MARCELLUS – What had largely brought the Cazenovia football team to the top of the state Class C rankings was its effective combination of dominant defense with an offense that was patient and took advantage of scoring opportunities.
Now, though, the Lakers have shown that it can pass the ball, too.
In Thursday night’s game at Marcellus, Cazenovia saw a breakout performance from sophomore quarterback Bobby Livingston, who constantly produced big plays through the air in a 34-18 victory over the Mustangs.
For the second game in a row, the Lakers were working off a short week, just six days removed from its mud-filled Oct. 6 win at Bishop Ludden, but again it didn’t prove to be a problem.
All through the first half, Cazenovia effectively moved the ball against the Marcellus defense, with the difference proving to be that Livingston didn’t have to run to make an impact.
Instead, the first quarter featured Livingston throwing touchdown passes of 36 yards and 11 yards, both of them to Taven Reilley, to establish a quick 14-0 advantage as Connor Frisbie converted both extra points.
That margin nearly doubled in the second period, Cazenovia twice more finding the end zone as Jack Donlin scored on a 24-yards run and Livingston, from midfield, found Christian Schug and it led to a 51-yard TD play.
Though Henry Lawrence did burn the Lakers’ defense with a 75-yard TD pass to Xander Szalach, Cazenovia still took a 27-6 lead to the break and maintained it through a scoreless third quarter.
Any doubts about the outcome vanished when Livingston threw his fourth scoring pass, 32 yards to Reilley, early in the final period, capping off a night where he completed 11 of 15 passes for 193 yards.
Reilley caught six passes for 94 yards, with Schug gaining 76 yards on just three catches. Most of the ground game came from Donlin (seven gains for 75 yards) and Brayden Weismore, who had 10 carries for 42 yards.
Again, Jack Macro led the defense. Two of his three tackles were for losses and he assisted on eight others, with Wyatt Scott adding three solo tackles, Bryce Enders getting six assists and Schug five assists along with an interception.
All that stands between the Lakers and another undefeated regular season is next Friday’s game at Canastota, which kicks off at 7 p.m.
Chittenango took a three-game win streak into Friday’s game at Indian River, with first place in the Class B West division and a possible league title on the line.
But IR, who had to forfeit two games earlier this season, proved too tough for the Bears, prevailing 60-26 as it scored at least two touchdowns in each of the first three quarters and tallied more than 500 rushing yards.
Kane Lynch, with 171 yards on 16 carries, led this ground assault. Derek Jones gained 142 yards on 12 carries and Ethan Hattori needed just six carries to pick up 141 yards and score twice to match Lynch in the TD column.
It was 44-0 before Chittenango got on the board in the third quarter, though it would, in the game’s latter stages, see Kyle Werhlin and Seamus Gardner score on TD runs, Gardner throw an 18-yard scoring pass to Chase Brummer and Jack Lamphere find Zailor Caras on a 75-yard TD strike.
Lamphere threw 27 times, completing 10 of those passes for 158 yards. Werhlin, after scoring five TD’s against Institute of Technology Central the week before, had just 64 yards on this night.
Chittenango, at 4-3 overall, is back home next Friday for its regular-season finale against Westhill (3-3), which starts at 6:30.
