LANSING – Playing up a class and against a team with the better record, the Harpursville-Afton Hornets football team helped provide a glimpse of why they were ranked in New York State just a few short weeks ago, taking the road win over Lansing at 26-22.

The Lansing Bobcats, a Class C football team, hosted the Hornets on Friday, October 6, and tasted defeat to the road team – handing them just their second loss in the 2017 season.

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows on Friday evening for the visiting Hornets, in the second quarter and with the game in the hands of Harpursville-Afton at 7-0 – after a 40 yards touchdown pass from Greg Akulis to Talon Rezucha – Lansing flew to new heights, catching fire right before the half.

22 points later and the momentum swing that the Hornets faced was enough to rip through even the most confident of teams. Lansing scored 22 points in less than one quarter – taking the 22-7 lead off of three rushing touchdowns.

Three scores and three players – Lansing’s Joe Miller-LaBar smashed his way in for a seven-yard touchdown to start the scoring frenzy. Following Miller-Labar, Garrett Bell dove in for the second score from one yard out, and Luke Winslow scurried in for the final score from 25 yards out. Notably, Miller-LaBar finished with 16 carries for 147 rushing yards.

Despair hit the Hornet players and the reality of playing a then 4-1 overall Class C team came crashing into the minds of the players.

Or did it?

The mighty ground and pound attack of Harpursville-Afton took somewhat of a backseat to the passing game in their near-upset win over Lansing – the Hornets, Greg Akulis came to play on Friday night.

Akulis hooked up with teammate Josh Wilson for a six-yard pass right before the halftime break – cutting into the big Bobcat lead at 22-14. Akulis finished the game going 7-10, 99 yards

After Harpursville-Afton head coach, Tim Petras squashed any and all doubt about the game being over after Lansing score 22 unanswered points – it was back to the drawing board in the halftime break.

What better way to flip the script on a team you don’t usually play than to return to the basics.