A massive contingent of Cicero-North Syracuse partisans in the Carrier Dome rose to their feet and roared as the third quarter of Saturday night’s Section III Class AA championship game ended, and they had reason to feel good.
Once down by 14 points, the undefeated Northstars had caught up to undefeated Christian Brothers Academy, and if it could continue this surge for 12 more minutes, the sectional title that had long eluded C-NS might finally be attained.
In the storybook, the Northstars complete the comeback and fill that empty spot in the gymnasium banner that had proven such a source of motivation all season – but the reality proved quite different.
Summoning its own inner strength, CBA would score twice in the final period and, combined with timely defensive stops, turn back C-NS 27-14 and atone for its loss to Liverpool in this same sectional final one year ago.
The final was something anticipated since September, when it became clear that C-NS and C-BA had separated themselves from the rest of the local Class AA crowd.
By the time they got to the Dome, the state no. 10-ranked Northstars were 9-0 and the state no. 7-ranked Brothers were 8- 0 Little seemed to separate them, so it wasn’t that much of a surprise that, as the third quarter of the title game ended, CBA and C-NS were deadlocked, 14-14.
It didn’t start well for the Northstars, though. The Brothers took the opening kickoff and got some superb runs from quarterback Sirvocea Dennis, the last of them going 17 yards to the end zone.
Trailing 7-0, the Northstars fell into more trouble midway through the second quarter as Stevie Scott, otherwise contained by C-NS’s defense for most of the night, broke free down the sideline on a 37-yard TD run.
But C-NS did not flinch. Instead, it took advantage of Omar Mere’s punt return and got on the board just before halftime, Conner Hayes scrambling to his left and throwing a 10-yard TD pass to a wide-open Landry Rogers.
Seconds later, the Northstars got the ball back when, instead of running out the clock, Dennis tried to throw – and Tyler Days picked it off, returning it inside the CBA 20. On the last play of the half, though, Hayes’ pass to the end zone fell incomplete, and it was 14-7 at the break.
DeAndre Dowdell intercepted Hayes at midfield early in the third quarter, but the Northstars made its own stand, and countered by going 82 yards and consuming more than five minutes before Hayes, from the CBA nine, found Peyton Watts, who broke a tackle at the five and dove into the end zone, the PAT tying it at 14-14.
Now C-NS had all of the momentum, and early in the fourth quarter it made another crucial stop and watched the Brothers’ Mike Matheson fall short on a 44-yard field-goal attempt.
Instead of surging into the lead, though, the Northstars stalled at just the wrong time, and CBA pounced, starting with Taylor Kirschenheiter sacking Hayes to force a punt deep in Northstars territory. With a short field, the Brothers moved to the 30-yard line.
Here, Dennis called a run to the left, only to run into a wall of C-NS defenders. Scrambling right and avoiding the sack, Dennis threw to the end zone, where Avion Othman leaped above Northstars defensive back Nate Geloff to catch the go-ahead touchdown.
More than eight minutes remained, and Hayes quickly moved C-NS to midfield, where again CBA’s defense came up with a timely sack, Tyler Forhan and LeMar Peters combining to bring down Hayes and force another punt.
With 4:39 left, CBA took over at its own 20, and Dowdell took over, starting with a 21-yard run near midfield, and continuing when he caught a pass from Dennis over the middle and sprinted 30 yards deep into C-NS territory.
The Northstars burned through its time-outs, but on fourth-down-and-inches from the five-yard line with 1:16 to play, Dowdell, taking the snap because Dennis had lost his helmet on the previous play, bounced off a tackle at the line of scrimmage and dashed into the end zone for the clinching TD. To cap it off, Dowdell intercepted Hayes for the second time in the game’s final minute.
For now, the sectional title proves elusive, but having established something special this fall at C-NS, head coach Dave Kline and his staff might have laid the foundation for annual shots at that championship prize, and the wait to finally grab it might not prove too long.
