Having climbed to no. 4 in the state Class AA rankings, the Cicero-North Syracuse football team returned home in the wake of high-quality road wins at Fayetteville-Manlius and West Genesee.
Those games, as it turned out, carried far more danger than the Northstars’ 41-7 win over Baldwinsville Friday night at Bragman Stadium, where a trio of first-quarter touchdowns sent C-NS on its way.
B’ville, with a record of 2-3 (one of those wins was a forfeit by Corcoran), was far removed from the side that lost to the Northstars in the 2017 Section III title game, the Bees unable to overcome the departure of several top players on both sides of the ball.
Still, on Senior Night, C-NS did not take B’ville for granted, showing focus and confidence as it quickly drove down the field and scored on Jaiquawn McGriff’s seven-yard run.
Minutes later, McGriff returned and, from 41 yards out, found the end zone again. Then the Northstars made it 20-0 before the period ended, getting to B’ville’s 15 before Conner Hayes found Nate Geloff in the end zone.
For the most part, C-NS controlled things on the defensive side, too, only allowing a second-quarter Bees drive that Braden McCard finished with an 11-yard TD pass to tight end Alex HIltbrand.
That got answered when McGriff scored for the third time in the first half on an 11-yard run, the Northstars leading 27-7 at halftime.
And it pulled further away when Hayes, in the third quarter, threw an 11-yard TD pass to Shy’rel Broadwater, with Jeremiah Willis converting on a 14-yard run in the final period.
As C-NS continued to sail atop the Class AA-2 division standings, Liverpool finished a clean sweep of its four Class AA-1 division foes at Nottingham on Friday, romping past the Bulldogs 47-14.
Unlike the Warriors, Nottingham had started quickly (2-0) before losing three in a row, a skid that Liverpool accelerated as its special teams managed to block multiple Bulldogs punts.
The first of these blocked punts produced a safety. Another one late in the first quarter was pounced on in the end zone by Bryce Mills for a touchdown.
In between, Jacob Vacco scored on a two-yard run, so it was 15-0 after one period and the Warriors wore down Nottingham from there with a relentless ground attack.
Vacco’s second TD, a five-yard run, plus Anthony Piscitelli’s three-yard dash to the end zone extended Liverpool’s margin to 27-0 by halftime. In the third quarter, Vacco netted a third TD with a three-yard run of his own as Darreon Nixon converted on a 10-yard run.
Liverpool will finish its regular season Friday hosting Horseheads (Section IV) as C-NS ventures to Utica Proctor on Saturday afternoon.
