Once at 1-2, the Cicero-North Syracuse football team has fought its way back to earn an opportunity at yet another Class AA-2 division regular-season championship.
The Northstars’ thrilling 35-28 victory over Baldwinsville last Friday at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium set up a first-place showdown with Utica Proctor next Friday at Bragman Stadium, with the winner gaining the league title and a top seed for the Section III playoffs.
There were moments, especially late in the first half, when C-NS resembled the football juggernaut that won 31 of 34 games and a pair of sectional titles in 2017 and ’18. Yet it also nearly surrendered a 21-point lead to the Bees before a timely fourth-quarter drive helped the Northstars hang on.
Both C-NS and B’ville entered the game with 2-1 league marks, and traded scoring drives early, C-NS getting a 27-yard touchdown pass from J.J. Razmovski to Adron Pafford in the first quarter after a long punt return by Mason Ellis.
With the score 7-7, the Northstars put together a scoring drive Bees fans would find quite familiar – 12 plays, all of them runs, 11 of them by tailback Mike Washington, who went the final yard for the TD with 3:39 left in the half.
By contrast, the next time C-NS had the ball after a fourth-down stop by the defense, Washington needed only one play to sprint 62 yards to the end zone, making it 21-7.
A minute remained in the half and the Northstars surprised B’ville with an onside kick, recovering it at midfield. Just 11 seconds before intermission, Razmovski found a streaking Pafford down the right sideline for a 37-yard scoring play.
What was a close-fought contest was now 28-7, and with C-NS receiving the second-half kickoff, it had an opportunity to put the Bees away. Instead, it was held without a first down in the third quarter, giving the Bees an opportunity to fight back.
Willie Strong finished one drive with a one-yard TD run. Then, on the first play of the fourth quarter, Braden McCard, from his own 40, threw down the left sideline to Pat May, who caught it, cut back and found the end zone.
With its lead down to 28-21, C-NS took over at its own 13, and it was here that Razmovski made his three best throws of the night.
One was a third-down pass to Ellis that covered 23 yards. Then, on fourth-and-four at the Bees’ 47, Razmovski hit Pafford, who broke tackles on a 37-yard run to set up first-and-goal. Three plays later, Pafford lost his defender on a cut to the middle and Razmovski found him again, the TD covering 12 yards with 4:55 to play.
That turned out to be the game-winner because B’ville again responded, McCard throwing a 12-yard TD pass to May with 1:13 left, but a poor onside kick was smothered by the Northstars, who were able to run out the clock.
While all this was going on, Liverpool clinched the top playoff seed out of the Class AA-1 division and improved to 6-0 on its home field, the state Class AA no. 15-ranked Warriors cruising to a 43-12 victory over the Nottingham Bulldogs.
Unlike many other games this season, Liverpool didn’t wait until the second half to take control, bolting out to a 29-0 lead before intermission.
Dakari Mack got the Warriors on the board with a 10-yard scoring run. Then fullback Jacob Vacco powered through Nottingham’s defense twice, on scoring runs of five and 53 yards, before Michael Nigro went 16 yards for his first TD of the season.
Already with a comfortable lead, Liverpool struck twice on special teams during the second half, Bryce Mills returning a Bulldogs kickoff 65 yards for one TD and Max Michalak taking a punt near midfield and bringing it back 52 yards for six more points.
Having completed a perfect 4-0 run through the AA-1 division, Liverpool goes to Corning (Section IV) next Friday night to look to finish an undefeated regular season.
