Everyone on both sides of the Jamesville-DeWitt football team’s tense overtime victory over East Syracuse Minoa on Sept. 15 was curious to see how they would react to those events.
There was no letdown for the Red Rams in Saturday’s game against PSLA-Fowler. With 35 first-half points, J-D quickly pulled away from the Falcons and cruised to a 49-18 victory to move to 3-0 in Class A and 3-1 overall.
Far more important work was done by J-D students off the field Saturday, as they collected donations for the American Red Cross related to the relief efforts after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
On the field, the Rams’ task was to shut PSLA-Fowler down, which it did during a first quarter where it put together two long scoring drives ending with a pair of touchdown sneaks by quarterbacks Adam Honis and Nick Brotzki.
J-D made it 21-0 early in the second quarter on Mark Toscano’s 12-yard scoring run. The Falcons answered with Darius Brown returning the ensuing kickoff 78 yards for a TD, but those were PSLA-Fowler’s lone points of the half.
Brotzki extended the Rams’ lead to 35-6 by intermission, throwing 14 yards to Mike Anderson for one TD and running 30 yards for another. He would later add a 16-yard scoring run in the final period.
Anderson wasn’t done, as he scored the only touchdown of the third quarter on a 43-yard dash. All told, J-D had 352 yards on the ground, with Jake Wright doing the most damage as he had 176 yards on 22 carries, Anderson adding 80 yards on the ground and two pass catches for 81 yards.
ESM answered quite well, taking just 34 seconds to get on the scoreboard in Friday night’s game against visiting Watertown and not letting up until it had pounded the Cyclones 51-0.
With the ball near midfield, the Spartans got that quick touchdown when Nolan Penoyer broke through the line and dashed 49 yards to the end zone. Though the conversion was missed, the night’s tone was set.
Dan Garris capped off a drive late in the first quarter with a one-yard touchdown sneak and two-point conversion to make it 14-0, and Garris returned to score from 18 yards out early in the second period.
Penoyer’s own 18-yard TD sprint and Casey Hinton’s 24-yard field goal extended ESM’s lead to 31-0 by halftime, but even with that, the Spartans weren’t completely satisfied.
Garris took off on a 33-yard scoring run in the third quarter, capping an effort where three different ESM backs got past the century mark. Penoyer had 174 yards on 18 carries, with Garris gaining 103 yards on 12 carries and Joe Copp adding 100 yards, also on 12 carries.
It was Copp going in the end zone on a 27-yard run with 9:26 left, this after Dante Cocagnia, taking his turn under center, threw an 11-yard scoring pass to Alex Recor.
ESM takes on PSLA-Fowler next Friday, this after J-D makes a Thursday-night trip to Whitesboro, the two-time defending sectional Class A champions, though the Warriors are coming off back-to-back defeats to Carthage and Corcoran.
