Put to its biggest test this season, the Liverpool football team found the will to battle back and, by doing so, moved a lot closer to back-to-back league championships.
The Warriors found itself down 14 points to Corcoran in Friday night’s first-place Class AA-1 division showdown before it took advantage of the Cougars’ mistakes, along with an untimely injury, to pull out a 22-21 victory.
At 4-0 and no. 15 in the state Class AA rankings, Liverpool carried plenty of confidence to Corcoran, and was impressive in putting together a first-quarter scoring drive that Brendan Mancuso finished off with a one-yard scoring plunge.
The Cougars responded with a drive of its own, quarterback T.J. Harness finding the end zone from seven yards out, and that drive seemed to spark Corcoran’s defense, too, as it shut down Liverpool for the rest of the half.
Pinned deep in its own end in the second period, the Warriors surrendered points when Ronin Ingersol intercepted Mancuso and returned it 22 yards for a touchdown. And that confidence carried over as, early in the third quarter, Corcoran drove to the Warriors’ one, from where Skyler Willis converted to make it 21-7.
Everything changed, though, when Harness was forced to the sidelines with an injury. No one else had done as well against the vaunted Liverpool defense, and his absence rattled the Cougars, who promptly turned it over twice.
One fumble, recovered on the Corcoran 25, led to a short drive Malachi Upshur, taking direct snaps from center, scored from five yards out. Even more important was the botched extra-point attempt that an improvising Jeremy Sisto turned into a two-point pass to Hahmier Williams-Borges.
Within seconds, the Warriors were threatening again as it pounced on a fumbled Cougars kickoff. Again Upshur scored on a five-yard run, and Mancuso’s successful extra point gave Liverpool the lead.
The rest was done by Liverpool’s defense, which like so many other times this season remained strong deep into the fourth quarter, an encouraging sign as the Warriors are back home next Friday to face Nottingham.
Meanwhile, at Bragman Stadium, Cicero-North Syracuse continued its revival following a 1-2 start, earning its second consecutive victory as the Northstars defeated West Genesee 21-10.
Far less was at stake here than it was when C-NS beat the Wildcats in the 2018 Section III Class AA final at the Dome. Instead, the main question was whether WG’s defense could do anything to contain Northstars running back Mike Washington, who had burned Fayetteville-Manlius for 261 yards and three touchdowns the week before.
That task for the Wildcats proved successful at first, but early in the second period, Washington, from midfield, broke through WG’s front line and dashed 50 yards to the end zone for the game’s first points.
That, along with Domenic Isabell’s 20-yard touchdown pass to Adron Pafford with 40 seconds left in the half, helped C-NS establish a 14-0 advantage going into the break.
But the Wildcats didn’t go away. WG put together a pair of drives in the third quarter as Exavier Brumfield scored on a one-yard plunge and, a few minutes later, it moved inside the Northstars’ five again.
This proved the game’s turning point, for C-NS made a big defensive stand and held WG to a 19-yard Riley Small, which cut the margin to 14-10, but the Wildcats would not score again.
Once more, the Northstars returned to its air attack. From his own 19, J.J. Razmovski threw deep and found Pafford, the scoring play covering 81 yards, a big play from which WG never recovered.
Now C-NS is 2-1 in the Class AA-2 division, tied with Baldwinsville, whom it faces next Friday at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium. Utica Proctor is 3-0 and in first place, and the Northstars close the regular season against the Raiders on Oct. 18.
