ONONDAGA COUNTY – Whatever the West Genesee football team had hoped and planned for early in the 2021 season, it got disrupted by cold reality both on and off the field.
In its opener last Friday at Baldwinsville, the Wildcats were in control and on the way to victory before a stunning sequence of events late in the fourth quarter led to a 14-13 defeat.
And what made it worse was that, instead of a follow-up game and a home opener, WG was sidelined when a COVID-19-influenced quarantine forced Indian River to cancel both of its opening games.
Thus, the Wildcats would have to sit until its Sept. 17 game at Carthage and not play in front of home fans until Oct. 1 against Fayetteville-Manlius Also, WG’s Oct. 22 game, originally with Jamesville-DeWitt, was changed to Fulton after the Red Rams decided not to field a varsity team this fall.
Getting an unscheduled bye week forced the Wildcats to stew for quite a while on what had happened at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium against Baldwinsville.
WG’s defense, especially its front four led by Nelson Hudgins, Christian Becker and TaiQuwan McGriff, was sharp from the outset, and even scored the game’s first points when the Bees mishandled a snap near its own goal line and linebacker Colin McAvan fell on it in the end zone.
After Sam Mellenger returned a punt 50 yards for a touchdown late in the second quarter, the Wildcats countered when Ken Davis intercepted a pass and set up River Oudemool’s eight-yard TD pass to McAvan just 11 seconds before halftime.
That gave WG a 13-6 edge, and throughout the third quarter it constantly threatened to put the game away, only to get stopped by B’ville’s defense three times inside the Bees’ 25.
So the game was still in doubt when, with 2:50 to play, B’ville quarterback Brandon Otts, working from his own 40, rolled right and threw deep. Kaleb Paul got behind WG’s coverage, caught the pass and sprinted the rest of the way for the touchdown.
That made it 13-12, and the Bees went for two points and the lead. Going straight up the middle, Mellinger found the end zone just before the ball was ripped from his hands.
What’s more, the Wildcats fumbled on the ensuing kickoff and Vince Samoraj recovered. WG used all of its time-outs to try to get the ball back one more time, but two runs by Amir Akins got the first down, allowing B’ville to run out the clock.
Two other local teams would debut on Labor Day weekend when Westhill visited Jordan-Elbridge, and young players on both sides of the ball would make quite an impression to help the Warriors defeat the Eagles 28-16.
Eighth-grader Elijah Welch, installed as Westhill’s quarterback, put his team on the board with a 15-yard TD scramble in the first quarter. J-E answered when, on an option pass, Avante Brown found Caleb Rouse on a 45-yard scoring pass, but the extra point was missed.
Adding to the Warriors’ lead in the second period, Elijah Welch drove to the Eagles’ 20 and then found Rahmonnyee Gonzalez in the end zone after Reggie Welch scored from two yards out.
Trailing in the second half, the Eagles inched close when Jordan Kuhn hit on a 30-yard field goal and Brown, displaying his big-play skills, returned a Westhill punt 75 yards for a TD.
Yet the Warriors absorbed all this and put the game away when Reggie Welch scored for the second time on a two-yard plunge, part of a day where he ran 10 times for 67 yards. Geoff Daniul added 49 yards on 14 carries.
Defensively, the Warriors forced three J-E turnovers as Gonzalez, Taden Chester and Collin White each got an interception, and it forced Eagles quarterback Wade Brunelle to complete just four of 13 passes for 98 yards.
