SKANEATELES -Nearly a year and a half since it last saw game action, the Cazenovia football team emerged again, only to get kept off the scoreboard by its namesakes to the west.
Cazenovia lost, 18-0, to Skaneateles Wednesday at Hyatt Stadium in the first of two encounters this spring between the Lakers sides.
Though plenty had taken place in Cazenovia in the long period since it lost to Solvay in the opening round of the Section III Class B playoffs in October 2019, it paled next to the drama unfolding in recent months in Skaneateles.
Joe Sindoni, who coached those other Lakers to the 2017 state Class C championship, was let go by the district as the result of an alumni football game held in November 2020 when COVID-19 protocols were more stringent.
Sindoni, saying he did not get a proper hearing, earned a reprieve in Onondaga County Superior Court and, after more legal wrangling, the school district reinstated him for the abbreviated 2021 season.
Far from all this, Cazenovia’s players waited through the summer, fall and winter before finally getting to practice in mid-March for a season that would include just four games, with the opener at Skaneateles.
In cold, windy and wet conditions, Cazenovia fell behind 6-0 when Skaneateles quarterback James Musso found Patrick Herr for a 24-yard touchdown pass midway through the first quarter.
As it turned out, Cazenovia’s best chance to get in the game was a subsequent drive late in the period set up by Patrick Linck’s 71-yard kick return that reached the Skaneateles one-yard line before it got stopped on fourth-down-and-goal.
Skaneateles then drove 99 yards to double the lead to 12-0, Musso connecting with Herr again on the TD, this one from 11 yards out.
Cazenovia’s defense was able to make some defensive stops late in the half as A.J. Rothfeld led with four tackles and an interception, and Patrick Linck added three tackles.
Still, Skaneateles tacked on a third-quarter TD on Grayson Brunelle’s one-yard run and, overall, accumulated 440 total yards to Cazenovia’s 29. Musso completed 14 of 26 passes for 289 yards and Brunelle ran for 144 yards on 32 carries.
While Cazenovia prepares for next Friday’s game at Bishop Ludden, Chittenango also has to regroup following a season-opening defeat Wednesday, this one against Homer.
The Trojans rolled past the Bears 55-6, scoring seven times in the first three quarters as Andrew VanPatten had three of those touchdowns, including runs of 26 and 60 yards as he finished with 208 yards on 19 carries.
Not until the fourth quarter did Chittenango get on the board, and it was the defense doing so as Martez Webb picked up a Homer fumble and returned it 28 yards for a TD. The Bears play next Thursday at Marcellus.
