When the two Section III Class AA football front-runners, Christian Brothers Academy and Liverpool, gathered on a brisk Friday evening at jam-packed LHS Stadium, one side would run to glory – in the most literal way possible.

Throwing just one pass in the entire second half, the state no. 25-ranked Brothers leaned on a powerful ground game to beat the state no. 12-ranked Warriors 28-17, perhaps setting the stage for a playoff rematch – but for now, shifting the balance of power in the local AA ranks back to CBA.

“We just grounded and pounded,” said CBA’s first-year head coach, Casey Brown. “(Early on) we were pretty down on ourselves. But these kids believe in what they want to do, and they’re on a mission.”

Weeks of one-sided victories by the Brothers and Warriors had created enormous expectations for this game, and the crowd started to fill the LHS Stadium stands more than an hour before kickoff. From a competitive and dramatic standpoint, they had plenty to witness.

During the first half, the two defenses mostly dictated the terms. CBA’s had dramatically improved since Dan Damico returned from illness a couple of weeks ago, and Damico’s recovered fumble set up the Brothers for a short scoring drive in the first quarter, capped by Jake Brotzki’s four-yard touchdown pass to Noah Jordan-Williams.

But the Warriors countered by pouncing on a CBA fumble minutes later. Jack Hogan’s recovery at the Brothers’ 23 led to Rashon Crenshaw’s two-yard TD sneak, tying it, 7-7, early in the second quarter.

Damico and the rest of CBA’s defenders never let Liverpool’s star tailback, Jaydakis Scott, put up a big run all night, and that made up for the offense’s first-half struggles, along with a botched fake punt that led to a Warriors 20-yard field goal by Patrick DelGobbo three seconds before halftime.

Trailing 10-7 at the break, the Brothers vowed to return to the running game – and caught an enormous break when middle linebacker Joe Scro, arguably Liverpool’s top defensive player, did not return after suffering a first-half injury.

Seeing this, CBA took the second-half kickoff and did little but run up the middle. Three different times, three different backs – Gavin Collins, Collin Recore and DeAndre Dowdell – converted fourth downs against the short-handed Warrior defense, and Collins finished it off with a four-yard TD run after the Brothers had consumed nearly nine minutes of clock, going 59 yards in 16 plays.

It got worse for Liverpool when Sirvocea Dennis intercepted Crenshaw’s pass on the Warriors’ ensuing possession. Three plays later (all runs), Stevie Scott found the end zone from nine yards out, and CBA led 21-10.

Briefly, the Warriors rebounded when Crenshaw’s 27-yard run led to Jaydakis Scott’s lone TD of the night, a five-yard run 21 seconds into the fourth quarter. But the Brothers got the ball back and, after a big 19-yard pass from Brotzki to Lincoln McGarrity on third-and-long, struck the decisive blow/

Stevie Scott found a big hole up the middle and ran 54 yards to the end zone with 8:50 left for the game’s final points. Outgaining his more celebrated namesake on the Liverpool side (Jaydakis had just 78 yards), Stevie Scott finished with 195 yards on 22 carries – or as he more succinctly put it, “we got the job done.”

With the win, CBA claims the lead in the Class AA-1 division with a 4-0 league mark (4-1 overall), and can lock up first place and the top playoff seed by defeating 0-5 West Genesee next Friday at Mike Messere Field.

“We’re blessed to have a great group of guys that want to get better every single week,” said Brown.