12 Nov. 9, 2022
SPORTS
Eagle News • CNY’s Community News Source
Cazenovia Republican
Phil Blackwell | Sports Editor | 434-8889 ext. 348 | pblackwell@eaglenewsonline.com
caz Swimmers help in title win by Phil Blackwell
In recent years, Cazenovia High School has provided a reliable pipeline to the Fayetteville-Manlius girls swim team that has home meets right down the road at Cazenovia College. Even after Morgan Kingsley’s graduation, the flow of talent continued to make an impact as Kate Millson led a quartet that contributed to yet another Hornets run to the Section III Class A championship. F-M had seen its 64-meet win streak ended by Liverpool in September, but swept the rest of its regular-season slate and, in the sectional meet last Wednesday at Nottingham High School, got payback, scoring 379 points to beat out the Warriors (330) and Cicero-North Syracuse (324) for the top spot. Millson, a junior, would help F-M win the opening 200-yard medley relay, pairing with Cecilia Cao, Elise Wratney and Georgia Langan to prevail in one minutes, 52.73 seconds to top C-NS’s 1:55.40 and prevail. On her own, Millson contended in the 200-yard individual medley, her time of 2:24.49 setting a season mark by more than four seconds as she took third behind Oswego-Mex-
ico star Alexa von Holtz (2:07.71) and was just behind C-NS’s Leah Benedict (2:23.58). Also, Millson got to the finals of the 500 freestyle, where her 5:47.26 could not quite match her seasonbest 5:46.02 but still put her in seventh place overall. Another Cazenovia student, sophomore Eliza Smith, earned ninth place in the Class A 100 butterlfy in a season-best 1:10.22 while improving her 500 freestyle time nearly 14 seconds to 6:07.50 for 12th place. Maeve Kelly, also a sophomore, swam and dove for the Hornets, finishing 15th in the 200 IM in 2:41.53 after the Oct. 29 diving competitoin where she was 17th overall. Freshman Izzy Comeau was 19th in the 100 breaststroke in 1:22.69. During Friday’s sectional state qualifier, Millson again was in the 200 medley relay, where in a time of 1:52.51 F-M just missed out on advancing to the state meet, inches behind New Hartford’s winning 1:52.26. In the 200 IM, Millson claimed eighth place in 2:27.96 before she finished ninth in the 500 freestyle in a season-best 5:41.88. And in the 400 freestyle relay, Millson joined Grace Reyna, Samantha Roddy and Kelly Liu to take sixth place in 3:58.61.
Cazenovia girls swimmer Kate Millson (far left) joined (from left) Georgia Langan, Elise Wratney and Cecilia Cao in helping Fayetteville-Manlius win the 200 medley relay at last Wednesday’s Section III Class A championships. All of this helped F-M earn 268.5 points in the team standings, beat-
ing everyone except New Hartford, whose 277 points helped it earn the
George Falwell Cup for the first time since 2005.
Caz football drops sectional Class C semifinal
Scott Thomas
Cazenovia’s Jack Byrnes (2) lunges for a fourth-quarter touchdown. by Phil Blackwell Quiet despair had transformed itself into electrified hope on the sidelines of the Cazenovia football team in the fourth quarter of last Saturday’s Section III Class C semifinal at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium. Once down double digits, the undefeated, state no. 2-ranked Lakers had now tied General Brown, and there was time enough to make one more defensive stop and, perhaps, pull out one of the most dra-
matic and emotional victories in program history. Instead, Cazenovia watched as the Lions mounted a clutch drive of its own, found the end zone and then snuffed out the Lakers’ last chance to prevail 30-22 and advance to next Sunday’s sectional final at the JMA Wireless Dome against Holland Patent. Those who attended this game, whichever team they rooted for, were treated to an emotional contest on a warm, wind-swept afternoon where GB had full command most
Scott Thomas
Cazenovia quarterback J.P. Hoak sends a pass downfield in last Saturday’s Section III Class C semifinal against General Brown. Hoak completed 17 of 36 passes for 233 yards and a touchdown in the Lakers’ 30-22 defeat. of the way, only to see Cazenovia battle back. What made the Lakers’ rally so remarkable was the way it had struggled in so many aspects of the game throughout the early stages, from dropped passes to penalties to a defense pushed around by the Li-
Scott Thomas
Caz defensive back Taven Reilley (1) cannot keep General Brown’s Gabe Malcolm (42) from the end zone.
ons’ physical ground attack. GB led 14-0 before Cazenovia got on the board in the second quarter, J.P. Hoak able to complete a series of passes, including a 30-yarder to Jack Byrnes, before Hoak went the final three yards for the touchdown. Quickly answering, the Lions’ Gabe Malcolm, who already had a 40-yard TD run, went 52 yards deep into Cazenovia territory, setting up his own three-yard scoring run that made it 22-6, where it stood at halftime. Things began to turn when the Lakers stopped GB on fourth down inside its own 20 early in the third period, one of several instances where the Lions had a chance to all put the game away. Another stop in GB territory led to a quick drive as Hoak went 23 yards to Jack Donlin for the TD and also hit Donlin on a two-point pass, cutting the Lakers’ deficit in half to 22-14 with plenty of time left. Even an injury delay as the Lakers attended to defensive back Alex Kuper early in the final period didn’t faze the Lakes, who got yet another fourth-down stop at its own 26. A 74-yard scoring march followed, the key play a 10-yard rollout pass to Christian Schug on fourthand-10. Then, from the Lions’ 26,
Hoak threw to the end zone and found Byrnes with 5:32 to play. Moments later, Brayden Weismore found his way past the goal line for two points. Cazenovia had tied it 22-22 and believed that, unlike 2021 on this same field and in this same round against Skaneateles, it would find a way through to the title game. It didn’t take long, though, for GB to dash those dreams. Going back to the ground, it used most of the remaining clock and drove inside Cazenovia’s 30 and then changed it up, Aiden McManaman finding Kyler Kovalik-Derrigo on a 25-yard pass. One play later, with just 42.4 seconds left, Kaleb Natali converted on a five-yard run, with a two-point conversion to follow. Going into a stiff wind, the Lakers’ last chance was snuffed out when Malcolm intercepted Hoak at the Lions’ 33. Hoak threw 36 passes, completing 17 of them for 233 yards as Byrnes caught seven passes for 119 yards, but the Lakers were held to a season-low 81 yards on the ground, not even one-fifth what the Lions did with 425 rushing yards. Brad Gagnon and Jed Olkowski led Cazenovia’s defense with eight tackles apiece.
