With the good fortune it gained by making the Section III Class AA playoffs with just one victory in the regular season, the Christian Brothers Academy football team resolved to give its best effort.
And the Brothers did go all-out in Saturday’s opening-round game at Utica Proctor, but the undefeated, state no. 13-ranked Raiders proved too tough, pulling away to prevail by a score of 39-12.
Having never won a sectional title before, Proctor was taking on a new role as favorite, but with a big, powerful offensive line and a solid ground attack, it wasted little time seizing control against CBA.
Twice in the first quarter, the Raiders put together scoring drives. Patrick Minor went four yards to the end zone and added a two-point conversion, and Brandon Peterson’s screen pass to Taesean Cooper turned into a 50-yard gain that set up Louis Robinson’s 11-yard touchdown run in the last minute of the period.
For a while, the Brothers stayed within sight, cutting its deficit to 16-6 early in the second quarter as Travis Ward threw a 24-yard TD pass to Syair Torrence, though the two-point try was missed.
Minor countered with a 24-yard TD run and another two-point conversion made it 24-6, but Proctor kept committing penalties and then, to help the Brothers, fumbled the ball, allowing Ashton Dean to return it 37 yards to the end zone with 3:17 left in the half.
And CBA had a chance to inch even closer, only to have the Raiders’ Michael Jones intercept Ward in the end zone in the final minute. Even more damaging was a Brothers fumble on the first play of the third quarter, turned into a TD when Zhani James scored from four yards out.
Even a 61-yard pass from Ward to Jack Szatkowski didn’t lead to points. Proctor’s defense both stopped CBA inside the 20 on that occasion and then got a safety to make it 32-12 before Louis Robinson added a fourth-quarter one-yard TD plunge.
A night earlier, in Class A play East Syracuse Minoa saw its playoff hopes dashed when Whitesboro defeated Central Square, elevating the Warriors to fourth place as just four teams advanced out of the six-team division.
This happened as ESM was dropping a 46-21 decision to defending sectional champion Indian River, who only led 6-0 after one period, but then pulled away by burning the Spartans for 28 points in the second quarter.
Guillermo Rosario-Acosta scored three times in that period, including a 54-yard run, to lead the Warriors as he finished with 201 yards on 17 carries, while teammate Michael Davis had 102 yards on 11 carries.
Amid IR’s decisive flurry, ESM did get a second-quarter TD on Mikal Combs’ eight-yard run. Combs would score twice more, on runs of 22 yards and one yard, in the second half, though it proved too late.
In eight-man football, Bishop Grimes would finish third in the Class D division behind Weedsport and West Canada Valley at 3-2, even after the Cobras pulled out a 34-28 victory over Newfield to improve its overall mark to 4-2.
The two sides traded touchdowns in the first three quarters. A.J. Burnett threw scoring passes of 17 and 50 yards to Robert Gilbert, and then scrambled 24 yards for six more points in the third period.
And it was Grimes’ ground game that ultimately made the difference. Joe Wike, who had 17 carries for 151 yards, found the end zone twice in the fourth quarter, on runs of 24 and 19 yards. Burnett completed eight of 17 passes for 158 yards.
Jamesville-DeWitt took a 28-0 defeat to Fulton on Friday, while Fayetteville-Manlius, in a crossover game, defeated Nottingham Wednesday night to improve its mark to 4-4, Evan Welling running for 218 yards on 19 carries as Jack Nucerino added 149 yards on 14 carries.
