In a span of less than eight minutes of game clock, the Skaneateles football team reintroduced itself to Class B, and it was quite emphatic.
The reigning state Class C champions went down the road to Marcellus Friday night and, helped by a 28-point second-quarter explosion, rolled past the Mustangs 42-9.
All through the off-season, the speculation around Skaneateles involved how it would do once back in the Class B West division, especially since its first opponent went 7-2 in those ranks a season ago.
Marcellus brought both confidence and lots of emotion to the field. Memories of Matt Norris, the 16-year-old football player and wrestler who lost his life in a car accident on July 29, were everywhere.
Students wore T-shirts and players sported helmet stickers bearing the number 25 that Morris wore. His old jersey sat on the bench, and Matt’s younger brother was on the sidelines with the team. A moment of silence in Matt’s memory was observed before the national anthem.
Combine all this with the inevitable draw of the Skaneateles-Marcellus rivalry, and a big crowd was on hand, with Skaneateles students dressed in black and Marcellus students in patriotic red, white and blue outfits.
Maybe the best thing that could have happened to the Lakers was its offensive struggles at the outset. Pat Hackler had a difficult time finding open receivers, and even with good field position, Skaneateles only scored once in the first quarter.
Even with Hackler’s 12-yard touchdown strike to Nick Wamp, the Lakers only led 7-0 going to the second period, but it had to like the fact that its defense, led by the likes of Areh Boni and Jimmy Liberatore, was shutting Marcellus down.
For the entire half, the Mustangs managed just two first downs, which gave the Lakers plenty of possessions and time to find that lethal offensive rhythm that produced an assault on the record books in 2017.
It began with 10:03 left in the half, and the trigger was a third-down sack of Hackler negated when the Mustangs were whistled for a personal foul. On the very next play, Hackler found Wamp down the right sideline for a 49-yard scoring strike.
Oliver Weir recovered a Marcellus fumble on the ensuing kick return and, after a Hackler TD run was brought back on another penalty, he promptly found Nate Wellington deep for 54 yards and six points – the second Lakers score in 32 seconds.
The next time Skaneateles had the ball, it drove 85 yards in two minutes, Hackler scrambling the last two yards for the score.
Again pinned on its own 15 a few minutes later, Hackler threw deep – and Wamp, going across the middle, made a one-handed grab and ran the rest of the way to the end zone.
All of this stretched the Skaneateles lead to 35-0 by halftime, and though it cooled down from there, Hackler did tack on a 31-yard scoring pass to Boni in the third quarter.
Overall, Hackler was 10-for-21 for 319 yards, with Wamp accounting for 169 of those yards and Wellington 128 yards. Boni ran for 70 yards on 10 carries and, defensively, had 10 solo tackles, while Liberatore recorded a fumble recovery.
Now the Lakers will turn its attention to its showdown next Friday with defending Section III Class B champion Homer at Hyatt Stadium. The Trojans began its season by shutting out Solvay 21-0.
