Once more, the Cicero-North Syracuse football team stands apart from the pack of area Class AA challengers, even as all of them step up their efforts to catch the reigning Section III champions.
West Genesee, in particular, believed it had a chance to worry the Northstars, but when the challenge was offered by the Wildcats Friday night at Mike Messere Field, C-NS swatted it away, prevailing 27-10.
Both sides entered the game 2-0 in the Class AA-2 division, and WG pulled out every stop for its most important home game in years.
There were students dressed in pink to promote breast cancer awareness and, for the players, brand-new gold-colored jerseys revealed to them only minutes before kickoff.
Yet all of the fever of the Wildcats faithful dissipated in 18 seconds.
That’s how long it took Jeremiah Willis to return the opening kickoff to his own 35, get the benefit of a face-mask penalty to move the ball to midfield, and take the first play from scrimmage 50 yards to the end zone.
Those were the first points WG’s defense had allowed at home all season, having shut out Henninger on Aug. 31 and Baldwinsville on Sept. 14. And it gave the Northstars a lead it would not relinquish.
From there, the night’s biggest feature for C-NS was the way its defense responded to adverse situations that threatened to reverse the game’s course.
Late in the first quarter, a dropped punt snap inside the Northstars’ 20 put the Wildcats in great position, but a quick stop limited WG to Riley Small’s 32-yard field goal and kept C-NS in front 7-3.
Then, early in the third period, the Northstars were up 21-10 when the Wildcats moved from its own 19 to the C-NS 32. Just in time, though, a pass rush forced Tyler Cook to throw over his target, and Jordan Seltzer intercepted it in the end zone.
Aside from his interception, Seltzer also picked up eight tackles. Jack Collins led the Northstars with 10 tackles, nine of them solo, while Josh Lawrence had two sacks among his 10 tackles. Jaiquawn McGriff and Jack McDonald had six tackles apiece.
For the most part, when C-NS did score, it took advantage of good field position as the Wildcats, on its kicks, either went short, away from Willis, or had someone else hurt them. Shy’Rel Broadwater’s punt return led to a short field and a second-quarter TD when McGriff scored from three yards out.
Then, after WG cut it to 14-10 on Cook’s 15-yard scoring pass to Esisas Brumfield, the Northstars got the ball at midfield and converted it, Conner Hayes finding Broadwater on a 37-yard pass in the final minute of the first half.
C-NS then put the game away with a 93-yard drive that bridged the third and fourth quarters. Hayes found Nate Geloff on third down for 17 yards, threw to Broadwater on a 32-yard pass to the sidelines and McGriff ran the final 19 yards home with 8:27 left.
There was nice offensive balance as Hayes completed 11 of 17 passes for 211 yards, six of those passes going to Geloff for 97 yards as Broadwater had three catches for 88 yards. Willis had 115 yards on 11 carries as McGriff notched 74 yards on 10 carries.
Now at 5-0, the state Class AA no. 6-ranked Northstars, who should move up since no. 1-ranked Lancaster lost to Buffalo Bennett, are back at Bragman Stadium next Friday to host Baldwinsville at 7 p.m.
