The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Turo leads Mexico to road win over Oneida
Tigers QB rushes for 2 scores, throws another in big Class B East tilt
ONEIDA >> The Oneida football team picked up its biggest victory of the season last week, beating Utica Notre Dame on the road to move back into a tie atop the Class B East standings.
Unfortunately for coach Jason Fuller’s squad, there wasn’t an encore at home on Friday night.
Dante Turo ran for two touchdowns and threw for another, leading Mexico in a 31-15 victory in a battle of 3-1 teams.
“Mexico’s a good team but we shot ourselves in the foot with penalties,” said Fuller. “They came out and played more physical than us.”
With the win, Mexico remained tied atop the league standings with a 4-1 record while Oneida fell to 3-2.
Oneida marched across midfield on the game’s opening possession before a holding penalty derailed the promising drive. Turo hit Jace Eastman for a 30yard completion into Oneida territory before the senior quarterback broke off runs of 18 and 14 yards on consecutive plays, moving the ball down to the 1. Oneida’s defense held at the goal line for three plays but Turo came through on fourth down, connecting with Kyle Pettit for a 4-yard score and a 6-0 lead after the hosts blocked the kick.
Tucker Rodgers set Oneida up to take the lead, returning the ensuing kickoff 46 yards to the Mexico 35. Oneida ran the ball 11 straight times, punching it in on
a 4th-and-goal runfromthe 1 by Kaleb Albro. Johnathan Holmes kicked the PAT, putting the hosts ahead 7- 6 with 10:29 to play in the second quarter.
The teams traded punts on the next two possessions before the Tigers put together a scoring drive going into halftime. Eastman picked up 34 yards on three carries before catching 11- and 12-yard passes fromTuro. The senior quarterback capped the 11-play, 66-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown run andMexico took a 12-7 lead into halftime.
Mexico started the second half with the ball and marched 67 yards in nine plays to extend the lead. Eastman ran for 33 yards on the drive and also caught a 23-yard pass, setting up a 9-yard scoring run from Turo that pushed the lead to 18-7.
The 12- point swing proved to be too much for Oneida to overcome.
“I think the kids just need to get tougher,” said Fuller. “Sometimes I think we think that we’ve earned something. We’ve earned the victory and we haven’t earned anything yet. We’ve got to get tougher as a team.”
Oneida drove down inside the Mexico 20 on the ensuing possession but Reed Fravor intercepted a fourth-down pass to end the drive.
The hosts forced a 3-andout but had another drive stall out in Tigers territory and end in a turnover on downs. Eastman extended the lead to 24-7 with a 15yard touchdown run midway through the fourth quarter.
John Jones got Oneida on the board again in the closing minutes, connecting with Nate Lombardi for a 47-yard touchdown pass before hitting Rodgers on the two-point conversion to cut the lead to 24-15.
The onside kick, however, went backwards and Fravor scored on a 30-yard run on the next play for Mexico. Eastman added the PAT kick for the final point of the game.
Up next for Oneida is a game at rival Vernon-Verona- Sherrill that could have big playoff implications.
“If these guys can’t get up for that game then they’ve got an issue,” said Fuller. “I’m not worried about that. We’ll be ready. We’ll get ready to go. We’ve just got to get back to work.”