ONONDAGA COUNTY – Whatever timetable the Fayetteville-Manlius flag football team gave itself in terms of progress for its inaugural season, it has to feel like it has moved ahead of schedule.
Against the reigning Section III champions from Baldwinsville last Wednesday night, the Hornets played superb defense, stopped the one conversion it needed to contain and defeated the Bees 7-6.
Neither team scored in the opening period, but B’ville got on the board early in the second. F-M stopped the conversion attempt, beginning a stretch where it would blank the Bees the rest of the night.
Lacey Teaken was unstoppable, recording five sacks and four other tackles Madison Romocki got nine tackles, while Rory Teaken and Una Vlasak both added four tackles and Lucy Hyatt had a pair of sacks.
Meanwhile, the offense was moving the ball thanks to quarterback Freedom Umstead, who ran for 123 yards on 15 carries while also completing 16 of 31 passes for 131 yards.
Not until late in the second half, though, did all that work on offense pay off with a drive deep into B’ville territory that F-M paid off when Umstead found Romocki on a short pass which Romocki turned into a dash to the end zone.
That tied it 6-6, and a successful conversion put F-M in front to stay.
Now the Hornets would challenge another league leader when it faced Liverpool Friday night, and somehow it managed to top what it did against B’ville.
Romping in the rain, F-M netted four touchdowns as its defense only allowed one, and the result was a 26-6 victory which only had to boost the Hornets’ confidence further going into its clash Monday with unbeaten, first-place Syracuse East.
