Maybe the Bishop Ludden football team can handle the Class B stage after all.
Moved up two classes after a 2017 run to the Section III Class D final, the Gaelic Knights debuted in the B West division with a hard-fought 15-6 victory over Cortland Friday night.
As that went on, up the road Westhill got well-timed big plays from the likes of Marcus Welch and Ben Helfeld to push past Institute of Technology Central 18-14 and Solvay lost, 21-0, to defending sectional champion Homer.
It proved far more difficult for Marcellus in its opener, as reigning state Class C champion Skaneateles rode a 28-point second-quarter explosion to a 42-9 victory over the Mustangs.
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.
Despite all this, the Mustangs were held to two first downs in the first half, and though it only trailed 7-0 in the second quarter, things quickly got out of hand.
The trigger was a third-down sack of Pat Hackler negated when the Mustangs were whistled for a personal foul. On the very next play, Hackler found Nick Wamp down the right sideline for a 49-yard scoring strike.
Oliver Weir recovered a Marcellus fumble on the ensuing kick return and Hackler 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 the Mustangs didn’t get on the board until the fourth quarter, when Liam Tierney ran 80 yards for a TD and Marcellus also got a safety.
At Bishop Ludden, the Gaelic Knights and Cortland were 0-0 until the second quarter, when Nazier Kinsey got the Gaelic Knights going with a 34-yard scoring run and Kinsey threw a two-point pass to Ze’vion Derby.
Another big play in the third quarter proved just as important as Tamir Rowser, taking a handoff on his own 30, outraced Purple Tigers defenders to the end zone, accounting for half of Rowser’s 139 yards on the ground.
Westhill rode its ground game to a 12-6 halftime lead on ITC. Welsh scored on a 12-yard run and then, in the second quarter, broke several tackles on a seesaw 64-yard dash to the end zone. All told, Welch ran for 177 yards on 25 carries.
Despite all that, the Eagles led the Warriors 14-12 in the final period. Garvin Kinney, mostly contained through the air, made his biggest play when he found Helfeld for a 44-yard TD pass that proved the game-winner.
Solvay, given the tough assignment of going to Homer, was up to it in the first half, at least on the defensive side, keeping the Trojans off the board. Yet it could not take advantage of this effort, and the game stayed 0-0.
Only in the third quarter did Homer start to take over, a long drive leading to John Denkenberger’s two-yard scoring run. Then it converted twice more in the final period on runs by Andrew Van Patten (40 yards) and Matt McUmber (five yards).
As promised, the Bearcats did pass more, Brock Bagozzi going 12-for-26 for 103 yards. Elijah Wright caught five of those passes for 58 yards.
