All is now in place for the latest football showdown between Christian Brothers Academy and Cicero-North Syracuse on Friday night at Alibrandi Stadium.
The two sides meet for the first time since last November’s Section III Class AA final, both of them full of confidence in the wake of season-opening shutouts against Section V opponents.
CBA did so on the road, winning 32-0 at East Rochester as, at the JMA Dome, C-NS blanked Victor 21-0 in its first game under new head coach Jim Ryan.
What the Brothers proved at East Rochester was that it might have an even better defense than it did a season ago, thwarting every single Bombers possession while patiently seeing Brayden Smith excel in his first start under center.
Smith threw first-half touchdown passes to Darien Williams and Isaiah Coleman. Then he ran for one score and threw for another in the third period, ultimately completing 11 of 15 passes for 90 yards.
Back home, Fayetteville-Manlius nearly won in Jim Fiacco’s first game as head coach, going to overtime with Auburn before taking a 20-14 defeat to the Maroons.
Having gone winless in 2023, the Hornets fell behind here, too, but got on the board in the second quarter on Jack Hearn’s eight-yard run and a two-point conversion.
A third-quarter TD pulled F-M even 14-14, and it stayed that way the rest of regulation, but in OT, where each team gets a possession at the opponent’s 20-yard line, Auburn converted on Matt Smith’s eight-yard pass to Johntae Smith and F-M was unable to find the end zone.
Hearn ran for 120 yards on 15 carries, while Nolan Merrow got 14 tackles and Colin Clark 11 tackles to pace the defense. Gabe Radley added seven tackles and Aleksander Madissoo got six tackles as Christian London led the Maroons with 21 carries for 134 yards and Matt Smith added 112 yards on 19 carries.
Not far away, Jamesville-DeWitt held a second-half lead against Solvay in its season opener, yet could not hold on to it, falling to the Bearcats 39-14.
Anthony Guidone’s six-yard scoring run got the Red Rams on the board, and throughout the first half J-D’s defense did a solid job of containment against Solvay’s ground attack.
But after Guidone found Hussien Osmon for a 15-yard TD pass early in the third quarter, the Rams were shut down while, on the other side of the ball, the Bearcats kept pounding away, leading to five trips to the end zone.
Jason Davis ran for 211 yards on 22 carries and scored twice to lead Solvay, with Chris Cappetta adding a pair of TD’s and the Bearcats finshing with 389 rushing yards overall.
Roman Spack had 15 carries for 83 yards to pace J-D, while on defense Dae’Jier Brooks had a team-best 11 tackles. Speck, Carson Kim and Braeden Hennessy had nine tackles apiece, Joe Falasco (seven tackles) and John Virag (six tackles) close behind and Bryce Wheeler adding an interception.
To round out last weekend’s slate, East Syracuse Minoa faced Clarkstown North, from Long Island, and did not get to the end zone until the fourth quarter, the Spartans losing to this set of Rams by a 28-8 margin.
