ONONDAGA COUNTY – At last, the Skaneateles football team has surrendered a point in the 2021 season.
What was more, Southern Hills actually took a lead on the state Class C no. 2-ranked Lakers early in Friday night’s game at Hyatt Stadium, but all that did was delay the takeover until the second quarter.
By the time the Lakers had calmed the Storm and prevailed 49-18, all attention was turned toward next Saturday’s momentous trip to Buckley-Volo Field and a showdown with those other 4-0 Lakers from Cazenovia.
Similar to its namesakes, Cazenovia, no. 17 in last week’s state Class C poll, has dominated its opponents, outscoring them a combined 174-25 led by senior quarterback J.P. Hoak and a tough, physical defense anchored by the likes of A.J. Rothfeld and Jed Olkowski.
Before all this, Skaneateles first had to deal with a Southern Hills off to a 2-0 start and, at least at the outset, not intimidated one bit by the Lakers.
In fact, the Storm drove down the field and took a 6-0 lead on Ashton Burrian’s four-yard touchdown run, and didn’t flinch when Grayson Brunelle’s 67-yard kick return set up his three-yard TD plunge and, minutes later, James Musso hit Cody Nesbitt on a 20-yard scoring strike.
When Lane Edinger burned the Lakers’ defense with a big play early in the second period – namely, a 64-yard TD pass to Mick Swan – Southern Hills had a chance to tie it with a two-point conversion, but was stopped.
Sufficiently alarmed, Skaneateles then proceeded to take out the suspense with a 28-point scoring blitz to close the half.
Bruenlle’s nine-yard TD run got it going. Musso found Nesbitt again on a 53-yard scoring pass before connecting with Nate Shattuck from 11 yards out and Patrick Herr on a 20-yard strike.
Musso’s fifth TD pass, 25 yards to Brunelle, in the third quarter capped a night where he went 11-for-14 for 222 yards, with Nesbitt catching five of those passes for 137 yards. Also, Musso ran for 60 yards on five carries to complement Brunelle’s 101 yards on 12 carries. Ashton Bennett made all seven of the extra points he tried.
Through all this, Bishop Ludden has kept pace with Sknaeateles – and while not yet state-ranked, the Gaelic Knights had another impressive showing last Friday when it clobbered Clinton 54-6.
Again, an early scoring play from the opposition may have served as a catalyst of sorts, the Warriors getting in the end zone in the first quarter in between Nazier Kinsey throwing 13 yards to Eric Phillips for one TD and dashing 66 yards for another.
Any doubts about the outcome vanished, though, when Ludden put up 21 unanswered points in the second quarter. Kinsey had another long TD run of 40 yads, also connecting with Tom Cervantes on a 28-yard scoring strike as Evan Cervantes converted on a two-yard plunge.
Staying on the ground in the second half, the Gaelic Knights saw Phillips add his second and third touchdowns of the night on runs of 29 and 54 yards, with Evan Cervantes scoring a second time from 19 yards out.
Just like Skaneateles, Ludden will face a big road challenge next weekend, traveling north Friday to face General Brown before it has to face both sets of Lakers in the last two weeks of the regular season.
