MANLIUS – Many times through the last half-century or so, teams from Fayetteville-Manlius and West Genesee have collided with championships at stake, most frequently in lacrosse.
That was never the case in football – until next Friday night, when inside the JMA Wireless Dome the Hornets and Wildcats will collide in their biggest-ever gridiron showdown.
All this was made possible by the events of Friday’s Section III Class A semifinals, where F-M, with its big-play capability, pulled away in the second half to beat New Hartford 40-21 as WG rallied from behind to beat Whitesboro 35-28.
At Hornet Stadium, a large crowd watched as F-M took on a New Hartford side which had knocked off Corcoran 21-12 in the opening round of the sectional playoffs.
Notching the only points of the first quarter, the Hornets went up 7-0 when T.J. Conley, who had gained 311 yards and scored five touchdowns in his team’s opening-round win over East Syracuse Minoa, found the end zone again on an eight-yard dash.
When the Spartans threatened to catch up early in the second quarter, Denim Hall made his biggest play of the season, intercepting a Dominic Ambrose pass and returning it 86 yards for a TD to make it 14-0.
This didn’t rattle New Hartford too much as it got a big play of its own, Alex Colliver scoring on a 69-yard run, only to have Conley answer with yet another long TD sprint, this one covering 60 yards.
A wild second quarter concluded with the Spartans cutting the margin to 20-14 with 1:06 left in the half, Ambrose throwing a 24-yard scoring pass to Cole Raux.
New Hartford kicked off to start the third quarter. A stop here may have planted some doubt in the Hornets.
Conley would not allow it, though. Taking the kick, he again followed crushing blocks by the Hornets’ special teams and, 80 yards later, had delivered a back-breaking touchdown, even though nearly two full quarters remained.
A 23-yard scoring run by Conley midway through the period made it 34-14, and he returned in the fourth quarter to net his ninth TD of the post-season on a 24-yard dash in the fourth quarter.
All told, Conley ran for 240 yards on 30 carries. Jack Hearn added 59 yards on seven carries as Jackson Schwab and Liam Malgieri led the defense with four tackles apiece. Liam Brown and Colin Clark each got three tackles.
While all this was going on, West Genesee, who trailed Whitesboro 21-6 early in the second quarter, rallied and, with a key late fourth-quarter stop at its own two-yard line, avenged a season-opening loss to Whitesboro.
Now it’s the Hornets against the Wildcats, F-M having prevailed 29-20 when they met in September. The sectional final will kick off next Friday at 6 p.m.
