Rain, wind, mud, gloom – one set of football Lakers loved the backdrop, and one did not.
Cazenovia set out on its quest for another Section III Class B championship with a 51-0 destruction of Skaneateles in Saturday’s quarterfinal game at Buckley-Volo Field, scoring 44 of those points in the first half.
And it sets up, for the second year in a row, a sectional semifinal between the Lakers and its Madison County neighbors from Chittenango, who rallied in the second half to beat Central Valley Academy 44-30 in its sectional opener.
Skaneateles, the fourth-place finisher in the Class B West division, arrived at Cazenovia following a 4-3 regular season where it relied on underclassmen at many different spots on the field, including sophomore quarterback Pat Hackler, who led his side to last-minute home victories over the likes of Chittenango and Solvay.
All of that, though, was on clean Field Turf at Allyn Stadium. Following four-plus inches of rain, Cazenovia’s home grass at Buckley-Volo was quite different.
It didn’t take too long for the two Lakers sides to get their uniforms dirty – and it also didn’t take long to decide the game, either.
Any chance Skaneateles had in this game rode on its defense making an early stop. Instead, Cody Thorp ran right through them on Cazenovia’s opening drive, with a 43-yard dash setting up his own 10-yard touchdown run.
Less than two minutes later, it was 14-0, and Thorp was primarily responsible, intercepting Hackler’s pass at the Skaneateles 30 and then scoring a few plays later on a one-yard plunge.
Cazenovia’s defense wasn’t done hurting Hackler, as Anthony Vecchiarelli stepped in front of a sideline pass at midfield and returned it 50 yards for another TD that, with Thorp’s two-point run, extended the margin to 22-0 at the end of the first quarter.
A minute into the second period, Matt McLaughlin joined the fun with an 11-yard scoring run and a two-point conversion. But even with a 30-0 lead, Cazenovia wasn’t satisfied, Matt Regan recovering an onside kick that led to his own 31-yard dash to the end zone where no defender came close to touching him.
It got to 44-0 midway through the period when Regan scored for the second time from 14 yards out. While all this was going on, Cazenovia held Skaneateles to two first downs, never allowing any kind of sustained march.
After another Skaneateles turnover led to another Cazenovia TD on Austin Enders’ 16-yard run early in the third period, the starters went to the bench ,though the reserves did manage to preserve the shutout.
And this leads Cazenovia back to Chittenango, the same side it beat exactly 12 months ago in this same semifinal round by a 47-6 margin – and they’ll even play this game on the same turf at Fayetteville-Manlius, kicking off Friday night at 5 p.m.
The Bears are convinced this edition will be more competitive, and whether it is or not, the prize for the winner – a trip to the Nov. 6 sectional final at the Carrier Dome against Homer or Mexico – also is similar to what it was in 2015.
