ONONDAGA COUNTY – A pair of mid-September showdowns will determine just where the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool football teams stood in the Class AA pecking order.
C-NS, at 2-0, would travel to Alibrandi Stadium to meet 2-0 Christian Brothers Academy, the reigning state Class A champions who got moved up this fall, while the Warriors would meet its neighbors from Baldwinsville after both won lopsided season openers.
Liverpool and new head coach Joe Sindoni would debut against Henninger, a Thursday-night clash at LHS Stadium where the Warriors would put up plenty of points and put away the Black Knights 59-24.
Henninger, who beat Nottingham 52-32 the week before, would find it far more difficult to do anything against an inspired Liverpool defense, who kept the Black Knights off the board throughout the first half.
Meanwhile, the Warriors’ new-look offense put together a trio of scoring drives, mostly fueled by its ground attack.
Jah’Deuir Reese put Liverpool on the board with a seven-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. He added a 56-yard scoring sprint after John Sindoni threw 30 yards to Vincent McBride for another TD.
Having gained a 21-0 lead by halftime, Liverpool lost the shutout when Vince Hunt scored for Henninger early in the third quarter, but a 21-point outburst in that frame by the Warriors erased any suspense.
Reese, who had 12 carries for 134 yards, netted his third TD on an 18-yard run after Urijah Matthews scored from 18 yards out and the defense got involved when Ian Herrera returned a Black Knights fumble 18 yards for six points.
Christian Coppin and Edward Reed addd fourth-quarter touchdowns, sending the Warriors to 1-0 in advance of the trip to Baldwinsville, with the Bees having handled Rome Free Academy 55-13 in its season debut.
Back on Sept. 2, C-NS had opened by going to Horseheads and earning a 35-14 victory over the Blue Raiders.
New starters were on the field on both sides of the ball, yet C-NS still quickly assumed control, grabbing a 14-0 lead before the first quarter was done.
La’Quan Lemon capped the first scoring drive with a five-yard touchdown run. A few minutes later, Farook Ibrahim’s long run set up the Northstars deep in Horseheads territory, and from the one Jaxon Razmovski scored.
The Blue Raiders did get on the board in the second quarter, but C-NS matched it, driving to the Horseheads four before Leonzo Zimmerman converted, leaving the Northstars in front 21-7 going to halftime.
Making sure Horseheads did not get too close, C-NS added two more touchdowns in the third quarter, Zimmerman capping one drive with a two-yard plunge and Razmovski going 10 yards for another after a fourth-down stop.
C-NS returned to Bragman Stadium last Friday for its home opener against Section IX power Monroe-Woodbury, and after a sluggish start took over in the second half to defeat the Crusaders 28-14.
Here, it proved a low-scoring first half, the Northstars getting on the board with Lemon’s eight-yard TD run in the first quarter, but then blanked by Monroe-Woodbury, who pulled even 7-7, where it stood at halftime.
Not until the third quarter did C-NS’s passing game start to click. A long completion from Razmovski to Tristan Johnson set up a go-ahead 20-yard scoring pass to Nathan Williams.
Late in the period, Razmovski made it 21-7 with another 20-yard scoring strike, this one to Jayceon McGrew, and Anthony Johnson got the clinching points in the final quarter by sprinting 49 yards to the end zone.
