ONONDAGA COUNTY – As if getting off to a 3-0 start was not impressive enough, the Skaneateles and Marcellus football teams made it an undefeated September with a pair of strong Friday-night performances.
In the case of Skaneateles, it marked a full-circle moment for head coach Jay Steinhorst who saw his state Class C no. 6-ranked Lakers defeat the other Lakers from Cazenovia 28-14 at Hyatt Stadium.
Meanwhile, Marcellus, who had accumulated 135 points in its first three games and was no. 17 in the state rankings, continued the scoring onslaught against Southern Hills, netting 48 points by halftime on the way to defeating the Storm 55-18.
Before coming to Skaneateles, Steinhorst was a long-time assistant coach at Cazenovia before getting promoted to head coach and, in 2015, giving the Lakers its first-ever state championship.
But while the Cazenovia program has mostly thrived under Steinhorst’s successor, Kyle Martin, it came to Skaneateles this time having endured a rare 0-2 start due to defeats to General Brown and Lowville.
Wasting no time, Skaneateles took its opening drive 67 yards, Hugh Carroll scoring on a one-yard plunge, and after a defensive stop put together another drive featuring another Carroll touchdown run from eight yards out.
Cazenovia moved within 14-8 on Bobby Livingston’s 66-yard scoring pass to Paul Mitchell in the opening seconds of the second quarter, but right before halftime the cushion was restored, Skaneateles driving to the opponents’ 17 before Carroll found Reid Danforth in the end zone.
Special teams contributed to the last Skaneateles TD, jumping on a muffed punt and recovering it to set up a short field and Brady Ellis scoring from two yards out.
Ellis led the defense with seven tackles. Colin Henry added five tackles, with Luke Logan and Jackson Bone each getting four tackles. Carroll completed 10 of 13 passes for 108 yards, while Henry ran 13 times for 62 yards.
As for Marcellus, it quickly decided matters against Southern Hills with 28 unanswered points in the first quarter and scored three more times in the second period.
Chris Doshna had four TD’s, with a 57-yard run and two runs of 19 yards included, while Mitch Donegan broke loose for long TD runs of 37 and 35 yards and Dakota Wilson threw a 35-yard scoring pass to Damyn LeClair. Then Donegan returned the second-half kickoff 70 yards for another TD.
Marcellus next has games against Solvay and Bishop Ludden/SAS, who met each other last Friday as the Gaelic Knights pulled away to defeat the Bearcats 46-20.
All six Ludden/SAS touchdowns came from lengthy plays, starting with X’Zavion Streiff throwing a 52-yard pass to Tom Cervantes and continuing when Darius Mithcell returned a kickoff 72 yards for a score after Solvay got on the board.
Streiff added TD passes of 23 yards to J’Shon Goolsby and 30 yards to Micah Baker to help produce a 24-14 halftime lead, but the Gaelic Knights were not done.
Jahbari Clarke dashed 64 yards for a third-quarter TD and scored on a 46-yard run in the final minutes after Darion Clarke returned a Solvay interception 37 yards for six points.
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All told, Jahbari Clarke piled up 230 rushing yards on just 13 carries. Dewan Hunt led the Ludden/SAS defense with 7 ½ tackles as Jayden Mackool and Jahmarion Clarke each finished with 6 ½ tackles.
Solvay lost despite a solid ground attack where Xavier Hardy had 123 yards on 21 carries and scored twice, with Jason Davis adding 102 yards on 13 carries. Defensively, Hardy again paced the Bearcats, earning eight tackles ahead of Jaedyn Godbolt and Dylan Mumford each earning 6 1/2 tackles.
