Though the big tests still lie ahead, the East Syracuse Minoa football team has already equaled its win total from 2018.
The Spartans claimed its third victory in a row Friday at Corcoran High School, where it jumped all over PSLA-Fowler with 27 points in the first quarter and cruised to a second consecutive shutout, beating the Falcons 34-0.
It actually took five-plus minutes for ESM to get on the board, moving to PSLA-Fowler’s one-yard line before MIkal Combs scored. And Combs converted again from two yards out to make it 13-0 after Tyler Bell set it up with a 44-yard pass to Justin Smith.
Quickly, the Falcons turned it over with a fumble and, 18 seconds after Combs’ second touchdown, Bell threw deep and found Josh Gilkey in the end zone for a 42-yard scoring strike.
ESM had one more possession before the first quarter was out and Bell, from the PSLA-Fowler 42, threw a screen pass to Nolan Palmer, who dodged several defenders and made his way past the goal line.
Having scored four times in less than six minutes (with Bell adding three extra points), the Spartans settled down, adding another TD in the second quarter on D’Angelo Withers’ four-yard run.
From there, the only suspense surrounded whether ESM could again keep an opponent off the board. The Spartans’ defense did so, building upon the 30-0 shutout it had on Jamesville-DeWitt a week earlier and only allowing one touchdown all season.
J-D had to follow up its rough experience against ESM by traveling north to face Carthage on Friday, and the Comets echoed what the Spartans did to PSLA-Fowler, finding the end zone four times in the first quarter on the way to handing the Red Rams a 42-14 defeat.
Carthage scored in many different ways during that initial burst, whether it was quarterback Tom Cavellier rushing 22 yards for a TD to throwing an eight-yard scoring pass to Josh Demko.
In between, Fombo Azah found the end zone from eight yards out and the Comets blocked a J-D punt, returning it for another TD. Angel Castillo’s eight-yard scoring run in the second quarter extended Carthage’s advantage to 35-0.
Marcus Payne broke up the shutout in the third period, driving J-D to the Comets’ 17 before finding Evan Dougherty in the end zone. Payne also scored on a three-yard scramble after Azah took off on an 83-yard TD run.
Like J-D, Christian Brothers Academy was in search of its first win of the season on Friday by making a long trip up north, and like the Red Rams, the Brothers got roughed up early in a 59-20 defeat to Indian River.
The defending Section III Class A champion Warriors jumped all over CBA with 22 first-quarter points, each of them on plays 29 yards or longer, the best of them Guillermo Rosario-Acosta’s 37-yard TD run.
And even when the Brothers scored twice in the second period, IR, no. 4 in the state Class A rankings, answered it and extended its margin to 39-14 going into halftime.
Eventually, three Warriors ran for more than 100 yards as Rosario-Acosta had 138 yards on seven carries, Michael Davis gained 121 yards on 11 carries (scoring twice) and Anthony Barker had 114 yards on nine carries.
The Brothers now must face 3-0 Liverpool next Friday at Alibrandi Stadium as ESM hosts Whitesboro and J-D is off until Oct. 5, when it takes on Rochester Edison Tech.
