Putting its 0-2 start behind them, the Cazenovia football team is back at the .500 mark, but the way it got there has to rank with the most unlikely results in the program’s history – or any other program’s history, for that matter.
The Lakers prevailed Friday night over Vernon-Verona-Sherrill at Sheveron FIeld, doing so without a touchdown or a field goal, a near-impossible feat. Two fourth-quarter safeties were enough to defeat the Red Devils 4-0.
Nowhere in the annals of New York State high school football is there a game with this exact final score, and it’s never occurred in the National Football League.
The only times it happened in college football was twice in the first decade of the 20th century, Georgetown over Navy in 1902 and Vanderbilt over Carlisle four years later.
But the oddity of it did not bother the Lakers one bit as it moved into better playoff position at the midway point of the regular season.
After Cazenovia beat Chittenango 34-13 on Sept. 21, the sense was that the Lakers had solved its problems on offense by getting the ball to Ryan Romagnoli as much as possible, which in turn sparked everyone else to play better, too.
All of those good feelings did not carry over into the VVS game, though. The Red Devils, 2-1 and coming off a loss to archrival Oneida, were bent on making Cazenovia work for every single yard.
So throughout the first half, the two sides exchanged possessions, but neither got to the end zone. the third quarter didn’t feature any points, either, but Cazenovia was putting together some drives as Romagnoli rushed for 126 yards overall.
The Lakers’ most important march started late in that third period. It drove to the Red Devils’ one-yard line, only to get stopped on three plays short of the goal line just as the fourth quarter started.
Many times, when such a defensive stand is made, it turns a game in favor of the team that turned the other side back. But since it was still 0-0, VVS found itself pinned near its goal line and, one play later, the Lakers forced a safety.
Cazenovia could not take advantage of the free kick, but again played the field-position game, pinning the Red Devils deep in its own end with a punt and, with 6:15 left, managing to convert another safety when Jacob Olkowski tackled VVS quarterback Ben Wittman in the end zone.
For the night, the Lakers’ defense limited the Red Devils to 73 total yards and forced a pair of turnovers on interceptions by Keegan Bailey and Vito Borio. Gordon Wester and Dylan Anderson each sacked Olkowski twice.
Now the Lakers now could focus ahead on next Saturday’s trip to Camden, who is 1-3 following a 34-12 defeat to New Hartford.
In its Homecoming game on Friday, Chittenango could not slow down Oneida, who kept pace with New Hartford atop B East as the Indians rolled past the Bears 40-7.
Never trailing, Oneida seized control when Andrew Smith ran back the opening kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown. and got its next points in the second quarter when Benjamin Wright returned a Chittenango fumble 48 yards to the end zone.
Pulling away, the Indians wore the Bears down with two scoring drives, each of them capped off by TD runs from Steve Cafalone – one covering 15 yards, the other going five yards.
Cafalone returned in the third quarter to go 42 yards for his third TD of the night as Jared Curro scored from two yards out. Only in the final period did Chittenango break up the shutout thanks to Tavian Albertson’s eight-yard dash to the end zone. The Bears (1-3) visit Central Valley Academy (2-2) next Friday at 7 p.m.
