All that the Marcellus football team needed was a victory on its home turf against Chittenango Friday night to nail down a piece of the Class B West regular-season title and the top seed for the Section III playoffs.
But the Mustangs could not reach either of those goals, denied in a 42-20 defeat to the Bears that will make Marcellus go on the road next Friday for a first-round sectional game at Mexico that kicks off at 7 p.m. The winner gets Homer or Oneida in next weekend’s sectional semifinals.
Meanwhile, neighbors Solvay and Westhill, both of them out of playoff contention, renewed their rivalry at Al Merola Field, and after years of domination from the Warriors, the Bearcats, led by workhorse running back Alex Britton, got the upper hand in a satisfying 44-36 victory.
As they gathered for Senior Night at Marcellus, everything pointed in the Mustangs’ favor, from its 4-1 league mark to the fact that Chittenango was coming off a 26-0 defeat to Homer.
The stakes were high on both sides. For the Bears, a loss would put them in fourth place in the league, and lined up for a first-round game at Cazenovia, the top seed from Class B East.
Marcellus was 4-1 in league play, tied for first with Homer. Since the Trojans beat Institute of Technology Central 34-6 on Friday, the Mustangs had to win to both share the league title and get the top seed since it beat Homer 37-29 earlier this season.
Midway through the first quarter, Chittenango got on the board as Conner Fredericks’ 40-yard run set up Christian Cerio’s three-yard touchdown run. Marcellus answered on its next drive, mixing runs and passes until Nate Lukins scored from one yard out, the extra point tying it 7-7.
To go in front for good, the Bears turned to the passing combination of Cooper Young and Hunter Hendrix, a 22-yard connection setting up a nine-yard scoring pass early in the second period. Then a 35-yard Young-to-Hendrix connection set up Cerio’s second TD, a two-yard run.
Now the Chittenango defense stepped up, with Tyrrell Downer’s interception and then, in the last minute of the half, Griffin Smith picking off Tom Fiacchi in the end zone to keep the Bears up 21-7 going into the break.
Fiacchi did take advantage of a coverage breakdown in the Bears’ secondary to find a wide-open Chris Patterson from 41 yards out to cut that lead in half, to 21-14, late in the third quarter.
Seconds later, Cerio broke free for a 64-yard dash to the end zone that restored the two-touchdown advantage. Fredericks picked off Fiacchi just before the period ended, setting up another Chittenango scoring drive as Downer followed perfect blocks on a 36-yard dash with 9:56 left.
Though Fiacchi found Patterson again on a 32-yard scoring pass with 6:43 left, the Bears ran out most of the remaining clock, with Cerio netting his fourth TD in the waning seconds.
It proved closer – and more emotional – at “The Pit”, where both teams had plenty of motivation despite having no post-season stakes.
Solvay, of course, wanted to reverse Westhill’s long hold on this rivalry. The Warriors’ players put the initials “JS” on their helmets in support of athletic director Jen Smarelli, whose future with the school district is uncertain and was the subject of a jam-packed Westhill School Board meeting earlier in the week.
They went back and forth in the first quarter, the Warriors scoring on Silvio Argentieri’s 26-yard field goal and Marcus Welch’s 26-yard run, with Solvay’s Jake Dippold throwing a 12-yard TD pass to Nate Gardner in between.
Already, the Bearcats were pounding away with Britton, who would carry the ball an astonishing 46 times and gain 351 yards. Britton would score twice in the second quarter on short runs, followed by two-point conversions that gave Solvay a 24-16 halftime lead.
Argentieri, still in at quarterback for the injured Zavion Barrott, threw 33 times, completing 20 of those passes for 181 yards, including an 11-yard scoring pass to Chris Holt in the second quarter.
Welch added 153 rushing yards on 21 carries, and his second TD, a 13-yard run, cut Westhill’s deficit to 24-22, though the conversion was missed.
Every time the Warriors got closer, though, Britton and the Bearcats pounded away and answered. From a two-yard TD run in the third period to a one-yard TD early in the final period, it helped Solvay gain a 38-28 lead.
With five minutes left, Britton found the end zone for the fifth time on a five-yard run to make it 44-28. Not giving up, Westhill cut the margin to eight on Argentieri’s 19-yard TD pass to Holt, but it would get no closer.
Solvay and Westhill each play “crossover games this week”, with the Bearcats going to Camden Thursday and the Warriors hosting Utica-Notre Dame on Friday night.
