CENTRAL NEW YORK – An undefeated spring, along with the return of several key offensive stars, meant that the Skaneateles football team could harbor championship aspirations again.
What happened in Friday’s season opener against Clinton at Hyatt Stadium did not discourage those thoughts as the Lakers converted early and often on the way to shutting out the Warriors 50-0.
Big plays were the story early, with Grayson Brunelle cutting through Clinton’s defenses on touchdown runs of 39 and 53 yards in the game’s first five minutes.
Adding to the fun, Cody Nesbitt returned a Clinton punt 65 yards to the end zone to make it 20-0, and the fun continued in the second quarter with three more Skaneateles touchdowns.
James Musso went deep to Nate Shattuck on a 73-yard scoring pass minutes after a seven-yard TD strike to Patrick Herr, with Brenden McGowan breaking loose on a 33-yard end-zone dash in between.
That made it 41-0 by halftime, with Colin Morrissey adding a third-quarter TD run and Ashton Bennett kicking a 30-yard field goal to help the Lakers reach the half-century mark.
Down the road, Skaneateles will have to face Bishop Ludden, who made its own bold opening statement last Friday by piling up points in a 68-10 romp over Utica-Notre Dame.
Nazier Kinsey’s first points of the season came on a 35-yard interception return, but that was just a warm-up for a second quarter where he ran 19 yards for one TD and went deep for scoring passes of 58 yards to Eric Phillips and 92 yards to Joey Adamo.
Evan Cervantes added an 11-yard TD run which helped make it 34-0 by halftime. Tom Cervantes would convert twice in the second half on runs of nine and 45 yards as Kinsey and Phillips also found the end zone and Juilan MacKool scored on a 14-yard run.
Beaten by Westhill in its Sept. 4 opener, Jordan-Elbridge fell behind Port Byron/Union Springs early, but the Eagles roared back to defeat the Panthers 34-14.
Even with Avante Brown’s 58-yard scoring dash, PB/US led 14-6 before a second-quarter drive netted a TD on Caleb Rouse’s seven-yard run and Rouse converted the two-pointer to tie it.
The J-E defense shut out PB/US the rest of the way and broke that 14-14 tie when Brown returned a Panthers interception 17 yards for a TD. Rouse and Jordan Kuhn both added late touchdowns to help the Eagles get away.
As this went on, Marcellus had an early-season stumble at Central Valley Academy, playing strong defense but still taking a 14-13 defeat to the Thunder.
CVA’s points were earned by Axavier Howard returning an interception and a kick for touchdowns, the latter taking place in the second quarter after the Mustangs tied it on Jonas Kaczor’s one-yard plunge.
Down 14-7 at halftime, Marcellus drove again and scored in the third quarter on a one-yard run by Jaocb Kermes, but the extra point was blocked – and that proved the difference as the Thunder contained the Mustangs on each of its remaining possessions.
Contrasting this was the way Solvay was overwhelmed at the outset of its 34-7 defeat to visiting Cazenovia, surrendering 21 unanswered points in the first quarter.
The Lakers scored on its opening possession and, a minute later, made it 14-0 when A.J. Rothfeld returned a Connor Ellsworth fumble 35 yards for a TD.
By halftime, the margin had doubled to 28-0, Cazenovia quarterback J.P. Hoak having completed 11 of 14 passes for 198 yards on his way to going 13-for-16 for 261 yards. The Bearcats’ lone points came when Anthony Berry scored from eight yards out late in the fourth quarter and Dan Mrowinski addd the extra point.
