Individual accolades and earning spots in the record books are nice, but they would mean little to the Skaneateles football team if it didn’t make one timely stop.
Here were the Lakers in Saturday’s Class C regional final at Union-Endicott’s Ty Cobb Stadium, having rallied from an early 14-point deficit to go in front, but then squandering a 14-point fourth-quarter lead to defending state champion Newark Valley.
With less than a second to play, the Cardinals had capped off a clutch late-game drive when Caden Bennett scored on a three-yard run, cutting the Skaneateles lead to a single point.
An extra point would force overtime, but NV was in no mood to deal with record-setting quarterback Pat Hackler and the Skaneateles air attack that had burned the Cardinals throughout the afternoon.
So NV, defending its no. 1 state ranking and a 23-game win streak, went for two points and the victory. Three yards were needed – but the Lakers’ defense stacked up and stopped the play inches short of the goal line.
By that tiny Margin, Skaneateles held on, 42-41, and earned its first-ever trip to the state semifinal round, where next Saturday it will return to U-E to face Section VI champion Cleveland Hill, the winner advancing to the Nov. 24 state final at the Carrier Dome against Burke Catholic (Section IX) or Holy Trinity (Section II).
They’ll do so with a quarterback that has enjoyed an historic season. When Hackler found Tommy Scherrer for a nine-yard scoring pass early in the fourth quarter, that made it 46 touchdown passes for the season, a new single-season state record.
That broke the mark set in 2004 by Christian Brothers Academy great Greg Paulus (now an assistant basketball coach at Louisville), and Paulus set that record in 13 games. Hackler needed just 11 games to set a new standard.
Every one of those points was required, because on this day, both offenses did what it wanted to do – the Lakers finding success with its passing game, the Cardinals pounding away on the ground.
It was NV striking twice in the first quarter to put Skaneateles in a 14-0 hole. Tyler Beebe scored on a five-yard run, and after a fourth-down stop near midfield, Bennett dashed 60 yards to the end zone.
In the last minute of the opening period, Hackler answered, finding Nick Wamp on a 36-yard TD pass. Then the Lakers’ Jimmy Liberatore recovered a Cardinals fumble and Areh Boni ran 30 yards to set up Hackler’s three-yard scoring strike to Cross Bianchi.
Sparked by a fourth-down stop on its own 32, the Lakers went back to the air again – and in one play, Hackler hit Bianchi, the 68-yard TD giving Skaneateles its first lead of the game.
But that didn’t last. NV drove to the Lakers’ 14 and went to the air as Colin Hills found Quartus Steika in the end zone, the PAT tying it 21-21, where it stood at halftime.
The third quarter continued the roller coaster. Hackler tied the Paulus TD pass record by going 16 yards to Bianchi, only to have the Cardinals tie it again by marching 72 yards and scoring on Hunter Hoffman’s 12-yard run.
When NV expected the Lakers to go back to the air, Hackler, from the 28, instead gave it to Wamp – who sprinted 72 yards to his second TD of the afternoon.
Entering the fourth quarter, Skaneateles led 35-28. Yet even when Hackler threw his record-setting TD pass to Scherrer, the Cardinals were far from done.
Helped by a series of penalties, NV moved to the Skaneateles one and Beebe scored. Trying to put things away, the Lakers drove inside the Cardinals’ 10 and, when stopped, went for a field goal with 3:55 left, only to have Bianchi’s kick blocked.
One more time, NV moved down the field and, one more time, it converted. Just in time, though, the Lakers’ defense made the one stand it needed to keep a state championship dream alive.
Hackler threw 25 passes, completing 16 of them for 231 yards, with 10 of the passes going to Bianchi for 153 yards. Boni ran for 152 yards on just 16 carries.
