CAZENOVIA – Sure, the no. 2 state ranking is a nice designation, and an undefeated regular season is ideal.
But the Cazenovia football team would gladly trade those accolades to gain back the Section III Class C championship, a quest that gets underway this weekend against Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.
First, though, the Lakers had to take care of Canastota Saturday on Senior Day at Buckley-Volo Field, and did so with a steady effort that resulted in a 38-16 victory over the Raiders.
Down from seasons past, Canastota still had a chance to have a signature moment this fall, but on a warm October afternoon Cazenovia, donning its all-blue uniforms, dashed those plans early.
It was 16-0 before the first quarter was over, the Lakers getting on the board when J.P. Hoak, from the Raiders’ 35, threw a short pass to Jack Donlin and watched Donlin go the rest of the way. Christian Schug added a two-point conversion.
In the last minute of the period, the Lakers drove to the Canastota 10 and then saw Hoak find Jack Byrnes in the end zone. Again going for two, again Cazenovia converted on a run from Hoak.
Hoak’s third TD pass, three yards to Byrnes, made it 22-0 before the Raiders finally got on the board. But the Lakers answered shortly before halftime, driving to the one before Hoak tossed it to Alex Kuper for the score.
Once Donlin scored on a nine-yard run in the third quarter and Byrnes, with yet another two-point conversion, made it 38-7, the Lakers could relax a bit and rest starters for the post-season ahead.
Lethal with its air attack, Cazenovia saw Hoak complete 16 of 21 passes for 226 yards. Wyatt Scott led a modest ground attack with 50 yards on nine carries.
Defensively, the Lakers held the Raiders to 220 total yards. Jed Olkowski got a pair of sacks on his way to matching Scott and Brad Gagnon with five tackles apiece. Brayden Weismore had four tackles, with Jack Macro getting two tackles and five assists as Schug added an interception.
A win over VVS, the fourth-place finisher in the C-2 division, would mean Cazenovia reaches the sectional semifinals against General Brown or Solvay.
Chittenango recovered from a rough start this season to earn a sectional Class B playoff berth, closing the regular season last Friday with a 48-0 romp over South Jefferson.
Wasting little time, the Bears buried the Spartans with four first-quarter touchdowns, starting with short runs of four yards by Quentin Mohamed and six yards by Kyle Wehrlin.
Then, on back-to-back possessions, Jack Lamphere threw scoring passes to Hunter Taylor and Derek Hughes, the latter of them a 15-yard strike.
Sean Eiffe’s three-yard TD run in the second period made it 34-0 going to halftime, with Lamphere adding a TD pass to Trevor Cole as Rob Kimball scored from one yard out.
Trying 20 passes, Lamphere completed 11 of them for 140 yards. Mohamed had a team-high 79 rushing yards on 12 carries as the Bears are lined up to face Camden (whom it lost to 43-24 in the season opener) in the opening round of the playoffs.
