Saturday, Sept. 3, 2011: Recapping Friday night's football action

   Leading off today: Imagine what the score might have been if Corning hadn't made a goal-line stand on Fayetteville-Manlius' first possession of the game Friday night at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse in a match-up of one-loss teams from a year ago.

   As it turned out, the teams opened their season at the Kickoff Classic by combining for 16 touchdowns and more than 1,000 yards of total offense. A Brandon Griffin (17 carries, 172 yards as a QB/wingback hybrid) ) 10-yard run with 3:16 to go finally closed out Corning's 62-50 victory.

   Tanner Morse (14 carries, 206 yards) scored on runs of 97, 57, 14 and 3 yards to pave the way to 554 yards on the ground for the Hawks, who are in their second year as a merged program of players from East and West highs. The 97-yarder came after the Hawks defense stopped F-M four times from inside the 2.

   A Griffin TD :13 before the half gave Corning an absurd 42-36 lead after 24 minutes -- barely 24 hours after Syracuse University had rallied past Wake Forest and won in OT on the same field.

   F-M QB Wolfgang Shafer opened his night with six straight completions and finished 11-for-18 for 261 yards and three TDs. Two were to Austin Perez (six catches, 193 yards).

   More from Section 3: Two other games played in Central New York qualified as attention-grabbers on opening night.

   First, Syracuse CBA was thorough in a 27-0 win over the Baldwinsville team that had handed F-M and Corning their only losses a year ago. The Brothers, early adapters of sophisticated passing schemes that made them a handful for local foes much of the last 15 years, threw just four times and instead chewed up most of their 278 yards on the ground.

   The Bees could manage just 70 yards on 47 offensive plays. Tyler Rouse, a nearly 2,000-yard rusher as a sophomore, was held to 15 carries for 23 yards.

   The other attention-getter was another scoring slugfest as Cortland beat Fulton 70-40.

   Amazingly, Fulton held an 8-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. But Cortland put up 34 in the next 12 minutes and tacked on 22 points in the third. Senior QB Devon Darrow threw for 179 yards with a touchdown and ran for 84 yards with three other scores.

   Section 2: Tamarac eeked out a 28-20 win vs. Greenwich in OT as QB Nick Casale rushed for all four touchdowns. A year ago, an injury-depleted Tamarac squad saw its 4-0 start to the season ruined at the hands of the Witches, 56-12.

   "We had this one circled on the calendar." Casale told The Times Union after finishing with 165 yards on the ground.

   Greenwich tied with 5:31 to play as Tony Giroux threw 60 yards to sophomore John Barnes and then scored on a 10-yard keeper. But the extra=point kick failed, setting up OT, and Casale capped the opening possession with a QB draw from five yards out for the TD.

   The ensuing Greenwich possession began with a holding penalty and was followed with four incompletions to close out the contest.

   Also, Troy, a state finalist in Class AA last fall, opened in fine form by defeating Scotia-Glenville 46-12 in its return to Class A. And Hudson beat Johnstown 43-21 as junior Winston Lee (13 carries, 298 yards) scored on carries of 58, 68, 80 and 80 yards.

   Section 4: A year ago it was Corning that sent shock waves through the Southern Tier with its district consolidation. In 2011, it's Elmira going that route by rolling up the Southside and EFA programs into one team.

   The Express made their debut with a 70-20 thrashing of Horseheads by grinding out 512 yards and eight TDs on the ground. Elmira ripped off 10 plays of 20 or more yards on offense, plus Debray Williams' 77-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.

   Junior running back Eric Williams carried for 189 yards and scored on runs of 42, 28 and 51 yards. Trevor Maycumber and Isaiah Vega (three carries) chipped in with 113 and 99 yards, respectively.

   The Express scored on their first 10 possessions.

   Section 5: You're sadly mistaken if you think Rush-Henrietta's 13-0 march to the 2010 NYSPHSAA Class AA championship was a one-hit wonder. State player of the year Ashton Bryold is gone, but the Royal Comets put all sorts of talent on display in beating Webster Schroeder 48-18.

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   Close to two hours of weather delays could not keep R-H from forcing five turnovers. One was an interception by RB/WR/DB Christian Harris, who rushed for three TDs and caught a pass for another. Harris' 40-yard TD catch shortly after the first storm delay padded the lead to 20-0 in the second quarter.

   One other score that needs to be noted: Wellsville 20, Letchworth 18. Letchworth's tiny roster has blasted through sectionals in Class C the last two years and the Indians are fielding an 18-player team in Class D this fall, where they should prosper a year after going unscored upon in the regular season.

   Wellsville has a big Class C roster filled with kids who could double as the team bus if there are ever mechanical problems en route to a road game. Don't write off Letchworth based on this one result.

   Section 6: Charles Clutter's 12-yard touchdown run in the fourth overtime lifted Cassadaga Valley a 34-28 victory over Cattauraugus-Little Valley in Class C South action. Clutter finished with 12 carries for 108 yards.

   Cassadaga Valley tied the game at 16 on Dylan Caldwell's 58-yard throw to Jordan Boughton and another pass play for the conversion before halftime, and it was 22-22 after regulation.

   In Class D, presumed state tournament contender Randolph fought off Frewsburg 27-25.    The Cardinals opened the second half with John Morgante's 14-yard TD pass to George Pitchford for a 27-13 lead, but the Bears responded in four plays, capped by Thad Johnson's 52-yard throw to Dalton Peterson to trim the margin to 27-19.

   Frewsburg drove 89 yards in the fourth quarter and Johnson scored on a 1-yard run with under 4:00 to go. On the conversion, Johnson rolled left but was stuffed short of the goal line.

   ''Every game could be like this,'' Randolph coach Pat Slater said of the new six-team Class D league consisting of the better Section 6 programs. ''Every game could be just like this.''

   Section 7/10: Ben Weightman threw for 124 yards, ran for 123 and tossed two TDs as Saranac downed Ticonderoga 26-8. One of the scores was a 26-yarder to Ryan Kerner on a fourth-and-long snap to make it an 18-0 lead in the third quarter.

   Section 9: Here's a reminder that sports are a fun diversions but must always take a back seat to the realities of life. Friday’s Spackenkill-Millbrook game scheduled for Spackenkill was moved to Arlington because the portable lights were needed instead for the cleanup effort following Tropical Storm Irene.

   Spackenkill ended up outscoring the Blazers 30-6 after halftime and won 50-20.

   QB K.J. Williams ran for his second TD on the second half’s opening drive, threw an interception that Devon Jackson returned for 77 yards and a score, and then hit Tommy Fink for a 7-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the fourth quarter.

   And all that came after Williams ended the first half with a 60-yard run that concluded with him fumbling the ball away at the Millbrook 2. Millbrook recovered the ball for a touchback to complete the half.