They sit as champions of their respective Class AA football divisions, perhaps pointed toward a Section III title game against each other at the Carrier Dome on the first weekend of November.
For now, though, Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool are content with the long win streaks they have built.
The Northstars secured its second consecutive undefeated regular season on Saturday at Utica Proctor, unleashing Conner Hayes through the air and on the ground as it pounded the Raiders 53-20.
A night earlier, the Warriors, having already gone a perfect 4-0 in the AA-1 division, made it five victories in a row, outscoring visiting Horseheads 40-20 at LHS Stadium.
Ironically, Liverpool’s opening-round playoff opponent is Proctor, who had a 4-2 record going into its game with C-NS, but paid a steep price for worrying too much about the Northstars’ strong array of skill players.
Free to run or throw, Hayes did both, and quite well, helping C-NS speed to a 27-0 lead before the Raiders got on the board in the second quarter.
Hayes scored on touchdown runs of 40 and 50 yards, his two longest of the season. In between, the Northstars’ defense picked up points when Josh Lawrence returned a Proctor fumble for six points.
With Hayes throwing a 42-yard scoring pass to Jeremiah Willis and scrambling 23 yards for another score, C-NS cruised into halftime with a 33-8 lead.
The Northstars’ offense continued to click as, in the third quarter, Hayes threw scoring passes of 35 and 40 yards, each of them to Shy’rel Broadwater, with Da-Ron Brown adding a fourth-quarter TD on a two-yard run.
Liverpool, like C-NS, didn’t have anything at stake against Horseheads, but struggled for quite a while before putting the Blue Raiders away, led by a big night from running back Cade Clouthier.
Carrying the ball 21 times, Clouthier amassed 224 yards, an average of better than 15 yards per carry, which more than made up for Liverpool’s passing-game struggles.
At halftime, the Warriors trailed 14-13, this despite Jacob Vacco scoring on a three-yard run and Alex Ruston throwing a 17-yard TD pass to Ryan McGowan.
Here was where Liverpool’s defense took over. It blanked Horseheads for much of the second half as Anthony Piscitelli, with eight tackles (five of them solo), led the unit.
Lochlann Fegley and Darreon Nixon each had seven tackles as Josh Krug, Jon Worthen and Jahnye Turner had six tackles apiece. Malachi Upshur added five tackles, and a series of stops gave the Warriors time to take charge.
Clouthier’s runs set up a one-yard TD plunge by Ruston in the third quarter, and then, in the fourth quarter, Clouthier twice burned the Blue Raiders for scoring runs of 32 and 61 yards. Piscitelli added a five-yard TD run.
While Liverpool hosts Proctor, C-NS is set to face Henninger in the opening round of the sectional playoffs. The other first-round games pit West Genesee against CBA and Corcoran against Fayetteville-Manlius. All of them take place on Friday night, with the Warriors and Northstars both kicking off at 7 p.m.
