Short weeks of work, combined with talented and determined opposition, doomed the Fayetteville-Manlius and Jamesville-DeWitt football teams to Thursday-night road defeats.
For the Hornets, a valiant comeback attempt fell just short as state Class A no. 11-ranked Indian River remained undefeated, prevailing 40-35. The Red Rams never got as close at Whitesboro as the two-time defending Section III Class A champions got five touchdowns from Phil Gilberti and blanked the Red Rams 33-0.
F-M took a three-game win streak to the north country, but it also was given little time to recover after the exciting, and emotionally draining, 49-35 win over CBA on Sept. 22. Six nights and one long bus ride later, Indian River jumped all over the weary Hornets.
In the first quarter, IR’s Kwazsi Gaddis capped off two scoring drives with short TD runs of three yards and one yard. Then Gaddis twice burned F-M’s defense in the second period, earning a 51-yard scoring run and then, from his own three, going coast to coast on a 97-yard dash to the end zone to make it 27-0.
Between all that and Bob Alexander’s 14-yard scoring pass to Keshawn Lester, IR did as much damage to F-M’s defense as CBA had done. Still, the Hornets had Mitch Seabury, and he scored twice late in the half to keep his team close.
Trailing 34-14 at halftime, F-M kept moving the ball during the third quarter. Seabury again dazzled, rushing for 313 yards on 24 carries, the highlight a 61-yard TD run that, along with Mikey Porter’s scoring plunge, closed the gap to 34-28.
Reeling, IR again turned to Gaddis, who finished with 202 yards on the ground. His fifth TD on a six-yard run late in the third quarter made it 40-28. Seabury score again found the end zone in the final period, but the Hornets could not put together one more drive to win it.
At least F-M made that comeback. J-D, taking its own 3-1 record to Whitesboro, ran right into a Warriors side desperate for a win following back-to-back defeats to Carthage and Cortland.
Late in the first quarter, Whitesboro put together its first scoring drive, which Gilberti finished by finding the end zone from seven yards out. Following a Red Rams fumble, the the Warriors drove to the Red Rams’ 10, where Gilberti again scored,
Both sides had chances late in the half, but could not convert, J-D keeping it 14-0 going into the break. But Camerota’s 26-yard quarterback draw led to Gilberti getting his third TD on a four-yard run. Any hope the Rams had to rally got thwarted when Whitesboro twice stopped them inside its own 10.
Gilberti finished off his big night with a 40-yard TD run in the waning seconds of the third quarter and a 17-yard scoring run with 9:10 left.
Now J-D and Whitesboro share 3-1 records in Class A behind Indian River (4-0), with the Red Rams venturing to Fulton this Friday needing a win in order to make IR’s visit on Oct. 13 as meaningful as possible.
The F-M defeat didn’t hurt much because the Hornets knew the important game comes this Friday, when Central Square pays a visit and first place in the Class AA-1 division could be at stake.
