Eager and energetic optimism for the Fayetteville-Manlius football team ran into cold and biting reality as the first chills of the coming autumn hit Central New York.

The Hornets were beaten, 41-22, at Corcoran in Friday night’s opener, stymied by a combination of missed opportunities, turnovers and the Cougars’ ability to make big plays at key moments, including a pair of touchdowns in fourth-down situations.

in the first of these situations, F-M trailed, 6-3, as the first quarter wound down. A strong Hornets opening drive bogged down and led to a 27-yard John Egnaczyk field goal, and Corcoran had answered with a scoring march of its own that was capped by Cincear Torrence’s 12-yard TD run right after a fourth-and-12 conversion by the Cougars.

Now, after the Hornets had fumbled the ensuing kickoff, Corcoran was placed at F-M’s 20, facing fourth-and-inches. It looked at first like F-M’s front line had stuffed Jerome Davis short of the first down, but Davis kept working, broke several tackles and made it all the way to the end zone.

So instead of a momentum-altering turnover on downs, the Hornets trailed, 14-3, going to the second quarter. To its credit, F-M did make a temporary recovery, blanking the Cougars the rest of the half and scoring on Mitch Seabury’s 65-yard run moments after a Sean Hannah interception.

That cut the deficit to 14-9, where it stood early in the third period as Corcoran again faced fourth down on the Hornets’ 22. Rolling out to his right, quarterback Tyrice Williams flung it to the end zone, where Khalil Robinson got the ball a split-second before a Hornets defender did for six points.

Those 14 points from fourth-down TD’s put the Cougars in control, and scoring runs by Robinson (28 yards) and Jaquail Everson (10 yards)  extended Corcoran’s lead to 34-9 by the fourth quarter, where a pair of Hornets touchdowns – one by Brody Phelan, the other by Deion Travis –  came in between Davis going 35 yards for his second TD of the night.

F-M will try to recover this Friday in its home opener against Henninger, who had dropped its opener to CBA in the Kickoff Classic.