Everyone in Central New York has seen what momentum can do on a football field. Now, the Port Byron Panthers have it.

After losing the first two games of the season, the Panthers have won two in a row to move back to .500 (2-2).

Most impressive, though, is that they've done it both times with second-half comebacks.

“Part of having a young team is that we start out slow and it takes us a while to get acclimated,” Port Byron coach Chris Kudla said. “But once we do, we pick up the pace and get things going. We're getting better every game.”

The Panthers hope that pattern continues when they put their perfect 2-0 league record on the line in Friday's home matchup with Canastota (2-2 overall, 2-1 Class C West).

“We're out there every day with a real positive attitude,” Kudla said. “They got something to play for. They're excited, so practice is fun.”

Practice this week has been an exercise in keeping things simple and getting back to basics.

Port Byron - which has only a handful of senior starters on the roster - will have its work cut out on defense against a more experienced Red Raiders squad that brings a balanced offensive attack.

“When I came to Port Byron last year, the first thing I said was the kids needed to learn how to play defense,” Kudla said. “We worked on it all offseason, and run support is what we needed. We've done a lot of live tackling in practice, and they got a whole lot better; their angles are much better. They're tough kids. They'll hit with anybody, and they're real aggressive.”

The focus, no doubt, will be the Red Raiders' run game. John Coonrod, Eric Cerio and Anthony Tomarchio have combined to go over the 200-yard mark in each of Canastota's wins - 228 in a 45-6 drubbing of Hannibal last week and 211 in a 17-6 victory over Cato-Meridian, Sept. 7.

Keying the Panthers' defense so far this season has been C.J. Kudla.

The middle linebacker has been all over the field, totaling 40 tackles through the first four games.

“Some kids just know how to get to the football,” Coach Kudla said. “It's just an instinct.”

He and the rest of the Panthers D certainly got to the football last week.

Kudla had eight tackles and a fumble recovery, Cody Dudley and Matt Glimpse were each in on a pair of sacks, and D.J. Helmer came up with an interception.

When the Panthers have the ball, it will be in the hands of Brian Locastro. The passer has shown great poise lately, and was 11-of-20 for 200 yards and three touchdowns in his last game - a 33-18 win over Tully.

He was particularly sharp in the second half, throwing two touchdown passes of 30 yards each as part of a 19-0 second half that sealed the victory.

“Brian's done extremely well considering we haven't gotten the running game off the ground,” Coach Kudla said of his senior quarterback.

“He's gotten better every game.”

Trying to jump-start the ground game will be Matt Janusz and Chris Snyder, two go-to fullbacks so far this season.

The duo combined for just 56 yards on 17 carries last week.

“We just need to get them some yards,” Coach Kudla said. “We need to run the football, make first downs and make the clock move.”

To do that, the Panthers are trying to simplify things on offense, too.

“Keep it basic,” Coach Kudla said on how to fire up the offensive line and the ground game. “Instead of adding plays, we're cutting back on the playbook. We want to get good at a couple things instead of mediocre on a lot of things.”