, the Warriors did want to beat the Kings, but could not do so, taking a 38-20 defeat. Trailing 14-0 early, Westhill got even, 14-14, by halftime, on Silvio Argentieri’s 12-yard TD pass to Casey Rogers and Marcus Welch’s 15-yard scoring run.
Argentieri’s back-to-back field goals, of 24 and 29 yards, got the Warriors in front 20-14, where it stayed deep into the fourth quarter, Westhill’s defense doing its best to maintain that advantage.
And then it all fell apart. Kearney netted 22 points in the last 4:20 of the game, finishing off drives and returning one Argentieri interception for six of those points. It was not what Westhill wanted before its regular-season finale at Solvay.
The Bearcats nearly got a big win at Skaneateles, but could not hold on in the last minutes of a wild 47-46 defeat to Skaneateles that helped clinch a playoff berth for the Lakers while, at the same time, eliminating Westhill from post-season contention.
A pair of Zach Chrysler TD runs, plus two-point conversions, put the Bearcats in front of the Lakers 16-7 through one quarter, and the lead grew to 22-7 before Skaneateles started to rally.
Even with that, though, the Bearcats constantly tore though the Lakers’ defense and carried a 38-28 lead to halftime, the lead growing a bit to 46-34 as running back Alex Britton proved the main threat, constantly breaking out for big runs on the way to 292 yards on 39 carries.
A Skaneateles TD made it 46-41 as time began to run out, so it all came down to the poise of Lakers sophomore quarterback Pat Hackler who took the ball on his own 20-yard line with 1:39 to play and his team trailing the Bearcats 46-41.
Spending all of its time-outs, the Lakers drove to Solvay’s 10. Then, with 13 seconds left, Hackler threw to the end zone, and Jake Nesbit caught the ball for the winning touchdown. It was the first time all night that Skaneateles held the lead, and it was the only lead that counted.
