It just has to end this way.
For two months, the Christian Brothers Academy and Cicero-North Syracuse football teams amassed undefeated marks, won their respective Class AA divisions and eyed each other from afar, wondering if they could stay on track.
They have done so, and next weekend at the Carrier Dome, the 8-0 Brothers and 9-0 Northstars will clash with the Section III championship on the line following impressive wins in Friday’s semifinals at Bragman Stadium.
CBA, playing the nightcap, relied on timely defensive stops to keep Baldwinsville at bay before pulling away for a 35-7 victory, while C-NS turned back Corcoran for the second time this season in a 28-6 decision.
Going into the week, the Brothers were no. 7 in the state AA rankings, four spots ahead of the Northstars, and each of their semifinals were rematches of games played in early September.
In CBA’s case, it had relied on big plays to turn back Baldwinsville 38-6 in the Sept. 2 season opener at Alibrandi Stadium, and while that was true to a degree in the rematch, a larger factor was the Brothers continually making crucial stops when the Bees wanted to make things interesting.
CBA scored on its opening possession thanks to a 64-yard drive that Stevie Scott finished off with a one-yard touchdown run. When it tried to answer, the Bees instead fumbled, and DeAndre Dowdell returned it to the one, from where Scott converted again late in the first quarter.
Turnovers also were prevalent in the second period, only it was the Brothers surrendering the ball twice on fumbles – one by Scott at the Bees’ 19, the other by quarterback SirVocea Dennis at the Brothers’ 34.
Each time, though, B’ville could not convert those takeaways into points, After Scott’s fumble, the Bees moved it to the CBA 15 only to get stopped on fourth down. When Dennis fumbled, the Bees couldn’t even get a first down against a resilient Brothers defense.
Remaining generous, CBA again fumbled it at its own 20 early in the third quarter. Moving down to the two-yard line, the Bees were one run from cutting the Brothers’ margin in half, but again the Brothers turned them back.
Fired up by what its defense was doing, CBA answered with a 98-yard march that Dennis finished off by going 12 yards for the TD. Only now, trailing by three touchdowns, did the Bees break through with a scoring drive of its own early in the fourth quarter, capped by Ben Dwyer throwing six yards to Gabe Horan to make it 21-7 with 9:12 left.
When it needed its own defensive stop, though, the Bees could not pull it off, as Dennis netted his second TD on a 16-yard run with 6:44 to play and, following a Bees fumble, Scott went 21 yards to score for the third time three minutes later.
And this brings CBA back to the Dome, where a season ago Liverpool avenged a regular-season defeat by stopping the Brothers in the sectional final. The chance for redemption comes next Saturday night at 6 p.m., and the opponent is a C-NS side that has never won a sectional championship before, but has all the elements of a great team.
From a poised leader in sophomore quarterback Conner Hayes to a tough running attack anchored by Erik Pride and Jeremiah Willis to an offensive line that has dominated the line of scrimmage and, most of all, a defense whose first-team unit has surrendered less than a touchdown per game, C-NS offers plenty of obstacles for CBA to conquer in what could prove a title-game classic.
