LIVERPOOL – Through all the turmoil, the starts and stops, the injuries and altercations and notoriety, the Liverpool football team found its away to a successful conclusion.
When the Warriors turned back Baldwinsville 7-0 Thursday night at LHS Stadium, it brought an end to a 4-1 season where expectations were met, even at a dear price.
Nothing went smoothly after Liverpool’s 26-0 shutout of Nottingham on March 20. There was a 10-day COVID-19 pause which moved two games to later in the season.
Then, after handling Corcoran 41-12 on April 5 right after the quarantine, the Warriors had just four days to prepare for its long-awaited clash with Cicero-North Syracuse, where old wounds and new conflict both emerged.
The 21-0 defeat to C-NS paled next to the toll the game took, from Brendan Mancuso’s broken ankle to all the penalties and near-fights that put a halt to the game early in the fourth quarter.
From all this, the Warriors managed to rebound with two strong performances at home, from its 30-14 win over Henninger to another victory against its other long-time neighbor and rival.
B’ville had only played twice, losing to C-NS and beating Corcoran, and that lack of game action, combined with a young lineup, meant plenty of struggles against a ferocious Liverpool defense.
It said something, though, that the Warriors, despite Malachi Upshur’s 157 yards and 83 carries and Jeremy Valerio’s 83 yards on 12 carries, that it only got on the board once with Upshur’s second-quarter touchdown.
Thus, Liverpool needed to be great on defense – and was, rendering its second shutout of the spring so that it could join West Genesee right behind C-NS in the final Class AA standings.
