SYRACUSE – All the scenarios dreamed up by the Fayetteville-Manlius football team and its followers involved celebrating its first Section III title in 21 years on the turf of the JMA Wireless Dome.
And a celebration did take place Friday night – only the Hornets were spectators, not participants.
West Genesee, breaking its own 11-year sectional title drought, jumped all over F-M in the first half and, through big plays on both sides of the ball, stunned the Hornets 23-0.
It got decided early, the Wildcats earning all of its points in the first two quarters and doing what no other local team had done all season in that it contained F-M’s vaunted ground attack.
Yet to WG it wasn’t a complete surprise. No local side had played F-M as close in the regular season, the Hornets only prevailing 29-20 in September in a game where both T.J. Conley and George LaCombe topped 150 yards on the ground.
The Wildcats had gone 7-0 since, and entering the sectional final knew, above all else, it had to keep Conley from the long-distance scoring runs that had discouraged so many of the Hornets’ previous foes.
That’s exactly what happened in the first quarter, with WG only allowing a single first down as its front seven controlled the line of scrimmage and never let Conley break a big run, and wouldn’t do so the rest of the night, either.
Quarterback Vincent Firenze’s 35-yard sweep put the ball deep into Hornets territory on the Wildcats’ first possession as he also scrambled 11 yards on fourth-down-and-eight, WG eventually grabbing an 8-0 lead as Firenze went the final yard for the score and Francisco Cross ran in for two points.
Then it was Dom Burris going 36 yards on a sweep in the Wildcats’ next possession, setting up a second touchdown when Firenze, from the Hornets’ 12, rolled left, drawing in the defense before throwing a screen pass to Cross, who went untouched to the end zone.
A far bigger play took place late in the second quarter. F-M had stopped another Wildcats drive and, from its own 10, drove into WG territory, its ground game finding a rhythm with large gains by Conley.
But on third down from the Wildcats’ 35, Randal Hearn rolled out to pass and saw Firenze jump the route, pick it off and go 73 yards the other way for six points.
Even with this, F-M had opportunities to climb back, only to not manage the clock well at the end of the first half and see a possible scoring drive halt inside the Wildcats’ 10.
Another long F-M march inside WG’s 30 in the third quarter was halted, too, when Landon Spencer sacked Hearn on back-to-back plays. The Hornets never got close to scoring again.
