As it built itself up in recent years, the West Genesee football team waited for a chance to challenge Cicero-North Syracuse, firmly established as Section III’s top Class AA program.
When that chance arrived Friday night at Mike Messere Field, the atmosphere and electricity rivaled any Wildcats fans have seen in recent memory, which only made WG’s 27-10 defeat to the state no. 6-ranked Northstars that much larger of a letdown.
Students, parents and fans donned pink as part of the “Pink Out”, with money raised for the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund. Players got involved by wearing pink socks.
Then, after warm-ups, WG players, donning their normal navy-blue home jerseys, left the field. When they returned just before kickoff, they were in brand-new gold jerseys, matching their gold pants, something they did not know about until entering the locker room.
As the game started, the Wildcats won the toss and deferred, putting on the field a defense that had earned back-to-back home shutouts against Henninger on Aug. 31 and Baldwinsville on Sept. 14, and was primed to contain the explosive C-NS attack.
Then, in 18 seconds, it all changed. That’s how long it took Jeremiah Willis to return the opening kickoff to his own 35, get the benefit of a face-mask penalty to move the ball to midfield, and take the first play from scrimmage 50 yards to the end zone.
For a time, WG’s defense regained its footing, and the special teams nearly pulled the Wildcats even.
Late in the first quarter, a dropped punt snap inside the Northstars’ 20 put WG in great position, but a Northstars defensive stop limited WG to Riley Small’s 32-yard field goal.
Keeping the ball away from Willis hurt the Wildcats in that C-NS didn’t have to sustain long drives. Shy’Rel Broadwater’s punt return led to a short field and a second-quarter TD when Jaiquawn McGriff scored from three yards.
Then, after WG cut it to 14-10 on Tyler Cook’s 15-yard scoring pass to Esisas Brumfield, the Northstars got the ball at midfield and converted it, Conner Hayes finding Broadwater on a 37-yard pass in the final minute of the first half.
Trailing 21-10, the Wildcats, taking the second-half kickoff, moved from its own 19 to the C-NS 32. Just in time, though, a pass rush forced Cook to throw over his target, and Jordan Seltzer intercepted it in the end zone.
C-NS then put the game away with a 93-yard drive that bridged the third and fourth quarters. Hayes found Nate Geloff on third down for 17 yards, threw to Broadwater on a 32-yard pass to the sidelines and McGriff ran the final 19 yards home with 8:27 left.
Whether WG gets a chance to host a home Section III playoff game will hinge on next Friday’s game at Fayetteville-Manlius at 7 p.m. Both the Wildcats and Hornets have 2-1 records in the Class AA-2 division and are 4-1 overall.
Also on Friday night, Jordan-Elbridge put its 2-2 record on the line at Tully High School, where it met the combined Southern Hills Thunder side and prevailed 20-7.
Having leaned so much on the big-play capability of Jeremiah Sparks throughout the early portion of this season, the Eagles had to stay patient through a first half where both sides made plenty of stops.
In fact, it was J-E’s defense that scored the only points of the half, Marion Quigley taking a Thunder interception and returning it 23 yards for the TD.
Clinging to that 6-0 lead until the fourth quarter, the Eagles finally got away with Sparks returning to the spotlight, dashing 50 yards to the end zone for his 15th TD this season. Luke Pinckney scored from two yards out in the waning minutes.
All this win did was add to the stakes of next Saturday’s game at Hannibal. With J-E 2-2 in the Class C North/West division and the Warriors 2-3, the winner of this game likely locks down a Section III Class C playoff berth.
