With seven convincing victories in the books, and 367 points put on the board, the Cicero-North Syracuse football team now sets off on a post-season journey that could prove historic.
The Northstars, who have never won a Section III championship, are the overwhelming favorites in Class AA and have risen to no. 8 in the state AA rankings.
To close the regular season, C-NS ventured to Utica Proctor Saturday and unleashed its unstoppable offense on another high-quality opponent, getting 27 points in the first quarter and eventually defeating the Raiders 53-14.
Proctor entered the game with a 4-2 record and a chance, if it somehow knocked off the Northstars, to forge a three-way tie for the Class AA-2 division regular-season title along with Baldiwnsville, who had rebounded from its Oct. 6 loss to C-NS with a win over Nottingham the night before.
The Raiders’ hopes quickly were dashed as C-NS put together a pair of scoring drives in the opening minutes. Conner Hayes ended one of them with a one-yard scoring plunge and Erik Pride got free on a 32-yard touchdown run.
Even that 14-0 lead was just the start, though, as the C-NS defense earned points when Nate Geloff intercepted a Proctor pass and returned it 40 yards to the end zone. Hayes would tack on a three-yard scoring run to end that first-quarter blitz.
Things settled down a bit in the second period, but even then Hayes threw a short TD pass to Kyle Cody and Jeremiah Willis added a two-point conversion, so it was 35-0 going into halftime.
With things well in hand, C-NS allowed its reserves to see extended time in the second half. They would convert, too, as Gaiden Nelson and Damien Sausville both scored on six-yard runs.
Nelson, in fact, would gain 108 yards on 12 carries, topping Pride’s total of 106 yards, also on 12 carries. Pride added a 40-yard reception as Hayes completed 10 of 14 passes for 159 yards, with Lukas Merluzzi catching three of those passes for 69 yards.
On Friday night at Bragman Stadium, C-NS hosts a first-round sectional game against Christian Brothers Academy, the same team it lost to in the 2016 sectional final.
Favored again this year, the Brothers took serious hits when its top two players, Stevie Scott and SirVocea Dennis, went down with injuries. Without them, CBA went 4-2 in the AA-1 division, tying for third with Fayetteville-Manlius, but ending up as the lower playoff seed because the Hornets beat the Brothers 49-35 in the regular season.
Thus, it’s C-NS against CBA, with the winner heading to the semifinals at Bragman Stadium on Oct. 27 against Corcoran or Proctor. The other first-round games pit Central Square against Liverpool and B’ville against F-M.
