Everything is in place for the Liverpool football team’s biggest regular season test against Christian Brothers Academy next Friday night.
When the Warriors shut out visiting Central Square 42-0 on Friday and the Brothers routed Nottingham 57-6, it put both teams at 3-0 in the Class AA-1 division and set up the first-place showdown at LHS Stadium between the two sides considered by most as the area’s best AA teams.
Having moved up to no. 12 in last week’s state rankings, Liverpool, seeking a 4-0 start, was not about to look past Central Square, despite the fact that the Redhawks allowed 80 points in its previous game, a loss to Elmira.
So once again, the Warriors’ defense got cranked up. Not only did it keep Central Square off the board, Liverpool scored its fourth defensive touchdown in as many weeks when Will Clayton returned an interception 23 yards for six points in the third quarter.
This came after a first half where the Warriors steadily built a 21-0 margin, seeing Jaydakis Scott score twice on runs of four and 19 yards and quarterback Rashon Crenshaw find the end zone on a one-yard plunge.
All told, Scott ran 14 times for 134 yards, not giving himself too much hard labor before CBA’s arrival. Crenshaw tacked on a 20-yard scoring run in the second half as Jonathan Stewart chimed in with an 18-yard TD run after the starters rested.
Down the road at Bragman Stadium, Cicero-North Syracuse, rebounding from its wild loss to Utica Proctor on Sept. 17, found itself in some stress midway through its game against visiting Auburn before taking over in the second half and beating the Maroons 44-20 to improve to 2-2 on the season.
Yet the game carried a heavy price. Erik Pride, who had run all over Auburn’s defense to the tune of 251 yards on 28 carries, injured his leg with 8:45 left in the fourth quarter, adding to the list of banged-up players C-NS already had to deal with.
To some degree, in the game’s early going, Auburn still found itself in shock over surrendering a 26-0 lead in a 50-45 defeat to Baldwinsville the week before.
Even after the Maroons took a 6-0 lead in the first quarter, its plan for a surprise onside kick backfired when Mark Cummings returned it 48 yards for the touchdown.
That fired up C-NS, who promptly scored 28 unanswered points. Pride capped off two drives with scoring runs of six and nine yards, followed by Conner Hayes delivering a 42-yard scoring pass to Landry Rogers.
But the Maroons, employing a unique four-back set and sending quarterback Derek Taylor out wide, used that formation to get back in the game when Nasir Smith took a direct snap and threw a 12-yard scoring pass to Taylor. Then it got the ball back and, in the waning seconds of the half, Taylor found Smith on a 55-yard TD pass.
Suddenly, that comfortable C-NS margin was down to eight, 28-20, at intermission, but all that did was make the Northstars focus again, especially on defense, where it made the game’s biggest play when Rogers returned an interception 55 yards for a TD on the first play of the third quarter.
Just as the period ended, Hayes made it 45-20 with a seven-yard scoring run, and though Pride’s injury put a damper on things, Ty Natali still hit a 28-yard field goal seconds later, this after going six-for-six on extra-point attempts.
While Liverpool has its battle with CBA, the Northstars will go to Sunnycrest Field to face Henninger – a game sure to have emotional meaning for C-NS head coach Dave Kline, who spent more than a quarter-century roaming the sidelines for the Black Knights before this fall.
