Given all the success of the past two decades, it’s difficult to imagine the Christian Brothers Academy football team in the role of a scrappy underdog overcoming adversity to prevail when victory did not seem likely.
But Friday night’s game against undefeated Central Square at Alibrandi Stadium gave the Brothers a rare chance to play that part – and it flourished, overcoming a fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Redhawks 27-25.
The two players expected to carry CBA to another championship season were out – Stevie Scott with the ankle injury he suffered against Elmira Sept. 16, SirVocea Dennis with an Achilles injury sustained a week later in the wild 49-35 loss to Fayetteville-Manlius.
Without them, the Brothers knew that other players had to step up against a Central Square side that, with its 4-0 start, had rode to the top of the Class AA-1 division- and they did, at various times and at crucial moments.
Trailing 7-0 late in the first quarter after Chris Battaglia scored on a 40-yard run, the Brothers pulled even less than a minute later when Avion Othman found room down the left side and dashed 37 yards to the end zone.
Then CBA’s defense kept the team close during a second quarter when the only points came from Nick Ransom’s 29-yard scoring pass to Slade Springer.
Mike Garofalo recovered a Redhawks fumble near midfield to thwart one drive. Then, right before halftime, Othman intercepted Battaglia’s halfback option pass at the one-yard line, keeping it 13-7 going to the break.
Ultimately, Central Square’s generosity would prove costly to the visitors. An attempted lateral on the second-half kickoff got fumbled and Cade Bacon recovered on the 20.
Moments later, Jason Boule, who started the season playing junior varsity soccer but switched to football and joined the varsity roster due to injuries to other players (including Scott and Dennis), scored on a four-yard run, tying the game 13-13.
Battaglia’s second TD, on a 20-yard run, restored the Redhawks’ lead at 19-13, but that didn’t last, either. On the first play of the fourth quarter, a fumbled Central Square snap was recovered by Nate D’Arcy that led to Tim Denham scoring from four yards out.
Nate Torrance’s extra point gave the Brothers its first lead, 20-19, which lasted all of 24 seconds. Battaglia, who finished the night with 221 yards on 26 carries, broke through the line and dashed 74 yards to a TD, and when a long run by Denham was called back on a holding penalty minutes later, CBA, trailing 25-20, was forced to punt.
However, the punt pinned Central Square inside its own five, and a defensive stop led to a punt that was blocked on the 12-yard line. On the very next play, Denham found the end zone with 5:25 left.
Those proved the winning points, for the Redhawks would see a possible go-ahead drive thwarted by a personal foul penalty and fourth-down stop by the CBA defense, who would again make a stop as the clock ran out.
The win by the Brothers threw the AA-1 race wide open, with CBA, F-M, Central Square and Corcoran all still alive for the league title. The Redhawks meet the Hornets next Friday as the Brothers travel to 0-5 Rome Free Academy before finishing the regular season Oct. 13 against the Cougars.
While all this was going on, East Syracuse Minoa was improving to 3-1 in the Class A division (3-2 overall) with a 47-0 shutout over PSLA-Fowler at Corcoran High School.
Up 7-0 thanks to Nolan Penoyer’s first-quarter five-yard TD run, the Spartans put the Falcons away with 29 unanswered points in the second period.
Penoyer scored a second time from 36 yards out, with quarterback Dan Garris converting on a one-yard TD sneak and Ny’Zhier Jefferson finding the end zone twice on one-yard plunges before adding a third score on a 34-yard run in the third quarter.
Joe Copp’s two-yard touchdown run closed out the scoring as ESM improved to 3-1 in league play, tied for second with Jamesville-DeWitt and Whitesboro, one game behind Indian River.
The Spartans have to face the two-time defending sectional champion Warriors next Friday at home in a game made more important after Whitesboro shut out J-D 33-0 on Thursday night.
