That cold October afternoon where the Skaneateles football team dropped a 51-0 playoff game at Cazenovia seems like it happened a lot longer than two years ago.
Still, it was a tape that was shown to the Skaneateles players in the week leading up to Saturday’s Section III Class B final at the Carrier Dome – a reminder, said head coach Joe Sindoni. of how bad things once were, and how far they had risen since.
“That game changed the whole culture of our program,” said Sindoni.
And that climb to prominence now includes a second consecutive sectional title, earned as Skaneateles pulled away from its Laker rivals and prevailed 41-10.
Though it had earned sectional titles before, this was the first Class B crown in Skaneateles program history, done so with a team that has now won 22 of its past 23 games.
“This win is a testament to our hard work,” said senior quarterback Pat Hackler, who threw four touchdown passes and ran for another while also helping a stingy Skaneateles defense make timely stops.
Cazenovia was making its seventh straight sectional finals appearance and it had blanked Oneida 40-0 in the semifinals. Hackler said that conquering Cazenovia’s defense required patience and good reads.
“We were going to take what the defense gave us,” he said..
With three possessions in the first half, Skaneateles found the end zone each time. It mostly worked on the ground during its first drive, a 78-yard march where Hackler and Areh Boni gobbled up yards before Hackler found Nick Wamp in the corner of the end zone from 17 yards out.
A second-quarter drive covered 89 yards, with a 42-yard Hackler pass to Wamp the key play on a march that Hackler finished by sprinting 10 yards up the middle for a touchdown.
And after Cazenovia cut the deficit to 13-7 late in the half, Nate Wellington returned the ensuing kickoff past midfield, and with its short field Skaneateles again found its way to the end zone, Hackler going the last 19 yards to Wamp on a pass to the right side in single coverage.
Amid all this, Skaneateles had to deal with a tough, diverse Cazenovia offense that kept threatening them, twice keeping them out of the end zone despite drives that reached inside the 10.
Still, with Drew Johnson’s 12-yard TD pass to Chad Carges and Evan Murray’s 20-yard field goal, Cazenovia only trailed 20-10 at halftime, so more from Skaneateles was required – and delivered.
Wellington’s 52-yard kick return to open the second half didn’t immediately lead to points, Sknaeateles stopped on fourth down at the Cazenovia two.
However, the defense forced a quick punt and, with yet another short field, it took just two plays for Hackler to make it 27-10, finding single overage and throwing to Wellington in stride on a 23-yard scoring pass.
As if all he was doing on offense wasn’t enough, Hackler also intercepted Johnson on Cazenovia’s next possession, and though he was picked off by James Pavelchak two plays later, he led another Skaneateles scoring drive capped by Boni’s six-yard TD run in the last minute of the third quarter.
The only scary moment came when Hackler briefly limped off the field with a cramp early in the fourth quarter, but he returned a few minutes later and capped off a 90-yard scoring drive with a 32-yard TD pass to Wellington with three minutes left.
This leads to a potentially epochal clash in next Saturday’s Class B regional final at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium between no. 2-ranked Skaneateles and no. 1-ranked Chenango Forks. Kickoff is at 3 p.m.
Like the Lakers, the Blue Devils are undefeated at 10-0, and have sat atop the state rankings all season. With a big, powerful running attack and defense that blanked Maine-Endwell 15-0 in the Section IV final, Forks represents the most complete test Skaneateles has faced in this two-year run.
“We’ll need our best game just to stay with (Forks),” said Sindoni.
