Five weeks of football has, for the most part, separated Cicero-North Syracuse and Baldwinsville from the rest of the Class AA-2 division pack.
Now, on the first Friday night in October, the 5-0 Northstars and 5-0 Bees, ranked no. 8 and 13, respectively, in the latest state Class AA poll, will square off at Bragman Stadium with the league title likely at stake.
Both sides had to go through league tests last Friday before squaring off – but did so with relative ease as B’ville won, 31-14, at Auburn, while C-NS overcame an uncharacteristically shaky start to get away from Nottingham and beat the Bulldogs 49-6.
It was Homecoming this week for C-NS, so perhaps all of the festivities kept the Northstars from focusing on the task of beating a Nottingham side sporting a 1-3 record – at least through a scoreless first quarter.
But once Erik Pride found the end zone on a 12-yard run early in the second quarter, things started to flow for C-NS, who quickly doubled the lead to 14-0 when Pride scored a second touchdown on a 24-yard run.
With 1:57 left in the half, Pride scored a third time from three yards out. Happy as the Northstars were to lead 21-0 at intermission, it didn’t let up on Nottinngham.
Four minutes into the third quarter, another C-NS drive led to another Pride scoring play, this one from five yards out. Kyle Cody scored on a one-yard plunge and Jeremiah Willis made it 41-0 when he broke loose on a 25-yard TD run late in the period.
Mike O’Connell earned the night’s final TD with a four-yard run as the reserves played the fourth quarter and everyone got set for B’ville, who brings a much-improved passing attack to go with its long-established ground game and tough, physical defense.
Both C-NS and B’ville defeated Liverpool earlier in September, and the Warriors, desperate to break a three-game skid, nearly did so in Friday’s game against Utica Proctor, but saw its comeback fall just short in a 24-22 defeat to the Raiders at LHS Stadium.
Twice in the fourth quarter, Proctor had threatened to put the game away, only to miss on two-point conversion. Twice, the Warriors had opportunities to pull even.
It first came when Cade Clouthier broke free for the longest run of his varsity career, a 68-yard TD dash that made it 18-16, but the two-point attempt to tie the game was stopped.
Liverpool made a stop and got the ball back, only to fumble at its own 16 and watch the Raiders’ Mike Boyer return it for a touchdown. Again, though, the Warriors stopped the two-point try, keeping it at 24-16.
So when a long Liverpool drive led to Kaleb Ohlemacher’s 13-yard scoring run late in the game, again it had the chance to tie with a two-point attempt, but Proctor’s Logan Wilcox made the key stop, and after recovering the onside kick, the Raiders were able to run out the remaining clock.
Wilcox bugged Liverpool all night, throwing the ball 19 times and completing 14 passes for 225 yards. It included a 12-yard TD pass to Jalen Woodsen in the second quarter after Alex Ruston’s one-yard scoring plunge proved the lone points of the opening period.
A missed conversion allowed the Warriors to take a 7-6 lead to halftime, but Proctor erased it on Landon Johnson’s six-yard scoring run in the third quarter before cutting it to 12-10 on Max Falkner’s 33-yard field goal.
Early in the final period, Wilcox scrambled 12 yards for another TD, but thanks to Clouthier and Ohlemacher, Liverpool nearly got it to OT, only to settle for another frustrating defeat as the Warriors visit Nottingham next Friday, far from the hoopla that will surround the C-NS battle with B’ville.
