ONONDAGA COUNTY – If the West Genesee football team truly wanted to make a Class AA championship push this fall it would first have to prove itself against all of the main contenders.
And the Wildcats’ first step in this process came Friday night at Bragman Stadium against a Cicero-North Syracuse side bent on bouncing back after back-to-back defeats to the other two main contenders, Christian Brothers Academy and Liverpool.
Led by Elijah Apps and Raul Colon on the defensive side, WG was able to get it to overtime, only to stall at the end and take a 20-13 defeat to the Northstars.
Shut out in its previous two games, C-NS broke that streak in the first quarter scoring on Anthony Johnson’s six-yard run, but the Wildcats answered with Jack Wade finding Brian Simmons on a 44-yard touchdown pass.
Tied 7-7 at halftime, WG went in front when Wade, from his own 35, again threw to Simmons, the scoring pass covering 65 yards. From there, though, the Northstars’ defense quieted the Wildcats, Wade ultimately going 11-for-19 for 196 yards.
C-NS heavily leaned on its ground game, but WG stifled it for large portions of the game. Apps and Colon, in particular, kept making plays, Apps accumulating 20 tackles and Colon 15 tackles as Shakair Jones and Evan Dufford each got seven tackles.
Still, the Northstars pulled even, 13-13, with a third-quarter drive leading to Johnson scoring from four yards out, leading to a scoreless fourth quarter and then OT, where each team gets a possession on the opponent’s 20-yard line.
Johnson, taking a direct snap, made his way outside and outran the Wildcats defenders to the goal line and Brock Purdy added the extra point. With a chance to answer it, WG stopped it on fourth down.
Back on Thursday night, Westhill put its 2-1 record on the line against visiting Indian River and it evolved into a wild contest which featured more than 100 points and nearly 1,000 total yards.
Ultimately, what made the difference was that the Warriors could not stop the Wolves’ ground attack, resulting in a 60-45 defeat which turned on a sequence late in the third quarter.
Westhill only trailed 46-45 after Elijah Welch had thrown his fifth TD pass of the night, 40 yards to Brayden Golembieski. IR countered with yet another drive ended by Trevor Shawcross scoring for the fifth time, a new career mark.
Even more important was the ensuing onside kick that the Wolves recovered, leading to Ariel Raymond’s TD early in the final period. Westhill was not able to respond.
Prior to that, the Warriors had moved the ball at will throughout a high-scoring first half. Twice in the first quarter Welch found Collin White on scoring passes of 18 and 16 yards.
More followed in the second period, Welch scrambling 39 yards for one score and finding White for a third TD strike after going 46 yards to Golembiewski for another.
Yet despite Welch going 14-for-22 for 270 yards and gaining 76 yards on 10 carries, he could not quite keep up with an IR side who would gain 588 yards on the ground, more than half of it from Shawcross, who had 325 yards on 10 carries as Raymond added 159 yards on 10 carries.
Jordan-Elbridge got close to its first win of the season on Friday against Onondaga, but could not quite pull it off, taking a 20-16 defeat to the Tigers.
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