CENTRAL NEW YORK – Three area high school football teams took their first road trips of 2021, each of them heading north intent on following up impressive opening-night victories.
Or at least that was the original plan.
That number shrank to two when Christian Brothers Academy saw its trip to Central Square canceled. A Redhawks player tested positive for COVID-19, sidelining enough of his teammates not to allow Central Square to field a full roster.
So with the Brothers sidelined, two others carried on, and only one of them won.
East Syracuse Minoa ventured to Fulton and put on a first-half scoring display that proved too much for the Red Raiders as the Spartans prevailed 53-20.
Maybe the best thing to happen to ESM was seeing Fulton score on William Patterson’s 10-yard pass to Rhyle Humphrey. Properly alarmed, the Spartans countered with 26 unanswered points in a span of less than five minutes.
Tyler Bell got it going by finding Rocky El on a 35-yard scoring strike. Quickly getting the ball back again, the Spartans took the lead for good when Bell went eight yards to Jackson Palumb for his second touchdown pass.
Then ESM pulled away by striking twice in14 seconds. Bell’s third TD pass, finding El for 47 yards, was followed on the next play from scrimmage by Mike O’Brien intercepting a Fulton pass and returning it 35 yards for six more.
All through the second quarter, the Red Raiders tried to climb back in it, Patterson throwing TD passes of 20 and 49 yards to Tyler Mills.
Each time, the Spartans answered. Nick Commisso threw a nine-yard TD pass to Palumb and, after Mills scored again, Palumb took the ensuing kickoff and dashed 80 yards to the other end zone.
Having scored on offense, defense and special teams, ESM took a 40-20 edge to halftime, and then further sealed it in the third quarter when Dan Gilkey scored from four yards out and Mikahl Combs added a 37-yard TD run.
ESM would go for three in a row Friday against West Genesee, a side who has not played since a Sept. 3 loss at Baldwinsville due to two game postponements.
Fayetteville-Manlius would go further north to take on Indian River, making its season debut after a COVID-19 quarantine cost the Warriors games against Utica Proctor and West Genesee.
With the no. 13 state Class A ranking, the Hornets proved quite effective for two quarters, only to see the Warriors take command in the second half and prevail 50-21.
Taking advantage of an IR turnover in the first quarter, F-M went up 7-0 on T.J. Conley’s TD run. But the Warriors countered with three scores helped by two Hornets turnovers, one which led to a defensive TD.
Down 20-7, F-M answered in the opening minute of the second period with a big play of its own, Chris Hoalcraft finding Conley on a 68-yard scoring pass. Then, just before halftime, the Hornets drove to the Warriors’ six, where Hoalcraft again found Conley in the end zone.
Even with a 21-20 halftime edge, though, the Hornets were struggling on defense. And that continued as IR erupted for 29 unanswered points in the third and fourth quarters to get away.
Gabe Lynch led the Warriors, gaining 204 yards on 23 carries and scoring four touchdowns. Michael Davis added 128 yards on nine carries as Rowan Marsell had 21 carries for 126 yards and a score.
Falling to 1-1 on the season, F-M would return home this Friday and face 1-1 Whitesboro, who upended state Class A no. 7-ranked Auburn a week after it lost at CBA.
Bishop Grimes recovered from its season-opening loss to Sauquoit Valley by topping Tupper Lake 20-6 in eight-man football. Karmelo McKelvin scored in the first quarter, with third-quarter TD runs by Jon Corl and Logan Quackenbush proving decisive.
