Jaiquawn McGriff wanted no part of seeing the Cicero-North Syracuse football team’s state championship quest end a few rounds short of fulfillment.
So with the Northstars facing some stress against Elmira in Saturday night’s Class AA regional final at Bragman Stadium, McGriff, with a trio of big plays, turned things in C-NS’s favor on the way to a 42-20 victory over the Express.
Through the entire first half, the normally stingy Northstars defense found itself unable to cope with Elmira’s quirky offense as it churned up yards on the ground and put together a trio of scoring drives, leading to 20 points.
Each time, C-NS answered, scoring on all three of its first-half possessions. McGriff ended two of those drives with scoring runs of 11 and five yards, with Conner Hayes throwing 13 yards to Nate Geloff on a rollout pass in the last minute of the second quarter.
All of this left the game 20-20 at the break, and if that didn’t cause panic among the Northstars faithful braving the wind and cold temperatures, there was concern – at least until McGriff took over.
On the first play from scrimmage of the second half, McGriff took a swing pass from Hayes at the C-NS 39-yard line. Making an Elmira defender miss near the left sideline, McGriff changed direction, cut up the middle and outran everyone else on a 61-yard touchdown jaunt to give C-NS the lead for good.
That didn’t sink the Express, though, for it put together a pair of long drives that used up most of the third quarter, only to hurt itself with costly penalties, including one on a TD pass from Zack Middaugh to Ethan Simpson that may have tied the game again.
C-NS then made crucial fourth-down stops to turn away Elmira, keeping the game 26-20 as it went to the final period. On third down inside its own 15, the Northstars got a crucial first down on a 20-yard pass from Hayes to Richard Paparo.
That set it up, again, for McGriff, who on the very next play took off on a 65-yard scoring dash with 6:52 to play. and after Jerrod Hills recovered a fumble to thwart yet another Express drive deep in its own territory, McGriff burst open and went 77 yards for his fifth TD of the night.
All of this brings C-NS back to the state Class AA semifinals, where a year ago it lost 35-21 to Lancaster. Once again, the Northstars will travel to Union-Endicott’s Ty Cobb Stadium to play this game, but against a different opponent.
Next Saturday night at 7 p.m., it’s C-NS against Rochester Aquinas, holder of five state titles, the most recent in 2015, when it beat Liverpool in a tense 17-16 semifinal at Bragman Stadium on the way to the title.
This version of the Little Irish pounded Lancaster 39-7 in the western regional final. Now Aquinas and C-NS will duel to see who gets Shaker or New Rochelle Nov. 24 at the Carrier Dome for the state AA title.
