Oneida rallies to reach Class B final

Oneida erases two-score deficit to drop Marcellus in Class B semis

2019-11-03 - By John Brewer jbrewer@oneidadispatch.com

VERONA, N.Y. >> For the first time since 2008, Oneida will vie for a Class B championship.

Trailing No. 4 seed Marcellus 28-13 in the third quarter of an electric matchup, the stateranked No. 10 Orange outscored the Mustangs 28-6 in the final quarter-and-a-half to pull off the 41-33 victory and earn a trip to the Carrier Dome to take on No. 2 seed Solvay in the Class B finals.

“We’ve been down. We talk about adversity. We talk about controlling the intensity. We are never out of it. We’re never going to stop fighting. They never hung their heads once tonight. They just kept battling,” said Oneida head coach Jason Fuller. “[Solvay] is a class act. They are a very good team. Our guys just played really hard. They came out and stayed with the plan. We weren’t going to stop running the ball and throw it all over the place. We were going to do what we did all year and keep running the ball.”

Oneida quarterback Jordan Clark did a little bit of everything for the No. 1 seed in the victory, passing for two scores, rushing for another, and breaking the hearts of Marcellus fans with a 75-yard kickoff return for the go-ahead touchdown with 2:11 to play in the fourth.

“We knew we could come back,” Clark said of overcoming mid-game deficit. “We knew our defense was going to make plays eventually. We knew our offense was going to put it in the end zone for us.”

Senior running back Zander Farr hauled in one of Clark’s touchdown passes, a 64-yarder in the first half, and added a 22-yard rushing score. Stablemate and fellow senior Stephen Cafalone added a 2-yard touchdown plunge, while senior receiver Will Merrell reeled in an 8-yard touchdown pass from Clark.

Oneida took the game’s first lead. After the defense forced a fumble on Marcellus’ second offensive play, Oneida quickly converted the miscue into seven points when Clark hit Merrell on a slant for a touchdown.

Marcellus, the No. 13 team in the state, did not need long to answer. Quarterback Sean Tierney and running back Nick Kermes ran at will on the Oneida defense, leading Marcellus on a four-minute drive capped by a Tierney 2-yard keeper for the score. Following an Oneida punt, Marcellus continued to pound the ball on the ground. With the ball at their own 46, the Mustangs ran the ball seven straight times, marching the ball 53 yards down the field to set

Tierney up for another 2ndand-goal touchdown. At the 11:30 mark in the second, the No. 4 seed led 14-7.

Three plays after the ensuing kickoff, Oneida struck back when Farr was left wide open for a 64-yard touchdown reception. A failed extra point kept Marcellus on top however, 14-13.

The Mustangs continued the back-and-forth affair on their next possession, once again relying on the legs of Tierney and Kermes to advance the football deep into Oneida territory. On 4th-and-inches from the Oneida 23, Tierney snuck the ball to pick up a first down. The Marcellus quarterback followed that with a 16-yard sprint before Kermes found the end zone from eight yards out to give his side a 21-13 advantage before the half.

Marcellus appeared as if it might break the game open in the third quarter. After forcing Oneida to punt away its opening possession of the second half, the Mustangs put together a six-play, 59-yard scoring drive. Kermes put the finishing touch on the drive with a 2-yard scoring plunge, and suddenly, the No. 1 seed was backed into a 28-13 hole with 8:08 on the clock in the third.

“The message was simple. We had to come out and play. And they did,” Fuller said of his message to the teamafter falling behind by two scores. “That’s a great team right there. That Marcellus team is a great team. It was a shootout. It was an ugly win, but sometimes, you have to win ugly. I could not be prouder. Words cannot describe it right now.”

The Orange trimmed their deficit back down to a touchdown in short order. A Clark return set Oneida up with solid field position at its own 46-yard line. On first down, Cafalone gashed the Marcellus defense for a 44-yard gain. On first-andgoal from the Mustang 2, Cafalone - who had a 57yard rushing touchdown erased by an illegal motion flag earlier in the contest - finished what he started a play earlier, fighting his way into the end zone for the score. Clark made it a one-touchdown game on the two-point try, spinning off a Marcellus defender to break the plane and cut the Marcellus lead to 28-21.

