All around, it proved a rough Friday night for a quartet of area high school football teams.
East Syracuse Minoa took a 3-0 record into its Class A division opener at Whitesboro, only to get upended 30-21 by the Warriors as, in eight-man football, Bishop Grimes was roughed up in the first half of a 72-32 defeat to Weedsport.
Up in the Class AA ranks, Fayetteville-Manlius dropped to 1-3 on the season with a 29-8 loss to Cicero-North Syracuse as Christian Brothers Academy saw its Homecoming festivities spoiled by undefeated Liverpool, falling by a score of 38-15.
Of these games, ESM had the most on the line. A trio of easy wins to open its season had given the Spartans confidence, but now it confronted a Whitesboro side that had bothered them plenty in years past.
Under a new head coach (Curtis Schmidt) after Tom Schoen retired, the Warriors kept ESM off the board in a tense first half. But the Spartans’ defense was good, too, only surrendering a field goal of 29 yards by Anton Kichuk.
So it was 3-0 going into the third quarter, where ESM did get on the board when Tyler Bell threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Nolan Palmer, but the Warriors countered with 17 points.
In between short scoring runs of one yard by Nick Sardinia and 10 yards by Griff Sciortino, Whitesboro’s defense recorded a safety, and it got another field goal from Kichuk and a second TD from Sardinia to withstand ESM’s late comeback as Bell scored once on a sneak and again on a 10-yard pass to Palmer.
At Weedsport, the two teams that had won Section III titles in eight-man football clashed, Grimes having won it in the 2017 inaugural season before Weedsport seized the crown a year later.
It didn’t take long for Weedsport to move out in front, using TD runs of 65 yards by Aidan Mabbett and 34 yards by Jacob Maloof, plus two-point conversions, to lead 16-0 after one period.
The second quarter was worse for the Cobras, surrendering four scores, including a Josh O’Connor 75-yard interception return, even as it got on the board with A.J. Burnett’s 24-yard TD pass to Dante Hopkins.
Trailing 46-6 at the break, Grimes did play on relatively even terms the rest of the way, Burnett adding two more TD passes to Hopkins and scrambling five yards for another score. Weedsport kept making big plays, though, from Mabbett’s 61-yard dash to the end zone to Jake Brown’s 72-yard kick return.
F-M was 1-2 going into its game with C-NS at Bragman Stadium, but the Northstars, reigning two-time sectional Class AA champions, were also 1-2 after getting stunned at Rome Free Academy the week before.
C -NS played strong defense from the outset, forcing F-M into bad field position, and the special teams earned the first points when a bad Hornets punt snap led to a safety. On the first play of the second quarter, J.J. Razmovski threw a 21-yard TD pass to Adron Padford.
Then Mike Washington took over, scoring on a 24-yard run less than three minutes after Padford found the end zone. This helped the Northstars withstand the Hornets’ lone TD on a pass from Alex Dauksza to Jordan Leuze and lead 15-8 at the break.
Two minutes into the third quarter, Washington again broke loose and out-ran Hornets defenders 42 yards to the end zone. Minutes later, again the Northstars had the ball and again Washington made a big play, sprinting 58 yards for his third TD of the night.
Over at CBA, the Brothers made some early headway against state Class AA no. 15-ranked Liverpool, driving to the Warriors’ one in the first quarter before Travis Ward converted.
By the time the period ended, though, Liverpool had put together its own scoring drive that Bryce Mills finished off with a one-yard touchdown plunge.
Twice in the second quarter, Liverpool put together scoring marches, each of them ending on short TD runs by Dakari Mack of one and four yards. Meanwhile, the defense settled down, stifling CBA and helping insure a 24-7 halftime margin.
Mack’s third TD, on a run of 12 yards, expanded the Warriors’ lead further, and it was fitting that the defense closed out Liverpool’s scoring as Kyle Caves returned a fourth-quarter interception 39 yards for six points after Davion Irby had scored for the Brothers.
