While the events of the first five weeks of 2018 illustrated just how much the Baldwinsville football team had stepped back from its usual role as a top Class AA contender, the ultimate demonstration was still ahead.
In Friday night’s game at Bragman Stadium, Cicero-North Syracuse jumped all over the Bees with 20 first-quarter points, going on to defeat the Bees 41-7.
These were the same two teams that met for the Section III Class AA championship 11 months earlier. But while B’ville found it difficult to replace a host of top performers on both sides of the ball, the Northstars remained as good as ever.
In fact, by the time they kicked off, C-NS had risen to no. 4 in the state AA rankings, but it was tops among those participating in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association playoffs.
Having pulled off tough road wins at Fayetteville-Manlius (35-21) and West Genesee (27-10) the previous two weeks, the Northstars made sure the Bees never got into the conversation.
Three times in the opening period, C-NS found the end zone, two of them touchdowns by Jaiquawn McGriff on runs of seven and 41 yards before Conner Hayes threw a 15-yard scoring pass to Nate Geloff late in the quarter.
For a brief moment in the second quarter, B’ville offered a response, driving to the Northstars’ 11 before Braden McCard found Alex Hiltbrand in the end zone, cutting the Bees’ deficit to 20-7.
From there, though, C-NS’s defense clamped down the rest of the night, and on the other side it wore down the Bees’ resistance.
McGriff added a third TD on an 11-yard run to make it 27-7 at halftime, and in the second half the Northstars scored twice more with an 11-yard pass from Hayes to Shy’rel Broadwater and a 14-yard run by Jeremiah Willis.
In defeat, Dan Stehle ran for 66 yards on 15 carries, but the rest of B’ville’s runners were held to just 10 yards on the ground. Defensively, Luke Eberl had 10 tackles, with Dan Fabrizio adding seven tackles and Mike Letiza getting six tackles. John Hernandez contributed five tackles.
Despite all this, the Bees could still claim a post-season berth, but it requires beating Fayetteville-Manlius (4-2) next Friday at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium. Kickoff is at 6:30.
