MANLIUS – What was planned, and what actually took place, for the Fayetteville-Manlius football team proved quite different.

At first, the Hornets were set for a local showdown with East Syracuse Minoa last Thursday night, but reports of a positive COVID-19 test in the Spartans program led to yet another schedule change.

With little time to try and salvage a game, F-M managed to line up one for Saturday night – but it was not a pushover.

Elmira, one of the strongest programs in Section IV, agreed on short notice to make the trip north to face the Hornets on what would be F-M”s Senior Night.

Despite all the haste in putting it together, it turned out to be quite a memorable game, with F-M erasing an early double-digit deficit, only to have the Express strike late to beat them 34-28.

It marked the third week in a row F-M played a close one, having gone to overtime in each of its first two games, rallying past Christian Brothers Academy but then falling to West Genesee.

Here, Elmira bolted out to a 14-0 first-quarter advantage, and scored twice more in the second period even as F-M got two touchdowns of its own, each of them on short runs by Jack Nucerino.

Only in the third quarter did F-M’s defense begin to make stops on a consistent basis, and it cut the 28-14 deficit in half when Nucerino scored for the third time on a 25-yard run.

When, with seven minutes to play, Chris Hoalcraft lofted a 10-yard TD pass to Andrew Koster and Josh Bertrand added his fourth successful extra point, the Hornets had pulled even, 28-28.

Regrouping, Elmira drove right down the field for the go-ahead score three minutes later, and F-M could not match it in its first regulation decision of the season.

F-M is set to face Jamesville-DeWitt this Friday at 6 p.m. as ESM hopes to resume play on Saturday, hosting Whitesboro at noon after the Warriors took a dramatic 29-28 win over archrival New Hartford.