Trying to turn things around after a 2-5 regular season in 2010, the Cicero-North Syracuse football team appeared to have a good opportunity at a quick start with last Friday’s season opener at Central Square, a team it had not lost to in the current millennium.
Once the game was done, though, the Northstars found it still had tough work ahead of them, as the inspired Red Hawks started fast and withstood a late comeback by the visitors to pull out a 33-27 victory, its first over CNS since 1999.
First-game jitters nearly sank CNS before it could get started. All through the opening period, the Northstars’ mistakes turned into Central Square chances, and before it could settle down it found itself in a 19-0 hole.
Malcolm Anderson had two of those early touchdowns for the Red Hawks, scoring on a two-yard pass and 32-yard run, and Anthony Scarfford had the other on an 18-yard run.
Slowly, the Northstars began to fight back, getting the only points of the second period when senior quarterback Corey Scanlon found Xavier Brown on a 14-yard scoring pass.
Still trailing 19-7 at the break, CNS cut further into the margin with Scanlon’s 11-yard TD pass to Brown, only to see Scarrford return the ensuing kickoff 86 yards for a score. That, plus a two-point conversion, made it 27-13.
Not too discouraged, the Northstars pulled within 27-21 on Jeff Hart’s two-yard TD run and, early in the fourth quarter, pulled even at 27-27 when Scanlon threw his third scoring pass of the night to Brown, from 10 yards out and Stephen Messur added the extra point.
Central Square got the ball back, and Mitchell Jones, who had already torched the CNS defense for 250 passing yards, now used his legs to do further damage, scrambling 28 yards for the go-ahead TD with 5:28 left in regulation.
Unable to respond, the Northstars lost despite Scanlon gaining 280 total yards – 201 in the air, 79 on the ground. And it sends CNS into a crucial home opener against Rome Free Academy this Friday at 7 p.m., as the Black Knights also lost its first game of the season, 27-9 to Nottingham.
