CENTRAL NEW YORK – Two important things emerged for the Solvay football team from Saturday’s exciting 41-32 victory over Marcellus.
First and foremost, the Bearcats, led by 371 rushing yards from Jaysin Bliss on 25 carries, regained possession of the Tom Anthony Silver Cup after losing 9-7 to the Mustangs when these teams met early in the 2022 season.
It also meant that Solvay was 3-0 heading into a big Class C showdown this Saturday against state no. 2-ranked Cazenovia, also 3-0, at Fayetteville-Manlius Stadium.
Winless going into the game, Marcellus had an inspired effort here, staying close behind a potent offense where Dakota Wilson and Henry Lawrence combined to throw for 201 yards and three touchdowns.
Damyn LeClair caught five passes for 118 yards and scored twice, with Lawrence also gaining 125 yards on the ground on 16 carries with a TD.
But Solvay kept making big plays, none more than Bliss going 90 yards for a TD in the first quarter, the first of four scores on the afternoon for the senior back.
In fact, Bliss had all three of the Bearcats’ touchdowns in the second half after Luis Mujica and Josh Komar found the end zone in the early going, a 40-yard dash late in the fourth quarter sealing it.
It capped a weekend where most of the area’s teams ran into strong opposition and only Bishop Ludden was otherwise victorious, the Gaelic Knights rolling to a 42-6 win over Canastota.
Coming off back-to-back losses, Ludden played with urgency and led from the moment X’Zavion Streiff through a 78-yard TD pass to Tom Cervantes in the first quarter.
Then the Gaelic Knights netted 35 points over the next two periods, everything from a 75-yard interception return by Cervantes for six points to Jahbari Clarke scoring twice on 13-yard runs and Streiff tossing his second and third TD passes of the day to Gabron Polk.
Before Solvay got its chance with Cazenovia, Skaneateles met its namesakes last Friday on the new black turf at Morrisville State College and saw its defense hold the opposition to just 128 total yards, yet still lost 14-12.
By far, the biggest culprit was turnovers. Four interceptions by Cazenovia thwarted Skaneateles drives, two of them by Taven Reilley and one of which Reilley returned for a TD early in the third quarter.
This put Skaneateles down 14-6, but it didn’t allow anything more and, late in the fourth quarter, drove to the end zone to pull within two, only to have Jack Donlin sack Joe Delmonico on the possible tying two-point try.
At least that game was close, unlike what happened at West Genesee, where the Wildcats saw Whitesboro avenge its 2022 sectional Class A semifinal defeat with a 41-0 shutout.
Kyle Meier led the Warriors, running for 136 yards on 13 carries and completing 10 of 19 passes for 192 yards. He scored on a 74-yard run in the third quarter after throwing TD passes of 40 yards to Angelo Mosco and 30 yards to Anthony Doroszynski in the first half.i
In defeat, WG saw Elijah Apps record 15 tackles, with Carson Pagan adding 12 tackles. Jay’Mari Newsome had nine tackles, Christian Burns seven tackles and Yazen Salman six tackles.
Up north, Westhill took a 44-14 defeat to Indian River, who remains one of the Class A favorites despite having to forfeit two earlier wins for having used an ineligible player.
Bulding a 24-0 lead by halftime, IR would get 133 rushing yards from Kane Lynch and 132 yards on the ground from Derek Jones. Westhill did not score until earning single touchdowns in the third and fourth periods.
Jordan-Elbridge lost, too, falling 34-20 to Phoenix in a game where the Eagles briefly had an 8-7 lead thanks to Nixon Karcz’s TD run and an Austin Brunelle two-point pass to Dylan Czarnecko.
However, the Firebirds moved in front 21-14 by halftime and never let J-E catch up, forcing Karcz into three interceptions to negate his 193 total yards, 113 of them on ground. Lincoln Kersey had two of those interceptions.