Oneida’s defense forced Marcellus into a 3-andout on their next possession, keyed by a third-down Hunter West sack of Tierney. On the very next play, Oneida sophomore Hunter Wuest blocked the Marcellus punt to set his team up with great field position. After a Cafalone run, Farr took sprinted 22 yards to pay dirt to pull his side within a point. Initially, Oneida appeared to have tied the contest when Clark lobbed a pass to Ty D’Arcangelis for a pass-and-catch in the end zone. A flag negated the successful conversion though, and Oneida failed to convert the two-point try a second time.

At the end of the third, Marcellus clung to a 28-27 lead. Oneida’s defense made a big defensive stand in the opening moments of the final quarter, forcing a Mustang punt after Marcellus recovered an Oneida punt returnfumble. With theball back, Oneida put together a 9-play, 75-yard drive, finished off by Clark’s one-yard sneak to take its first lead since the first quarter, 33-28 at the 7:04 mark. Marcellus refused to go away though, answering back with a time-chewing, 11-play scoring drive that ended with Kermes bruising his way to a 3-yard touchdown to put the Mustangs back on top 34-33 with 2:11 left.

Then, Oneida’s junior quarterback left his mark on the contest. Off the Marcellus kickoff, Clark fielded the ball near his own 25yard line, veered left and found the sideline to outrace the Mustang coverage unit and put his team up 39-34.

“Coach moved me up there because he had a feeling they were going to kick there. I saw the outside, broke one tackle and came running down the sideline,” Clark said. “Stephen Cafalone made a big block for me on that return. If it wasn’t for him, I don’t think I would have gotten in the end zone.”

“I did call that play right before, too” Merrell chimed in, grinning. “We stopped them on the 2-point conversion, and I go, “It’s your time to shine.” [Clark] came out clutch.”

Oneida cashed in on the two-point conversion, something Fuller noted was a direct result of his big bodies up front.

“The offensive line stepped up. They made the call on the [4th quarter] two point conversion down here,” the Oneida coach said. “I asked them what play they wanted. They told me what play, and I said, ‘Alright, let’s go.’ They block and block and block and get no accolades. They get no respect. They don’t get the press that all the other guys get, but they are always working. They work extremely hard in the weight room.”

Oneida’s defense, a unit that had not surrendered more than 14 points in any of its previous eight wins, fended off a last-ditch drive by Marcellus with aMerrell interception to seal it.

“It was really kind of surreal,” Fuller said of the final sequence of events. “I thought [Clark] was going to get caught. Then, I just wanted him to not fumble so we would get a chance to run the ball and get in the end zone. I knew at that point that we would have good field position. The fact that he kept going was great. Big play. Special teams. I always say you have to be able to play all three phases of the game. Our special teams stepped up tonight. That was something that hasn’t stepped up in a while. That’s what this team does. They step up for each other. They believe in each other. They believe in the coaching staff. We have a great coaching staff. I cannot be happier than I am right now. The community came out today, and they were great. The school represented. The players represented. I am proud of Oneida.”

Oneida and Solvay will decide the Class B’s fate on

Saturday, Nov. 9 in the Carrier Dome.

“Dreamcome true,” Merrell said of playing under the big lights in Syracuse.

“Feels great. Dreaming of it since I was a little kid,” Clark said.

ONEIDA 41, MARCELLUS 34

at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School O: Jordan Clark 9 pass to Will Merrell (kick good)

M: Sean Tierney 1 run (kick good)

M: Sean Tierney 2 run (kick good) O: Jordan Clark 64 pass to Zander Farr (kick fails)

M: Nick Kermes 8 run (kick good)

M: Nick Kermes 2 run (kick good) O: Stephen Cafalone 2 run (conversion good)

O: Zander Farr 22 run (conversion fails)

O: Jordan Clark 1 run (conversion fails)