ONONDAGA COUNTY – Recent years have seen the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool football teams swap decisions in the battle for the ‘Star Wars’ Cup.
Twice, in 2019 and 2021, the Warriors won in the regular season, only to have the Northstars gain the more important victory in back-to-back Section III Class AA semifinals.
But as they gather again at Bragman Stadium next weekend, it’s C-NS that arrives with a 4-1 record, while Liverpool has to find a way to bounce back after three consecutive losses.
These trends continued Friday night, where the Northstars rolled past Henninger 44-22 and the Warriors saw a late comeback fall short in a 32-20 defeat to Utica Proctor.
At Sunnycrest Field, C-NS decided matters early, recording 30 points in the first quarter and stretching its margin to 44-0 early in the second period before pulling its starters.
La’Quan Lemon started things with a seven-yard touchdown run. After a safety from the defense, the Northstars made it 16-0 when Davine Bennett returned a blocked punt 16 yards to the end zone.
By the time the period was done, Anthony Johnson, on a seven-yard run, and Nate Williams, on a nine-yard pass from Jaxon Razmovski, had also scored.
Razmovski added a 14-yard TD pass to Tristan Johnson and Josiah Blount’s 11-yard TD run made it 44-0. All of Henninger’s points came in the second half against the Northstars’ reserves.
Not far away, at LHS Stadium, it was Proctor getting the jump on Liverpool with a dominant first half that the Warriors could not quite overcome.
Todd Abraham threw a pair of first-quarter TD passes for the Raiders, each of them to Domante Cook, covering 32 and eight yards as Proctor twice got two points to make it 16-0.
When Abraham found Joe Depaul on a 32-yard scoring strike and the Raiders again got the two-point conversion, Liverpool found itself trailing 24-0 going into the break.
Finally, the Warriors got on track in the third quarter, twice pulling off drives that Mason Michaleski finished off with short TD runs, making it 24-14 with one period left.
However, Proctor put together a drive that Majic Johnson finished off with a three-yard TD run. Abraham added two points and the Raiders had a winning cushion, though Jah’Deuir Reese would score on a 41-yard run late.
