Dave Kline coached his football team to another win on the turf at Henninger High School’s Sunnycrest Field – only it wasn’t with the side wearing black and gold.
Instead, Kline was on the opposite sideline, watching his new charges at Cicero-North Syracuse defeat the Black Knights 50-19 Friday night to move back above the .500 mark (3-2, 2-1 league) and keep alive its chances for a Class AA-2 division regular-season title.
Struggling under Kline’s successor, Kevin Ryan, Henninger, who won the Section III Class AA title a season ago, still has not won in 2015, and C-NS wasn’t about to make things easier for them.
As Kline received both cheers and a few jeers from the Black Knights faithful, C-NS used its big offensive line to pound away at Henninger during an opening drive that consumed more than six minutes of clock before quarterback Conner Hayes scored on a one-yard plunge.
An exchange of turnovers followed, each side fumbling the ball, before a big play started to break the game open. From Henninger’s 42-yard line, Hayes threw deep and found Keegan Wright, who went in for the touchdown to help make it 14-0.
So began a 23-point second-quarter blitz. Another C-NS drive led to Kyle Cody’s three-yard TD run. Hayes then set up the next TD with a long pass to Landry Rogers that set up Drew Flack’s three-yard scoring plunge.
Even a blocked extra point didn’t discourage the Northstars, who drove to Henninger’s 13-yard line in the waning moments of the half before Ty Natali connected on a 25-yard field goal, which extended C-NS’s lead to 30-0 at the break.
Nate Rizzo, another running back who, like Cody, saw their playing time increase after Erik Pride got injured a week ago in C-NS’s win over Auburn, would twice score in the second half, on runs of 20 and 13 yards. And Rogers converted on the defensive side, too, returning a Henninger interception 57 yards for six points.
All told, Rizzo had 141 yards on 15 carries, with Flack close behind as he had 18 carries for 127 yards, and Cody added 10 carries for 61 yards. C-NS balanced it out with Hayes connecting on nine of 13 passes for 203 yards, with Rogers (three catches, 79 yards) and Wright (three catches, 75 yards) equally benefiting.
In order to win the league title, C-NS would have to first get through next Friday’s game at Fayetteville-Manlius, who is also 2-1 in league play and 3-2 overall following its own win over Auburn last weekend at Holland Stadium. Then an Oct. 16 showdown with first-place Baldwinsville at Bragman Stadium would mean a lot more.
