CENTRAL NEW YORK – Nine days was all it took for the entire area Section III Class C football picture to change in a profound way.
Where once Skaneateles was 1-4 and on its way to an early ending, its late turnaround, combined with the struggles of Marcellus and the consistency of Bishop Ludden, led to a standings shake-up.
Now it was Ludden clinching second place in the C-1 division behind Cazenovia, doing so Thursday when it went to Marcellus and shut out the Mustangs 13-0.
Largely, this result was a tribute to the work of Ludden’s defense, which never let Marcellus get to the end zone and also held things up when the offense faced some early struggles.
From a passing standpoint, the Gaelic Knights forced Pat Louer to complete just four of his 13 passes and also kept running back Jacob Kermes (20 carries, 95 yards) from many big gains.
Not until the second quarter did the Gaelic Knights get on the board, driving to the Mustangs’ 23-yard line before quarterback X’Zavion Streiff found Eric Phillips in the end zone and Matt Kneichle added the extra point.
A cushion was secured in the third period when, from the Marcellus 32, Streiff went deep again, finding Tom Cervantes, whose touchdown nearly doubled the margin.
Now Marcellus sat back and watched what happened on Saturday, when Skaneateles went to Clinton and. leaving no question about its playoff fate, blasted to a 61-21 victory over the Warriors to finish ahead of the Mustangs in the final standings.
It was 20-0 before the first quarter was over, the Lakers seeing Patrick Herr scramble 46 yards for one TD and then throw scoring strikes of 32 yards to Nico Decker and 41 yards to Grayson Brunelle.
Twice in the second period, Brunelle found the end zone, on a three-yard run and 26-yard pass from Herr that eventuall built Skaneateles’ halftime margin to 34-7.
Brunelle’s fourth TD, on a nine-yard run, was part of a second half where Luke Bruha would score from three yards out and Hugh Carroll twice found the end zone, once on a 50-yard dash.
It was Carroll, with 142 yards on nine carries, beating the ground totals of Brunelle (90 yards) and Herr (78 yards), though Herr also went five-for-six throught the air for 126 yards and added five tackles on defense. Jacob Sweeney had a team-best 5 ½ tackles.
Solvay was at home Saturday to face Westmoreland/Oriskany and, by gaining a 35-14 win over the Bulldogs, clinched a winning record after getting just one win a season ago.
Improving to 5-3, the Bearcats prevailed in large part because it jumped out in front 14-0 in the first quarter.
Luis Mujica’s 14-yard TD pass to Jeff Sharpe and Jaysin Bliss scoring on a four-yard run, along with Christian Kaminski’s extra points, created that early margin.
Even after Westmoreland/Oriskany got on the board, Bliss returned to the end zone on a 35-yard dash that helped Solvay take a 21-8 lead to halftime.
Blanked in the the third period and seeing the margin cut to 21-14, the Bearcats imposed its physical will late as Michael Darling scored on a one-yard plunge and Jordan Dippold returned a short Bulldogs punt for a TD.
Despite all this, Solvay was left out of the Class C playoff bracket, relegated to fifth place in the C-1 division behind third-place Skaneateles and fourth-place Marcellus.
So in the opening round of the sectional playoffs the Mustangs travel to Boonville to face 7-0 Adirondack, the first-place team in C-2, while the Lakers will go north to face General Brown.
