CICERO – Championship teams tend not to be satisfied even when all seems good and accomplishments continue to pile up.
Take the Christian Brothers Academy football team, again Section III Class AA champions, winners of 23 in a row and tearing toward possible back-to-back state championships and a third state title in four years.
Sure the Brothers won another sectional crown, but the 21-13 victory over Cicero-North Syracuse in the JMA Wireless Dome did not feature the usual barrage of big plays and domination CBA has made close to routine, and every coach and player knew it.
What happened a week later in the regional final against Elmira at C-NS’s Bragman Stadium was a bit more familiar, the Brothers scoring twice in the game’s first four minutes and hardly letting up until it had put away the Express 63-12.
Even as it traded the indoor comfort of the Dome for cold, wet and windy conditions, CBA focused on its own game and, avoiding the early mistakes that made the sectional final so difficult, quickly established control against an Elmira side it beat 40-0 in late October.
The Brothers’ first drive went to the Express 10-yard line, from where Brayden Smith found Daunte Bacheyie in the end zone. Then Elmira fumbled the ensuing kickoff, which Donovan Collins recovered leading to Damien Lewis scoring on a three-yard run.
It got to 21-0 before the first quarter was done, another strong drive capped by a three-yard touchdown dash, this one by Austin Ariola.
Elmira finally registered a score early in the second quarter, but all that seemed to do was trigger another avalanche of CBA points.
Darien Williams took a short Smith pass and turned it into a 30-yard TD sprint. Then Isaiah Coleman scored from eight yards out, CBA’s fifth differnt player to score, before Williams returned and caught a 43-yard scoring pass from Smith.
With a 42-6 halftime advantage CBA could afford to relax, but even that resulted in a second half where freshman Khalen Reese dashed 62 and 72 yards for long TD runs before Williams returned a kickoff 90 yards for his third score of the night.
The challenge should go up for the Brothers next Saturday at 6 p.m. at Vestal High School, near Binghamton, where it faces Rochester Aquinas in the state semifinals.
A winner of eight previous state titles, the Irish have roared back to prominence this fall, claiming the Section V Class AA title and then holding off Lancaster 21-19 in its regional final. Now it’s CBA against Aquinas with a trip to the Dome for the Dec. 7 state final against Albany CBA or Corning.
