While the first varsity football game on the new Field Turf at Jordan-Elbridge’s John Howes Stadium Friday night was a happy occasion, the Eagles would have to wait to get the first win on that new surface.
That’s because Skaneateles, put back into the Class C ranks for the first time since it won a Section III title there in 2012, spoiled J-E’s celebration with a 42-point first-half outburst that led to a 59-13 Lakers victory.
As it turned out, the Lakers receiving the opening kickoff was a turning point, for it only took two plays for Pat Hackler to go deep up the middle and find Nate Wellington, in stride, for a 73-yard touchdown.
A more prolonged march followed midway through the first quarter, but that found the end zone, too, as Areh Boni used his power to fend off J-E defenders and go 26 yards for six points.
Will McGlynn pounced on an Eagles fumble and Hackler turned it into an eight-yard scoring pass to Cross Bianchi. When Hackler, shaking off a Hunter Brunelle interception, found Nick Wamp from 39 yards out in the waning seconds of the period, Skaneateles had a 28-0 edge going to the second quarter.
Barely two minutes into that period, it got to 35-0 with Hackler’s fourth TD pass of the night, 18 yards to Bianchi, and a third scoring connection between the two followed. Only then did J-E break up the shutout with a 15-play drive capped by Dominic Walborn’s nine-yard pass to Jeremiah Sparks in the end zone.
All that did, though, was make it 42-7 going into halftime, and the Lakers weren’t done. Boni’s second long TD run of the night in the third quarter covered 39 yards, and Hackler would add a sixth scoring pass in the final period after Walborn threw a 28-yard TD strike to Sparks.
While J-E struggled, Bishop Ludden showed why it was one of the pre-season favorites in the sectional Class D ranks, pulling away in the second half to beat Weedsport 54-27.
Big plays kept the Warriors in it for a while. Riley Spingler caught a 25-yard scoring pass from Riley Bowden and then returned a kickoff 80 yards for six more points after the Gaelic Knights’ first TD, a five-yard pass from Sh’ikem Lee to Joe Connor.
Trailing 21-13 in the second quarter, Ludden just kept moving the ball against Weedsport’s defense, finding the end zone twice.
Lee, who overall completed 11 of 19 passes for 153 yards, threw 26 yards to Connor for one TD, with Tamir Rowser’s two-point run tying it, 21-21. Lee then ran six yards for another TD on fourth-and-two and also scored the ensuing conversion, so the Gaelic Knights were up 29-21 at the break.
The key was that Ludden’s defense began to make stops late in the second quarter, and would blank Weedsport in the third period as the Gaelic Knights started to pull clear.
Lee found his tallest target, Terrance Blatche, in the end zone from 40 yards out, and then, just before the period ended, Lee again scored, this time on a 16-yard scramble, to make it 41-21.
Deep in its own territory early in the fourth quarter, Weedsport fumbled, and Lee recovered, returning it six yards for yet another TD as Rowser added a 16-yard scoring run with 1:04 to play, part of a 22-carry, 180-yard performance.
Ludden hosts Westmoreland next Friday as J-E looks to rebound a day later when it visits Hannibal.
