Regardless of the sport, Marcellus and Westhill have the kind of intense rivalry only neighboring schools of a similar size and ambition can possess. Now, they’ll meet on the football field with plenty of high stakes.
The Mustangs and Warriors each improved to 5-1 Friday night with relative ease, Marcellus bashing Cortland 53-8 for its fifth win in a row and Westhill topping Bishop Ludden 28-7 to keep pace.
When they play next Friday on the Mustangs’ home turf, second place in the Class B West division and, more importantly, the chance to host a first-round Section III playoff game and avoid a spot in the bracket alongside state no. 2-ranked Skaneateles, who beat Solvay 49-14.
Neither side got caught looking ahead, with Westhill stifling the post-season hopes of its close neighbors from Bishop Ludden with a steady, well-balanced effort.
Twice in the first half, the Warriors put together scoring drives that Marcus Welch finished off with touchdown runs. Welch, who had 91 yards on 19 carries, shared duties with Miguel Monic, who carried the ball 10 times for a team-best 94 yards.
Thanks to Tamir Rowser’s seven-yard TD run in the second quarter, the Gaelic Knights stayed within range, only trailing 14-7 at halftime, but it got shut down the rest of the way.
Welch’s biggest run of the night was a 27-yard TD run in the third quarter, which gave Westhill a cushion. Riley McNitt put it away late by scoring from 15 yards out.
Marcellus, meanwhile, nearly doubled Westhill’s point total at Cortland as it dropped the Purple Tigers to 1-5.
Brayton Johnson put the Mustangs on the board with a 24-yard TD run in the opening minutes and Rob Seeley also scored on a 24-yard run before the first period was done.
But Marcellus took off in the second quarter, expanding upon its 14-8 lead by netting 25 unanswered points, launched when Johnson threw a 24-yard scoring pass to Connor Rogalia.
Seeley returned for a second TD on a three-yard run and Nick Kermes scored from 20 yards out. Right before halftime, the Mustangs defense thwarted a Cortland scoring drive when Liam Tierney intercepted a Purple Tigers pass deep in his own end and returned it 93 yards for six points.
Before resting late, the Mustangs’ starters tacked on two more touchdowns in the third quarter, Seeley scoring a third time on a 32-yard run and Natalie Clere finding the end zone on a 13-yard dash, Clere already having converted on five extra points during the game.
At Solvay’s Al Merola Field, the host Bearcats gave Skaneateles its biggest scare of the season, staying in the game deep into the third quarter before the Lakers pulled away.
Solvay was the first team all season to keep Skaneateles off the board in the first quarter. And even when the Lakers took a 7-0 lead on Pat Hackler’s six-yard touchdown pass to Nate Wellington, Solvay answered.
Brock Bagozzi moved his team to the Skaneateles 28, where he went deep and, when Wellington slipped, Russ Tarbell caught it, going to the end zone as the extra point tied it 7-7.
Hackler countered with a big play, 61 yards to Wellington, setting up Areh Boni’s three-yard TD run. That’s where it stayed at halftime, Solvay only trailing 14-7.
Again, Solvay answered when, after Boni scored again from three yards out, it converted a fourth down on pass interference and, from the Lakers’ two, saw Jaimen Bliss find the end zone.
Past the midway point of the third quarter, Skaneateles only had a 21-14 lead, but one play turned things permanently in the Lakers’ favor.
Positioned at Solvay’s 35, Hackler threw a swing pass to Nick Wamp, who broke two tackles and, speeding down the sideline, scored to make it 28-14 just 71 seconds after Bliss’s TD.
Another long Hackler pass to Wellington, covering 56 yards, set up Boni for a seven-yard TD scamper in the last minute of the period, and the Lakers scored twice more in the fourth quarter.
Bagozzi threw 30 times, completing 17 of those passes for 166 yards. Connor Lee caught four passes for 54 yards as Bliss was mostly contained, held to 36 yards on 22 carries. Solvay plays Institute of Technology Central next Friday at 7 p.m. at Henninger High School’s Sunnycrest Field as Bishop Ludden visits Homer.
