With a 17-year Section III title drought finally behind them, the Liverpool football team now began the quest to end another long wait – this one for the program’s first-ever state Class AA championship.

Doing so first required the Warriors to travel to Binghamton Alumni Stadium last Saturday night to face Section IV champion Elmira in the AA regional final. And it turned into a classic character test, with Liverpool making two different comebacks, including one in the final minute, to derail the Express 27-22.

All was on the line when the Warriors got the ball on its own 41-yard line with 1:53 to play, trailing 22-21 after Elmira had converted a fourth-down-and-goal with a one-yard touchdown plunge by Allaah Sessions and then inched in front on Dashaun Sutton’s two-point run. Elmira had driven 78 yards in 15 days to reclaim the lead.

Fortunately for Liverpool, Rashon Crenshaw was back on the field at quarterback after missing a month due to injury, and the Warriors’ offensive line was starting to wear out its Elmira counterparts on the defensive side.

Liverpool ran five plays, four of them runs from Crenshaw, and quickly moved to the Express 17-yard line. Then it was back to Jaydakis Scott, who tore up the middle and found the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown with 41 seconds left.

The two-point attempt failed, and Elmira still had a little time to do something – but Scott intercepted Anthony Aumick’s pass with 3.6 seconds to play and sealed the Warriors’ trip to the state semifinals.

Elmira’s Express, whose nickname honors the late Ernie Davis (who starred at Elmira Free Academy before his legendary career at Syracuse University), beat CBA in this same regional round two years ago and had averaged better than 50 points per game this season.

And even Liverpool’s imposing defense fell victim to Elmira’s three-pronged running attack, consisting of Sutton, Sessions and Devon Torres. Two first-quarter possessions for the Express led straight to the end zone, with Sutton scoring on runs of two and five yards.

From there, though, the Warriors settled down , containing Elmira enough so that its offense could get untracked – which it did on a 19-play, 77-yard march that ate up most of the last eight minutes of the second quarter.

Scott gained 55 of his 146 yards on this single drive, including the last three yards for the TD with nine seconds left in the half. A fourth-down offsides penalty on Elmira helped, too, as the Warriors moved within a touchdown, 14-7, going to the break.

Staying with its own effective ground game, Liverpool converted midway through the third quarter when Dietrick Roberson went 17 yards for the score. Faking an extra point, the Warriors went for two, but missed, and still trailed, 14-13.

That didn’t last long, either. A big fourth-down stop by Liverpool on its own 29 set up the go-ahead drive. Another long march, consuming 12 plays and 71 yards, featured the Warriors’ line pushing Elmira around, and Scott finished it off with a four-yard jaunt to the end zone with 10:16 left in the fourth quarter.

When the Express fumbled the ensuing kickoff, at its own 29 , the Warriors had a great chance to put the game away, only to see Elmira’s defense shake off its fatigue, make a fourth-down stop at the 22, setting up what nearly turned out to be a winning drive of its own.

Crenshaw, Scott and the Warriors would answer, though, in the season’s most pressure-filled situation, moving Liverpool within two victories of a state championship. But the next obstacle might prove the biggest one.

Section V champion Rochester Aquinas will face the Warriors next Saturday at 6 p.m. in the state semifinal at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium, with the winner going to the Nov. 29 state title game in the Carrier Dome. Aquinas routed Section VI champion Orchard Park 42-7 in its regional final.