Though close in geography, the Christian Brothers Academy and Fayetteville-Manlius football teams rarely encounter each other on the field – unless something is at stake late in October or early in November.
So it was again that the two sides gathered in post-season circumstances Friday night at Alibrandi Stadium in the opening round of the Section III Class AA playofffs, with the Brothers having to wait a while before a series of big plays turned a close battle into a 41-14 victory over the Hornets.
They had not met since the 2011 sectional AA semifinals, where CBA prevailed 34-14. Here, many expected a more lopsided contest, given the Brothers’ no. 14 state ranking, a six-game win streak, a top playoff seed and F-M’s season-long defensive struggles.
Yet most of the first quarter was scoreless until business picked up the moment Stevie Scott crossed the goal line on a four-yard run late in the period.
Instead of an immediate answer, the Hornets saw CBA’s Collin Recore intercept a pass and return it 34 yards for six more points less than 90 seconds later, Andrew Kolceski’s extra point making it 14-0.
Unfazed, F-M went back to the air and, just 13 seconds before the first quarter ended, Henry Josephson, from his own 35, found Fernando Johnson in stride, the touchdown covering 65 yards and bringing the Hornets’ fans to life.
Now the Hornets’ defense attempted to keep things close, and it remained 14-7 until CBA mounted a drive late in the half that DeAndre Dowdell capped off by sprinting 14 yards to the end zone.
A rare missed PAT by Kolceski kept it at 20-7 going into the break, and while F-M felt good about not letting the Brothers run away, it knew it had to find some kind of spark to really make things interesting.
Instead, Scott slammed the door on any hopes of a Hornets rally.
CBA’s sophomore tailback back capped off a quick drive early in the third quarter with his second TD, a four-yard run, and then gashed F-M with scoring runs of 53 and 60 yards less than three minutes apart in the final period.
All told, Scott rushed for a season-high 253 yards, but CBA wasn’t one-dimensional, since Jack Brotzki threw for 157 yards. F-M did close the gap when Nucerino scored on a one-yard run with 4:44 left.
A day later, CBA found out that it would face Utica Proctor in next Friday’s Class AA semifinal at 5 p.m. at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium.
Under first-year coach Steve Strife, the Raiders, who went 2-6 in 2014, turned around to 6-1 in the regular season and then beat Nottingham 38-0 in the opening round of the sectional playoffs, though that game was marred by a brawl in the third quarter that stopped the contest.
Proctor hopes to spring an upset and keep CBA from getting back to the Carrier Dome for the Nov. 7 sectional final against Liverpool or Baldwinsville.
