Something familiar was on display Friday night at Alibrandi Stadium – the Christian Brothers Academy football team in top form, lighting up the scoreboard, flying around on defense and causing fear and dread in its opposition.
No one yet knows if the Brothers’ 48-6 destruction of West Genesee on Senior Night is the spark toward another Section III Class AA championship run, but more efforts like this could make a title quite feasible for a team accustomed to finishing on top.
This top form was missing from CBA throughout the early portion of the 2014 season, leading to a 2-3 start and rare back-to-back home defeats – one of them a drubbing by Corcoran, the other a painful loss to Liverpool where it squandered a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter.
Despite this, the Brothers knew that late-season wins could still mean a sectional playoff berth. In particular, beating West Genesee would lead to a better post-season seed and a third-place finish in the Class AA-1 division.
That, plus the emotions of Senior Night, created a charged-up CBA side that dominated from the outset – and WG could not contain it.
By the end of the first quarter, it was already 14-0, Stevie Scott getting the Brothers on the board with a 44-yard scoring run and, minutes later, Jace Whelan finding the end zone from 35 yards out. And this was after the Brothers had a long TD run called back on a penalty and fumbled to squander another scoring chance.
Impressive as that was, CBA doubled it with 28 unanswered points in a decisive second quarter. The surge included Jack Brotzki throwing TD passes of 30 yards to Andre Dowdell and 27 yards to Tanner Hail, with Dowdell also scoring on a six-yard run and Scott returning to go 57 yards to the end zone late in the half.
All told, Scott gained 210 yards on just 10 carries and Dowdell added 98 yards on the ground, balancing out the work of Brotzki, who completed seven of 15 passes for 169 yards.
WG never could get its ground game established, Joey Vetter held to 58 yards on 17 carries. Dashon Turner and Matt Van Allen combined for 142 passing yards, most of them to Collin Taylor, who had 117 yards on seven completions. Turner scored the Wildcats’ lone touchdown on a one-yard run in the third quarter.
CBA now could look ahead to Friday’s regular-season finale at Central Square, knowing that, with both teams at 3-3 and the Red Hawks 2-3 in the Class AA-1 division (the Brothers are 3-2), it still had to win here to be absolutely sure of a post-season appearance.
Either way, it’s a far cry from the struggles of Fayetteville-Manlius, who fell to 2-4 on the season last Friday with a 62-21 defeat to Indian River, the state’s no. 6-ranked Class A team.
It was Homecoming at F-M, with a massive crowd in attendance, but not even their spirits, nor the return of Jake Wittig to the field (in kicking duties), could not help the Hornets’ defense contain a Warrior attack that broke the game open with 27 points in the second quarter.
They were tied, 7-7, through one period, Jeff Martin getting F-M on the board with a one-yard scoring run just 2:37 into the game and Wittig adding the extra point, but the Warriors would soon gain control.
Densel Barnes used TD runs of 35 and 38 yards to push IR in front, and Dustin Sharitt followed up with two of his own scoring runs, from 46 and 6 yards.
Martin found space on a 56-yard scoring run in the second period and then again struck from midfield on a 49-yard run, all of which kept F-M in touch as it went to halftime trailing 34-21.
Then, like so many other times this season, the Hornets watched an opponent get away. IR scored 28 unanswered points in the second half, with Sharrit scoring twice, Barnes throwing a 50-yard TD pass to Gary Ruckman and Brandon Smith closing things out with a 78-yard dash to the end zone.
F-M’s regular season ends Friday with a game against Fowler, who at 0-6 is still searching for its first win of 2014. Game time is at 6:30.
