Not until the last weekend of the regular season could the Liverpool football team secure its place in the Section III Class AA playoffs.
But the Warriors did so with confidence and certainty as two big pass plays involving Alex Ruston and Naz Johnson sparked a 26-14 victory over the Auburn Maroons Friday night at LHS Stadium.
Auburn still had its own post-season hopes entering the night, enhanced when Nottingham lost at Baldwinsville, but Liverpool wasn’t about to cooperate with the Maroons’ plans, either.
In fact, it took just two plays for the Warriors to take a lead it would never relinquish.
Lining up at his own 43-yard line, Ruston went back to throw, fired deep – and found Johnson, whose 57-yard touchdown completion fired up the home crowd.
Moving at will against the Maroons’ defense, the Warriors saw one drive get thwarted inside the 10 and lead to a missed field goal, but did capitalize midway through the second quarter when Jacob Vacco scored from 11 yards out and then caught a two-point pass from Ruston.
Liverpool took a 14-0 lead to halftime, aided by a Ben Michalowski interception near its own goal line right before the break. Soon enough, the lead was larger as, again, Ruston found Johnson deep down the field, the TD covering 43 yards early in the third quarter.
Minutes later, the Warriors had the ball again and scored again, Cade Clouthier finding the end zone from 10 yards out. Only now did Auburn score, but its pair of TD’s could not make up the entire deficit.
Liverpool finished fourth in the Class AA-2 division. Meanwhile, Corcoran’s 41-14 win at CBA meant that the Cougars and Central Square shared the AA-1 regular-season title, but the Redhawks would own the higher playoff seed due to beating the Cougars head-to-head in September.
So it’s the Warriors against Central Square next Friday at 7 p.m. in the opening round of the sectional playoffs, with the winner heading to the semifinals against Baldwinsville or Fayetteville-Manlius.
