So much uncertainty surrounded the Skaneateles football team as it made its return to the Class C ranks Friday night and traveled to defending Section III champion Holland Patent.
Within a matter of seconds, that uncertainty faded.
Cody Nesbitt took the season’s opening kickoff at his own 10-yard line, found a seam and tore all the way to the end zone. That 90-yard sprint set the tone as the Lakers went on to defeat the Golden Knights 55-36.
Among other things, Nesbitt’s big play took some pressure off a Skaneateles offense that, absent the likes of Pat Hackler, Nate Wellington and Areh Boni, had many new starters in key roles.
So when HP struck with a big play of its own – a 67-yard touchdown pass from Jared Harter to Dylan Ernst – the Lakers were still even, 7-7, and would answer in grand style.
James Musso, the sophomore tasked with succeeding Hackler at quarterback, promptly found the Lakers’ top returning receiver, Nick Wamp, who went the rest of the way 68 yards for six points. Before the first quarter was done, Musso had added a 10-yard TD pass to Nesbitt.
But it was in the second quarter that the Lakers, up 20-14, got away as its defense settled down and Musso led two more scoring drives, one ending in Nesbitt’s third TD on an 11-yard run and the other featuring another big play, a 45-yard pass to Colin Cox that found the end zone.
Though comfortably ahead 34-14 at halftime, Skaneateles kept on rolling and Musso proved that he could put up the same kind of gaudy numbers that were routine in the Lakers’ championship runs of 2017 and 2018.
Three times in the third quarter, Musso threw TD passes, going to Nesbitt again from 23 yards out and finding Wamp on scoring plays of 71 and 30 yards.
Overall, Musso threw just 15 passes, but 10 were completed for 322 yards and six went for touchdowns. Wamp set a career mark with 226 yards on just six catches.
West Genesee saw, first-hand, just how challenging things might get after having most of its starters graduate from a 2018 team that reached the sectional Class AA finals.
In Saturday’s season opener at Horseheads (Section IV), the Wildcats’ defense, entirely composed of new starters, faced major struggles, and WG’s offense could not make up for it as it took a 35-14 defeat.
On the other end of the Class C spectrum, Jordan-Elbridge had a rough Friday night at Lowville, overwhelmed from the outset and taking a 50-6 defeat to the Red Raiders.
Lowville, looking to improve on last year’s 7-2 mark and a sectional semifinals defeat to Holland Patent, raced out to a 24-0 advantage before the first quarter was done, getting the game’s first points on a safety.
Gavin Macaulay returned a punt 47 yards for one TD, with Chad Bach scoring on runs of 14 and 27 yards and also throwing an eight-yard TD pass to Macaulay. It got to 50-0 before the Eagles finally got on the board in the fourth quarter with Seth Gelling’s 13-yard dash to the end zone.
Skaneateles has its home opener next Friday at against General Brown, just as J-E returns to its home turf to face Herkimer. Both games kick off at 7 p.m.
