Though they all had varying degrees of difficulty, the football victories gained at home Friday night by the trio of Westhill, Solvay and Marcellus all helped move them into prime position in what promises to be an exciting Class B West division race.
Of the three, Westhill had the toughest challenge, meeting perennial league power Homer, but the Warriors overcame a slow start and fought its way to a 21-13 win over the Trojans.
Perhaps Westhill’s best takeaway from this game was the way it absorbed Homer’s initial blow, a 15-yard touchdown pass from Dylan Yacavone to Logan Peck, and answered in a hurry.
Minutes later, it was 7-7, the Warriors moving to the Trojans’ four-yard line before Riley McNitt found the end zone. Then it took the lead early in the second period with another drive that Gavin Kinney capped with a one-yard TD sneak.
For the most part, Westhill’s defense contained Homer after that initial score, and even when it did not, it would recover just in time.
Just past the midway point of the third quarter, the Trojans moved within one, 14-13, on a 19-yard scoring pass from Yacavone to Dylan Matthews. Homer decided to go for two points and the lead, but the Warriors stopped it to stay out in front.
When in doubt, Westhill turned to its ground game, and it was McNitt scoring on a 10-yard run a minute into the fourth quarter, part of a night where he gained 180 yards on the ground.
Still within reach, Homer twice drove deep into Warriors territory in the closing minutes. Geoff Daniul thwarted one of those chances with an end-zone interception, and Westhill stopped the Trojans again inside the 10 with four minutes to play.
Contrasting this tension was the joy Solvay felt as it drubbed the Cortland Purple Tigers 52-6 under the lights at Al Merola Field, a great start in the Bearcats’ quest to end a decade-long playoff drought.
New Solvay head coach Dan Salisbury had nothing to stress about after his team piled up 32 points in the first quarter, sparked by Brock Bagozzi’s 22-yard scoring pass to Russ Tarbell and Elijah Wright recovering a Cortland fumble in the end zone.
Bagozzi added two more TD passes before the quarter was done, firing 30 yards to Tarbell and 23 yards to Tyriq Block a few minutes later. Jaimen Bliss added a 10-yard scoring run.
The Bearcats’ defense was superb, too, shutting out Cortland as the lone Purple Tigers points came from a Jaden Finch 80-yard kickoff return after Bliss’s first TD.
Not done yet, Bliss scored twice more, on runs of two and four yards, with Bagozzi notching a fourth TD pass when he went 43 yards to Tarbell late in the second quarter.
Marcellus also handily won its season opener, rolling past Institute of Technology Central 40-7 as Bishop Ludden fell at home to South Jefferson 40-13.
The Gaelic Knights were kept off the board until Nazier Kinsey’s 20-yard TD pass to Jarin Beauford in the second period, but that came as the Spartans worked its way to a 34-6 halftime advantage.
Five different South Jefferson players found the end zone during the half, including an interception by Kinsey that Erik Lillie returned 50 yards to the end zone.
Austin Mesler threw two TD passes and ran for another, with Caleb Petrie catching one of those passes while also taking off on a 75-yard scoring dash. Andrew Cervantes notched Ludden’s other TD on a two-yard run.
