It didn’t take long for the Fayetteville-Manlius football team to discover that Utica Proctor is the side everyone in the Class AA-2 divisin will be chasing.
A split of its first two games brought the Hornets to Utica last Saturday afternoon for its first AA-2 showing of the season, where the Raiders utilized its speed and skill to pull away and prevail 46-21.
Going in, F-M was short-handed as Zak Conley, the senior quarterback and top defensive lineman, was out with a shoulder injury, so Alex Dauksza replaced Conley under center.
This didn’t keep Hornets running back Jack Nucerino from burning Proctor’s defense for a 63-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage. But the way the Raiders answered set the tone for the rest of the afternoon.
Proctor drove to F-M’s 18, where running back Tasean Cooper drove in for six points and then added a two-point conversion less than four minutes after Nucerino’s big play.
They stayed that way until the midway point of the second quarter, when the Hornets’ special teams hurt them. A high punt snap set up the Raiders deep in Hornets territory, and Cooper again scored from 18 yards out.
Even bigger was what happened with 1:17 left in the half. F-M had Proctor pinned on its own 19, but Cooper took a handoff right, cut back up the middle and was gone, 81 yards to the end zone. Another two-pointer followed, and the Hornets trailed 24-7 at the break.
Until now, the Raiders’ pass attack was mostly quiet, but Brandon Peterson hit for his first TD pass, 25 yards to Saleh Eltayeb, late in the third quarter, and a fourth straight two-point play made it 32-7.
Dauksza would hit for his lone TD pass, 33 yards to Jordan Leuze, before the period ended, but F-M got no closer as Cooper added a fourth score on a 25-yard run and Patrick Minor scored from 30 yards out.
F-M (1-2, 0-1 league) visits defending sectional Class AA champion Cicero-North Syracuse this Friday, a crucial game since the Northstars are also 1-2 and also dropped its league opener last Friday, stunned 34-27 by Rome Free Academy.
Meanwhile, eight-man football got underway again last Saturday and Bishop Grimes, the 2017 sectional champions in that sport, started strong again, traveling to Pulaski and earning a 48-14 victory over the Blue Devils.
A.J. Burnett’s six-yard TD run got the Cobras on the board, but it was in the second quarter that Grimes took off, burning Pulaski for 22 points.
Not only did Burnett score again on a five-yard run, he threw scoring passes of 35 yards to Rob Gilbert and 12 yards to Jacob Fritz, and the Cobras were up 28-6 at halftime.
Even with a comfortable lead, Grimes kept on adding points in the second half, too, this time on the ground as Joe Wike, Karmelo McKelvin and Nader Elturk all netted touchdowns, Elturk going 35 yards for his score.
This sets up a big early-season showdown on Friday when Grimes visits defending sectional eight-man champion Weedsport. The Warriors routed Altmar-Parish-Williamstown 46-14 in its opener.
