Everyone in Syracuse is pinning its Section III football championship hopes on the Corcoran Cougars as the Class AA playoffs begin this weekend.
But a tall task awaits the Cougars – namely, a first-round game against Baldwinsville, the reigning sectional champions, on the Bees’ home turf at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium Friday night. It’s a rematch of last year’s AA semifnal game, which B’ville won 22-15 on its way to the sectional title.
Two high-profile games last Friday changed the entire playoff bracket. Corcoran, fighting to get a first-round home game by finishing second in the Class AA-2 division, saw a late rally fall just short in a 22-20 loss to Utica Proctor.
In trouble at the start after a long bus ride to Utica, the Cougars fell behind 12-0 as Proctor’s sophomore quarterback, Jordan Treen, threw a pair of long touchdown passes – 26 yards to Richard Pete, then 80 yards to Walkery Mills.
Corcoran got on the board in the second quarter, cutting the deficit to 12-6 as Chao Porch’s powerful runs set up Shakem Buckmon (back from the hard hit Fayetteville-Manlius’ Brett Strickland gave him) throwing a nine-yard TD pass to Shaquille Breland.
Amid all the wind and rain, Proctor appeared to get away in the third period, as David Tofani’s 26-yard field goal and Treen’s third scoring pass, 17 yards to Mike Lackey, made it 22-6.
Porch did not let up, though, gashing the Raiders’ defense for a career-best 211 yards on 29 carries. And his runs led the Cougars twice getting to the end zone in the fourth quarter.
Delvon Adams scored from 11 yards out to make it 22-12, but the two-point attempt failed. Then Adams scored again on a 12-yard run with seven minutes left, and Porch added the conversion, slashing Corcoran’s deficit to two.
An inspired defensive stop gave Corcoran a chance to win it in the closing minutes, and Buckmon drove his team to Proctor’s 35-yard line. But on fourth-down-and-four with 40 seconds left, Buckmon’s pass fell incomplete, and the Raiders had won.
While all this was going on, Baldwinsville, heavily favored at home to win its AA-1 title showdown with CBA, took a stunning 14-10 defeat, the muddy conditions hurting the Bees’ star sophomore tailback, Tyler Rouse, as he got just 82 yards on 30 carries.
This dropped B’ville to second place in AA-1, and makes Corcoran face the Bees in the first round. The winner gets Fayetteville-Manlius or Liverpool in next weekend’s semifinals, with the title game set for Nov.7 at the Carrier Dome.
All the other city teams will miss the playoffs. In last Friday’s action, Henninger lost to Auburn 20-14 at a sloppy Holland Stadium, giving up all of the Maroons’ points in the second quarter.
Trailing 20-0 at the half, the Black Knights got close in the third quarter as Andres Abadie ran 59 yards for a TD and Chris Hicks scored on a six-yard run. But it could not score in the final period as Jorri McGriff led Auburn with 184 yards on 19 carries.
Fowler, still in search of its first win in 2010, fell to West Genesee 51-19. Kelvin Amparo, Jamal Reed and Miguel Pizarro each had touchdown runs, but most of the Falcons’ points came in the fourth quarter, after the Wildcats had put things away. Matt Naton led WG, throwing for four TD’s.
Nottingham lost 34-12 to Rome Free Academy, while Institute of Technology Central fell 42-0 to Cato-Meridian, who completed an undefeated regular season.
In crossover games this week, Henninger will visit Cicero-North Syracuse and ITC plays at Solvay on Thursday, while Fowler goes to Central Square Friday and Nottingham hosts Auburn.