Once before this fall, the Cicero-North Syracuse football team dealt with a loss. The response was three consecutive wins. So what would happen when the Northstars met defeat a second time? Well, much the same thing, only with more authority and confidence than ever. CNS came home to Bragman Stadium Friday night and may have contributed to a large bit of history in the course of shutting out Rome Free Academy 27-0. For its own part, the win gives the Northstars a chance to host a first-round Section III Class AA playoff game – if it can topple archrival Liverpool this Friday. And by winning, CNS did something else. RFA has never missed the playoffs since the current system started in 1979, but this loss puts the Black Knights on the brink of elimination. To qualify now, RFA must beat Baldwinsville (who is unbeaten) and have CBA lose to Central Square (who is winless) – long odds, for sure. All this is likely lost on the CNS players, who simply had atonement in mind – and got it by dominating on both sides of the ball. On offense, the Northstars’ balance was close to perfect – 203 yards through the air, 205 yards on the ground, 408 yards overall, four times what it could produce in the B’ville mud. More comfortable on an artificial surace, quarterback Ryan Lacey completed 10 of 17 passes for 200 yards. Good as that was, the defense might have been better. RFA was never able to find a rhythm, as the Northstars only allowed a grand total of 112 yards. Brandon Lacey, with eight tackles, led the way. It was lopsided from the opening kickoff. During the first half, the Black Knights managed just 37 yards to CNS’s 271, and the Northstars ran nearly twice as many plays. From the opening kickoff, CNS drove 66 yards in just six plays, Blake Monday going the final eight yards for the score after his 40-yard run set things up. Then Tom Padula got his turn to shine, breaking two tackles on a 48-yard run to set up Ryan Lacey’s two-yard plunge early in the second quarter, making it 14-0. RFA promptly fumbled, and Padula struck again, taking an option pitch and going 15 yards, untouched, for his second scor. Andrew Falvey’s third successful extra point made it 21-0, a number that held up until halftime. On its first possession of the third quarter, CNS repeated what it did at the start of the game – a 79-yard scoring drive, with a big play (Lacey’s 51-yard pass to Jaiqwan Jones) the key moment. Padula scored from one yard out. Now comes the battle with Liverpool, who has given up just seven total points in the last two weeks and just blew out CBA 35-7. Win here, and the Northstars will get a third straight home game – something few thought after that opening loss to Henninger, which now seems like a long time ago.