VERONA – Rarely in all of its history has the Chittenango football team roared the way it did in Friday night’s 2023 season opener at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.
Scoring four touchdowns in the first quarter and rarely letting up from there, the Bears demolished the Red Devils 61-0, offering a fair amount of hope to its fans that it can seriously contend for Class B honors this fall.
Chittenango went 3-5 a season ago in Bill Cretaro’s first season as head coach, but returns a sizable portion of its lineup that, at least at the outset, proved it was quite ready for things to get underway.
In the opening minutes, the Bears scored on Brayden Smith’s four-yard run, then made it 14-0 when Jack Lamphere tossed a 20-yard TD pass to Hunter Taylor, along with a two-point conversion.
Smith returned to find the end zone from 22 yards out, and when Lamphere and Taylor connected on a 27-yard TD play late in the first quarter, it was 27-0.
Two more touchdowns followed in the second quarter, on runs of nine yards by Smith and 13 yards by Kyle Wehrlin, and in the third period the Bears struck on special teams when, after Wehrlin’s second TD on an eight-yard run, Robert Pierce returned a Red Devils punt 76 yards to the end zone.
Zailor Caras capped it off with a 68-yard TD run, and Chittenango could look ahead to a key early-season clash with New Hartford in next Friday’s home opener. The Spartans opened its season by routing Scotia-Glenville 49-14.
