Despite all of the stress of the first three weeks of the season, culminating in the end of a 52-game home win streak, the Cazenovia football team has returned to a familiar position – first place in Class B East, and a top seed heading into the Section III playoffs.
In a regular-season finale with high stakes Thursday night, the Lakers ventured to Oneida and, challenged in the fourth quarter, answered with 20 points in the last 10 minutes to pull away and defeat the Indians 33-6.
By doing so, Cazenovia clinched the top spot from B East with a 6-1 record and will host a first-round playoff game Saturday at 2:30 against Skaneateles at Buckley-Volo Field. Mexico matched that 6-1 mark when it beat Vernon-Verona-Sherrill 45-14 last Friday, but the Lakers won their head-to-head meeting 28-18 at the Carrier Dome on Sept. 3.
Nothing for the Lakers was a guarantee as it went to Oneida, The Indians were 4-2, right behind the Lakers in the league standings, but it was just five days removed from a tough 13-12 win over VVS, a game not decided until the final seconds.
Cazenovia had rolled through all three of its games since that Sept. 17 defeat to Utica-Notre Dame, not having to play its starters deep into any of those contests. Eventually, that would prove a key factor in this game.
At the outset, though, the Lakers looked like it would run away from the Indians, too, scoring less than five minutes into the game on Cody Thorp’s 11-yard run, the fifth straight he had run on Cazenovia’s opening possesion.
When Oneida flubbed a fake punt late in the first quarter, the Lakers turned it into a 13-0 margin when, from the Indians’ 31, Matt Regan threw to Anthony Vecchiarelli in the end zone.
Both sides missed on opportunities inside the opponents’ 20-yard line in the second period. The third quarter was scoreless, too, Cazenovia surrendering two more fumble, the last of which turned into Oneida’s lone points of the night.
Given a short field, the Indians used two plays early in the fourth quarter to cut the margin to 13-6. Tanner Williams threw 16 yards to Tucker Rodgers, and then Williams scrambled 21 yards for the touchdown with 9:58 left.
Here, though, Oneida gambled, trying an onside kick, but seeing it roll out of bounds. Again, the Lakers had a short field, and Regan took advantage, using runs of 14 and 12 yards to set up his own two-yard scoring plunge less than three minutes after Williams’ TD.
Cazenovia’s defense forced the Indians to turn it over on downs, and Regan struck again, going 15 yards and then 20 yards for his second TD, which, with Regan’s extra point, made it 27-6. Nate Morgan’s interception set up a final score on Jake Macheda’s four-yard run.
A night later, Cazenovia found out who it would face in the opening round of the sectional playoffs. It was Skaneateles, that other group of Lakers, who finished fourth in the Class B West standings at the wrong end of a three-way tie for second with Chittenango and Marcellus.
Had Chittenango not won its regular-season finale at Marcellus 42-20, it would have faced Cazenovia in the first round. Instead, it’s a possible semifinal between the Madison County neighbors if Cazenovia claims its Laker duel with Skaneateles and the Bears get past Central Valley Academy.
