CICERO – Once more, the Baldwinsville football team had an opportunity to put an end to Cicero-North Syracuse’s half decade-long reign as Section III Class AA champions.
And just like in the 2021 final at the JMA Wireless Dome, the Bees put in an all-out effort, only to fall short as the Northstars prevailed 21-7 in Friday’s sectional AA semifinal at Bragman Stadium.
What made this one particularly painful was the glorious opportunity B’ville gave itself thanks to a strong defense that kept the potent C-NS offense bottled up for long stretches of the game.
Then that defense made a play that appeared to turn the game in the Bees’ favor when Griffin Killian stepped in front of a Jaxon Razmovski swing pass at midfield and picked it off early in the third quarter, returning it to the Northstars’ 32-yard line.
All of the momentum was on B’ville’s side, having driven 83 yards in the last five minutes of the second period, all on runs by Brandon Levin, Nick Foster and Greg Marinelli, with Marinelli going the final yard for the touchdown to tie the game 7-7 seconds before halftime.
Now the Bees went on the ground again, reaching the Northstars’ nine, where it was fourth-down-and-one. Marinelli tried to sneak for the first down, and B’ville thought he made it, but it was ruled that Roemellow Robinson had stopped Marinelli inches short of the marker.
Fired up by this stop, C-NS took over and, moments later, struck for the game’s longest play when Razmovski rolled right, threw deep and found Tristan Johnson for 57 yards, setting up La’Quan Lemon’s go-ahead TD two plays later.
Trying to answer, B’ville was hurt early in the fourth quarter when, at midfield, Marinelli was sacked and a series of penalties pushed the Bees inside its own 10, forcing a punt.
Minutes later, a Marinelil interception gave the Bees another shot, yet it could not get past its own 30 and punted. C-NS used several runs by Lemon to set up Razmovski’s clinching six-yard TD scramble with 1:11 to play.
It proved closer than the 41-19 decision C-NS won in the regular season, but ultimately matched the 14-point margin of the 2021 sectional final that B’ville lost 35-21.
So the Bees’ season concluded at 5-4 as the Northstars advanced to face unbeaten Christian Brothers Academy in next Sunday’s sectional title game.
