Everything the Cicero-North Syracuse football team has done this season, no matter how successful, has led to the key contests of the next two weeks.
The Northstars, 3-0 and no. 8 in the first state Class AA rankings of the season, will meet 3-0 Fayetteville-Manlius next Friday and then, seven days later, will travel to West Genesee.
Likely, the Hornets and Wildcats serve as C-NS’s main challengers in the Class AA-2 division, whose league play started on Friday with the Northstars cruising past Rome Free Academy 43-7 at Bragman Stadium.
Given the Black Knights’ 0-2 start, C-NS figured to move the ball and find the end zone at will against them – and it did, netting six touchdowns in the first half.
That included quarterback Conner Hayes taking off on a 71-yard dash to the end zone and throwing an eight-yard scoring pass to Shy’rel Broadwater. Jeremiah Willis chimed in with a 29-yard TD run and Jaiquawn McGriff burned RFA for a 56-yard scoring sprint.
It was 41-0 by halftime, so the Northstars used its reserves for most of the second half, resting for F-M, who opened league play by holding off Utica Proctor 31-28.
Before exiting, though, Hayes ran for 116 yards while also completing 10 of 13 passes for 202 yard. DaRon Brown had a team-best 122 rushing yards on 18 carries.
F-M defeated Liverpool on Aug. 31. Two weeks later, the Warriors, held to three total points in losses to the Hornets and C-NS, saw its offense break out in a big way at Henninger, scoring 33 points in the second quarter of a 53-28 win over the Black Knights.
The first touchdown of Liverpool’s season belonged to Cade Clouthier, yet his 26-yard dash didn’t provide much comfort since Henninger tied it, 7-7, late in the first quarter on Alex Doughty’s 12-yard pass to Anthony Morales.
Once the second period started, though, it was all Warriors as it would find the end zone five times in those 12 minutes.
Alex Ruston got it going with a nine-yard TD pass to Jacob Vacco. A few minutes later, Vacco broke loose near midfield and went 45 yards for the score to make it 20-7.
Three more possessions led to three more TD’s for the Warriors, two of them by Clouthier, who ran in from two yards out and caught a nine-yard pass from Ruston, with Darreon Nixon’s five-yard TD run in between.
During the third quarter, Liverpool scored on both sides of the ball. Vacco’s second 45-yard TD run was followed by Antwan Kelly picking up a Black Knights fumble near his own end zone and returning it 95 yards for six points.
Liverpool has a good chance to get to 2-0 in the Class AA-1 division as it hosts 0-3 Christian Brothers Academy next Friday at 7 p.m. at LHS Stadium.
