Only a few defeats, here and there, kept the Cicero-North Syracuse wrestling team from claiming the Section III Class AA championship on its home mat.

The Northstars finished second in last Saturday’s AA meet, earning 182.5 points, just behind Baldwinsville, who finished in front with 192.5 points. Liverpool found its way to fifth place with 110.5 points.

CNS wrestlers reached five finals, and won three times. Todd Hagger survived a tough 152-pound final against B’ville’s Joe Senf, earning a 4-3 decision after beating Oswego’s Dan Ellingwood 7-1 in the semifinal round.

As for Patrick Dyer, he went to the top at 130 pounds, pinning Kareeb Howard (Corcoran) in 3:26, then winning his semifinal by default over teammate Kiel Dyer before dominating Nick LaFlair (Central Square) in a 15-2 title match.

The third title for the Northstars went to Clayton D’Onofrio, at 285 pounds. He shut out Sam Wells (Fayetteville-Manlius) 7-0 and, in the championship round, took just 42 seconds to pin Liverpool’s Kyle Gordon for the title.

Liverpool’s lone title, from Derek Eason at 145 pounds, came at CNS’s expense. After a technical fall over Avery Sigle (Central Square) and a semifinal pin of Kurt McArdell (B’ville), Eason met the Northstars’ James Segars in the title match and, in a close decision, prevailed by a score of 4-2.

Elsewhere, CNS’s Dan Ciciarelli reached the 103-pound final, only to lose to B’ville’s Joey Shaheen 7-0. Liverpool’s Nate Hathaway advanced to the 112-pound title match before Ian Coolican (West Genesee) beat him 7-2.

In yet another CNS-Liverpool showdown, T0ny Battista earned third place at 112 pounds by blanking Casey Guilfoil 2-0. Alex Barry (125 pounds), Ariel Anoceto (189 pounds) and Matt Mastro (215 pounds) had fourth-place efforts for the Northstars as Tyler Eason gave the Warriors a fourth-place finish at 119 pounds.

Kiel Dyer earned fifth place at 130 pounds when he shut out Corcoran’s Kadeem Howard 2-0, with Liverpool seeing Brendan Capria (171 pounds) beat WG’s Luke Mersfelder 7-3 and Mike Reed (285 pounds) pin Auburn’s Matt Mattes to each finish fifth, too. Matt Dunham gave CNS a sixth-place finish at 135 pounds, with Liverpool’s Dakota Inman (140 pounds) doing the same.

Just before going to the Class AA meet, Liverpool had a non-league contest last Tuesday night, losing to Hannibal 48-18.

All the points came from three falls. Derek Eason (152) pinned Joel Kinville in 1:21 and Tyler Eason (119) took 3:38 to pin Nick Shepard, while Capria (171) also pinned Rob Burnett late in the second period.

Jake Bottino, at 135, lost a close 8-5 decision to Josh Sheldon, while Tyler Koleasook (130) fell to Nick Borle 9-5. Guilfoil Reed (215) both lost 5-0 to, respectively, Joe Griffin and Josh Lewis.

A large contingent of CNS and Liverpool wrestlers will travel Saturday to Utica Memorial Auditorium for the Section III Division I championships, which start at 10 a.m. Top performers advance to the Feb. 26-27 state meet at Albany’s Times Union Center.