At first, the plan was to have East Syracuse Minoa’s football team host Rochester’s Edison Tech on the opening Saturday of the 2019 season and then, six days later, travel to face Jamesville-DeWitt after the Red Rams had a first-week bye.
Yet that’s not how it turned out.
When Oswego, also scheduled to be in Section III’s Developmental League with J-D, canceled its season due to a lack of healthy players, a schedule scramble ensued, and suddenly J-D had an opportunity to get on the field a week earlier than anticipated.
Westmoreland/Oriskany, who was originally scheduled to face Oswego, instead hosted the Red Rams, and it turned into a thriller that required two overtimes before J-D lost by a slender 27-26 margin.
All of this came hours after ESM, getting an early star, handled Edison Tech 36-8, not minding one bit the unusual 10 a.m. kickoff as it pulled away with 28 points in the second quarter.
It was already 8-0 in the Spartans’ thanks to sophomore quarterback Tyler Bell throwing a 32-yard touchdown pass to Nolan Palmer in the opening period, plus the two-point conversion.
But things really broke open when Bell again hit Palmer deep, this time on a 50-yard scoring strike, early in that second quarter. Three more TD’s would follow in quick succession.
Bell, who would complete 12 of 19 passes for 214 yards, hit Justin Smith in the end zone from three yards out, connected with Mikai Combs on a 25-yard pass and then, to cap it, threw his third TD pass to Palmer, this one covering 10 yards.
Meanwhile, ESM’s defense kept Edison Tech off the board until the fourth quarter, a strong opening statement as it now got ready to try to avenge defeats to J-D each of the last two seasons.
With almost no idea of what to expect against a cobbled-together opponent like Westmoreland/Oriskany, the Red Rams played a solid first half, keeping W/O off the board and grabbing a 6-0 lead with Ryan Vespi’s 35-yard TD run.
In the third quarter, W/O got a pair of scores to take a 14-6 lead, but Vespi found Allen for a five-yard scoring pass in the fourth quarter that, with the two-point conversion, pulled J-D back even.
They stayed 14-14 until the end of regulation. In high-school overtime, each team gets a possession from the opponent’s 20-yard line.
W/O went first and Aiden Fabbio found the end zone. J-D countered with Allen scoring from one yard out. Neither team could make a conversion, so it was 20-20.
In the second OT, Allen again found the end zone, and again the Rams could not add to those six points. When David Pearsall got a TD for W/O and Patrick Roberts added the extra point, J-D suffered a narrow defeat.