With Solvay, Westhill and Marcellus all residing in Section III football’s Class B West division, the fight is not just for who has the best team in the neighborhood, but whether any of them can challenge reigning champion Homer for ultimate league supremacy.
The Bearcats and Warriors, both coming off two-win seasons in 2016, got off to a fine start Friday night, with Solvay holding off defending sectional Class C champion Lowville 34-28 and Westhill going to Cortland to beat the Purple Tigers 28-13.
Meanwhile, Marcellus, in its first game under new head coach Nick Patterson, had to deal with Homer right away, and saw the Trojans pull away to beat the Mustangs 35-12.
Solvay, trying to break a decade-long post-season drought, had plenty of excitement against Lowville at Al Merola Field, withstanding Isiah Roes’ 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the first quarter.
That came in between a pair of big plays from the Bearcats’ side, John Bliss throwing 38 yards to Nate Gardner for the TD and the other ending in Lamar Flood’s 24-yard scoring run.
Even with that, and even with Bliss adding a second TD on a three-yard run, Solvay trailed, 28-21, at halftime, meaning that the defense would need to improve in the second half – and all it did was shut out Lowville the rest of the way.
Meanwhile, Bliss, doing a strong job in his first start under center after Jake Dippold’s graduation, scored on an 11-yard run that, with Lars Eggers’ extra point, tied it, 28-28, in the third quarter.
Another drive led to Flood’s one-yard TD plunge, and from there the Bearcats’ defense did the rest, making several key late stops on the Red Raiders to preserve the win.
Solvay’s next quest will be to try and take the Tom Anthony Silver Cup from Marcellus, who in order to hang on to that prize will need to improve upon its result against Homer.
Things started well for the Mustangs, who notched the only points of the first quarter on a run by quarterback Nick Patterson Jr. Yet Marcellus did not score again until the fourth quarter on Patterson’s 24-yard pass to Liam Tierney.
In between, it was all Trojans, who grabbed a 13-6 lead by halftime as John Horner went three yards for one TD and Lars Roos found the end zone from 13 yards out.
Horner wasn’t done, either, as he twice scored in the third quarter, on runs of 12 and 22 yards that reflected how Homer’s powerful front line was pushing Marcellus around. Tucker O’Donnell added a clinching 34-yard TD pass to Dominick Natale in the final period.
In its attempt to bounce back from a rough 2016 season, Westhill brought in former Marcellus head coach Joe Fiacchi as an assistant, and his work with quarterback Zavion Barrott had an immediate payoff at Cortland, where the Warriors overcame an early 13-0 deficit.
Barrott was partially responsible for those problems, having thrown a first-quarter interception that the Purple Tigers’ George Hines returned 30 yards for a TD.
But Westhill’s defense was solid from the outset, only allowing points in the second quarter on Brandon Ludwig’s 19-yard TD throw to Rory Hines and then blanking Cortland the rest of the way.
The Warriors pulled even, 13-13, by halftime thanks to Tom Howard, who ran 18 yards for one TD and caught a 27-yard pass from Barrott for another score.
Barrott, who as nine-for-24 for 137 yards, threw a second scoring pass to Chris Holt plus a two-point pass to Owen Rodgers. Riley McNitt rushed for a team-high 98 yards on 13 carries, plus a score.
This leads the Warriors to a key early-season test at home next Friday against Chittenango. Both sides are 1-0, with the Bears having edged past Institute of Technology Central 12-8 in its opener.
