CAZENOVIA – Less than 10 minutes of game time had elapsed in Saturday’s football showdown between unbeaten Skaneateles and unbeaten Cazenovia at Buckley-Volo Field, and yet the decisive blows were already delivered.
Skaneateles, with the kind of quick-strike capability that had paralyzed four previous outmatched opponents, had now done the same to someone much better, bolting to a 21-0 advantage.
The host Lakers played better from there, but it all proved a formality as the visiting Lakers, proving why it held the no. 2 state Class C ranking, rolled to a 50-22 victory.
Each of these Laker sides had equaled each other with 4-0 starts, all gained through lopsided victories. Skaneateles had outscored its first four foes a combined 209-18, while Cazenovia had rolled to four wins by a total margin of 172-25.
Part of what that meant was that neither side had required their starters to play in the fourth quarter. That changed here, but by then Skaneateles had long proven its superiority, at least on this day.
In fact, it took a mere 35 seconds for the visitors to go in front. Gerald Morrissey’s long kick return put Skaneateles in Cazenovia territory and, after James Musso threw 43 yards to Nico Decker, Grayson Brunelle scored from the one.
A second possession led to a second Skaneateles touchdown when Musso, from the Cazenovia 19, rolled out and, under pressure, threw to Cody Nesbitt in the corner of the end zone.
Minutes later, a bad snap was pounced on by Decker at the Cazenovia 31, and another short field produced another seven points, Brunelle covering most of the territory until Musso scrambled in from two yards out.
Only here did Cazenovia begin to settle down, getting on the board early in the second quarter on Peter McCole’s 35-yard TD run. McCole scored again from seven yards out late in the half.
Each time, though, Skaneateles had an answer. Mixing runs and passes, the visitors made it 28-7 when Musso threw a 10-yard scoring pass to Patrick Herr.
Even bigger was what happened when Cazenovia, having cut the margin to 28-14, was stopped on fourth down in Skaneateles territory in the last minute of the half.
Again demonstrating its firepower, Sknaeateles turned to Musso, whose pass over the middle to Herr covered 43 yards and set up a 22-yard TD strike to Decker 13.2 seconds before halftime.
Brunelle’s two-point run made it 36-14 at the break, and Skaneateles would spend the second half mostly keeping it to the ground and adding to the margin when Brunelle barreled 18 yards for one TD and Musso went 10 yards for another early in the fourth quarter.
Skaneateles had nice offensive balance, running for 185 yards to complement Musso going 12-for-24 for 190 yards through the air. Brunelle gained 120 of those yards on 23 carries as Nesbitt had seven catches for 74 yards.
Next for these Lakers is a trip Friday to Bishop Ludden, who was undefeated going into last Friday’s game against 4-0 General Brown before taking a 47-26 defeat to the Lions.
Nazier Kinsey briefly put the Gaelic Knights on top when he dashed 36 yards to the end zone in the first quarter, but GB responded with 28 unanswered points to go in front for good.
Four different Lions – Nick Rogers, Gabe Malcolm, Elijah Rawleigh and Kaleb Natali – scored on short TD runs before Kinsey’s 58-yard pass to Eric Phillips cut the margin to 28-14 at halftime.
Try as it could, though, Ludden could not make up the rest of the ground, with GB adding three more touchdowns in the second half to negate Kinsey’s 26-yard run and Nick Cervantes’ four-yard run.
The Lions nearly had a trio of 100-yard rushers. Rawleigh gained 148 yards on 17 carries as Rogers had 119 yards on 18 carries and Malcolm carried the ball 10 times for 98 yards.
Solvay lost last Friday to Southern Hills 38-13, the Bearcats unable to recover from a first quarter where the Storm erupted for 22 straight points. Ashton Burton ran for 182 yards and scored three times to lead Southern Hills.
