Wise scheduling management allowed the Cazenovia football team to beat the stormy weather that bore down on Central New York Friday and get in its entire game against Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.
What the Lakers couldn’t do was beat the Red Devils themselves.
Suffering a rare home defeat at Buckley-Volo Field, the Lakers fell 14-6 to VVS, who moved into a tie for first place in the Class B East division with Oneida, who up the road was pulling out a 22-14 victory over Chittenango.
At least at the outset, the anticipation for this game was big, beyond the fact that it was the second straight Friday that Cazenovia would play under portable lights.
Both the state Class B no. 23-ranked Lakers and the state no. 22-ranked Red Devils were 3-0. And since they both had strong defensive units and high winds were forecast, few points were expected.
Yet VVS twice burned Cazenovia for first-quarter touchdown drives. Each of them ended with Alex Oliver making a big play, throwing 35 yards to Travis Decker for one score and running 27 yards for another, while also throwing a two-point pass to Jacob Horodnick.
The Lakers would score, too, in the opening period, when Ryan Romagnoli took a handoff at his own 43 and dashed to the end zone. And it would get nothing more for the rest of the evening.
Following those early scores, Cazenovia’s defense settled down and, despite allowing 303 total yards, blanked the Red Devils over the last three quarters.
James Pavelchak and Shawn Szlamczynski each had four tackles, with Vince Borio getting two tackles and five assists. Evan Duskee added three tackles as Chad Carges assisted on four tackles.
At the same time, though, the Lakers were well-contained, managing just 62 total rushing yards aside from Romagnoli’s TD as Drew Johnson threw 18 times, but completed just seven of those passes for 58 yards.
VVS, who has not won a Section III title since 1992, claimed its first win over Cazenovia in eight years as, defensively, Matt Ciotti led them with 16 tackles, seven of them solo, plus an interception. Zach Audette added 14 tackles, six of them solo, as Oliver ran for 87 yards on 12 carries to go with six-for-16 passing for 106 yards, and Jevit Cumber had 89 yards on the grounds.
With the win, the Red Devils climbed to the top of B East, joining its main rival, Oneida, who thwarted Chittenango’s plans to move up the standings with a fourth-quarter comeback.
During the first half the Bears shut the Indians down, and notched the only points with a first-quarter drive that Brian Lamaitis finished off with a three-yard TD run as Francis Cerio ran in for two points.
It stayed 8-0 until early in the third quarter, when Oneida drove to Chittenango’s 28, from where Zander Farr found the end zone and Ryan Chevier threw a tying two-point pass to Vinny Leibl.
Immediately, the Bears answered, taking a 14-8 lead with a drive that led to a Lamaitis scoring pass to Keith Spurgeon, and, Chittenango maintained that margin until the final period.
Taking the ball at its own 46, the Indians needed just one play to tie it, Lukas Albro going 54 yards to the end zone. The missed conversion kept it 14-14.
Oneida’s defense made several key stops, and late in regulation the Indians got the ball back and moved to the Bears’ 10. With 14 seconds left, Chevier scanned the field, found Leibl in the end zone and Leibl caught it, Albro adding a two-point run.
Having fallen to 2-2, Chittenango needs to win next Friday at Mexico to improve its playoff hopes, since it finishes the regular season with VVS and Cazenovia. As for the 3-1 Lakers, it plays its last regular-season home game next Saturday against New Hartford.
