Leading off today: Pittsford stymied Victor's rushing game Friday and earned
a 16-6 road victory in a clash of state-ranked Monroe County League football teams.
Victor was ranked fifth and Pittsford 23rd in Class AA by the New York State Sportswriters Association.
Pittsford traded size of speed in the defensive front seven, getting six tackles and two sacks from 5-foot-8, 165-pound Sky Crain, and the Panthers recovered a pair of Victor fumbles.
Panthers running back Ali Brooks gained 80 yards on 20 carries, including a 30-yard touchdown run with 5:30 remaining to make the score 16-0.
Big night for F-M back: Junior Mitchell Seabury ran 31 times for 317 yards and five touchdowns as Fayetteville-Manlius outslugged Syracuse CBA 49-35.
The Hornets rushed for 530 yards against the state's ninth-ranked large school, which was without all-state running back and two-way starter Stevie Scott. The Brothers also lost QB SirVocea Dennis to a second-half ankle injury.
The teams played to a 35-35 halftime tie as Dennis ran for TDs of 26, 72 and 15 yards and passed for two others -- including a 43-yarder to Malcolm Jackson as time expired in the second quarter.
"It was nuts. It was the craziest half you've ever seen," F-M coach Paul Muench said. "When it starts rolling like that, and it was such a hot night, it becomes really difficult to play defense."
Seabury's scoring runs of 5 and 55 yards in the third quarter concluded the scoring.
Junior Zack Page gained 141 yards on 19 carries and scored one TD in the win.
Burnt Hills prevails: Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, ranked fifth in Class A, escaped with a 28-27 win over Averill Park in the rematch of a 2016 Section 2 championship game.
With Averill Park playing for the potential win after Dom Law scored on an 18-year run late in the fourth quarter, Burnt Hills defensive end Grant Schaffer snuffed out a Law rushing attempt in the 2-point conversion to keep the Spartans in the lead.
Burnt Hills proceeded to run out the clock after recovering a squib kick.
"We were going for it," AP coach Zach Gobel told The Times Union.
The yardage was as close as the score. Burnt Hills outgained the Warriors 331-328 overall and 279-278 on the ground. Each team committed a turnover.
More Class A: With Corey Gross (16 carries, 119 yards) finally back from a preseason knee injury, Brockport (3-1) established itself as a Section 5 contender with a 19-13 win in OT over Greece Athena, a state finalist last fall.
Blue Devils QB Ashton Scott threw for 184 yards and two TDs and also carried for 59 yards and a score.
Odd play of the year: The 16th-ranked Canisteo-Greenwood team pulled off a 34-30 upset of No. 13 Cuba-Rushford in a game plagued by nine turnovers -- six by Cuba-Rushford.
Zachary Flaitz ran 15 times for 90 yards and two scores, and QB Robert Avery carried 26 times of 99 yards and a TD.
Flaitz hit Christopher Graham for an apparent 36-yard score in the closing moments of the second quarter. According to the Times-Herald, one official signaled touchdown and another had Graham marked out of bounds at the 2. Thinking it had scored to extend a 20-16 lead, Canisteo-Greenwood lined up for a 2-point conversion. Only after the play failed did they realize that it was actually a first-down play during with time expired in the half to leave the score at 20-16.
"That was a bizarre aspect of the game, but we knew going in it was going to be a dogfight," said C-G coach Paul
