As soon as the Skaneateles football team fell behind Cato-Meridian early in the second quarter of Friday night’s first-place Class C West division showdown, Cato students started directing an “overrated” chant at the state no. 2-ranked Lakers.
Maybe there was some truth to that sentiment, but the larger truth was that the state no. 12-ranked Blue Devils are really good, and proved it in a big way to Skaneateles as it pulled away to defeat the Lakers 40-0.
It was the Lakers’ first regular-season defeat since 2017, and a humbling lesson for a young squad that had mostly breezed through September, only to find Cato bigger, stronger and tougher than anything it had dealt with so far.
The Blue Devils’ takeover began in the second quarter with a 92-yard drive. Long gains by Hunter White and Marcus Turo led to Konar Witkowski scoring from two yards out.
Minutes later, Skaneateles did not convert on a fourth down at its own 40, and Cato turned that into points when Witkowski threw 30 yards to Marcus Ramacus for a touchdown. Then Hunter White scored from 26 yards out with 31 seconds left in the half.
Staring at a 19-0 halftime deficit, the Lakers saw it grow larger less than two minutes into the third quarter when Witkowski found Ramacus on a 57-yard scoring strike.
Not stopping there, the Blue Devils turned a bad punt snap and a James Musso interception into two more TD’s, White scoring from 17 yards out and Witkowski converting a one-yard plunge.
But Skaneateles was far from the only local team to struggle on Friday. West Genesee, Westhill and Jordan-Elbridge all went on the road, and all took defeats, with only the Wildcats close in a 21-10 loss to Cicero-North Syracuse.
Far less was at stake here than it was when C-NS prevailed in the 2018 Section III Class AA final at the Dome. Instead, the main question was whether WG’s defense could do anything to contain Northstars running back Mike Washington, who had burned Fayetteville-Manlius for 261 yards and three touchdowns the week before.
That task for the Wildcats proved successful at first, but early in the second period, Washington, from midfield, broke through WG’s front line and dashed 50 yards to the end zone for the game’s first points.
That, along with Domenic Isabell’s 20-yard touchdown pass to Adron Pafford with 40 seconds left in the half, helped C-NS establish a 14-0 advantage going into the break.
But the Wildcats didn’t go away. WG put together a pair of drives in the third quarter as Exavier Brumfield scored on a one-yard plunge and, a few minutes later, it moved inside the Northstars’ five again.
This proved the game’s turning point, for C-NS made a big defensive stand and held WG to a 19-yard Riley Small field goal, which cut the margin to 14-10, but the Wildcats would not score again.
Once more, the Northstars returned to its air attack. From his own 19, J.J. Razmovski threw deep and found Pafford, the scoring play covering 81 yards, a big play from which WG never recovered.
Westhill, at South Jefferson, never got on the board in a 42-0 defeat to South Jefferson, who had Anthony Rasmussen rush for 193 yards on 21 carries, scoring three touchdowns.
Reggie Welch rushed for 106 yards on 30 carries to pace the Warriors as Garvin Kinney completed nine of 24 passes for 85 yards, but the Spartans roared out to a 30-0 halftime lead and improved to 4-1 overall.
Jordan-Elbridge did get points on the board at General Brown, but still lost 70-19 to the Lions, who scored 21 unanswered points in the second quarter and then added 28 points in the third period.
The Eagles got on the board early with Alex Pond’s 16-yard TD pass to Luke Pinckney, but were kept quiet until Avante Brown scored from 65 yards out in the third period. Pinckney added a six-yard scoring run as Eli Rawleigh led GB, gaining 194 yards on nine carries as De’Shaun Thorigal-Brown gained 126 yards on six carries.
Only Bishop Ludden emerged from this group with a victory, improving to 2-3 Saturday with a 30-8 decision over Institute of Technology Central at Corcoran High School.
Nazier Kinsey threw a pair of second-quarter TD passes to Willie Jennings, one of them 42 yards. Up 16-8 at the break, the Gaelic Knights pulled clear late as Kinsey scored himself on a five-yard run and Evan Cervantes found the end zone from two yards out.
