Whatever terms were used to describe the Cicero-North Syracuse football team’s Section III Class AA champions of 2017 and 2018, the words “unlikely” or “underdog” never entered the conversation. In 2017 and 2018, the Northstars were supposed to win, and did so, by big margins.
On the other hand, when C-NS made its way past undefeated Utica Proctor 28-25 in Saturday night’s title game at the Dome at Syracuse University, it was difficult to find any player or fan who imagined that this would happen back in September, or even mid-October.
Early in the season, the Northstars lost at Rome Free Academy, who finished the season 2-6. And when it met the two favorites in the AA title race, Liverpool and Proctor, it did not score a point in either game, shut out 10-0 by the Warriors and 32-0 by the Raiders.
Many different times, said quarterback J.J. Razmovski, “I thought we were toast”, but he added that the coaches made sure that the players always believed that things could turn around – and they did.
And a thrilling post-season that included a comeback from a 28-7 halftime deficit to shock Liverpool in the sectional semifinals continued at the Dome, where trailing Proctor three times did not keep the Northstars from finding its championship destiny again.
For much of the night, what kept C-NS alive was the big plays of junior running back Mike Washington, who took off for touchdown runs of 59 and 73 yards straight up the middle, almost untouched.
This helped the Northstars overcome Proctor’s 12-0 lead established through two long first-half scoring drives of 85 and 87 yards where it used its ground attack to wear C-NS defenders down..
Even after the Raiders regained the lead 18-14 in the third quarter on Patrick Minor’s six-yard scoring run, Washington, again finding a seam right up the middle of the field, dashed 55 yards to the end zone just one minute later.
All that was a prelude to a wild fourth quarter that began with C-NS getting another big late-game turnover, freshman LaQuan Lemon intercepting Brandon Peterson’s screen pass at the Northstars’ 15 to thwart a Raiders drive.
When the Northstars didn’t capitalize, Proctor, from its own 29, started another big march, converting a fourth down in its own end before Peterson completed two big passes to Saleh Eltayeb, one covering 22 yards, the other a 29-yard scoring pass with 4:38 left.
Now trailing 25-21, C-NS turned to Razmovski, who to that point had mostly met with frustration any time he tried to throw. But from the Raiders’ 27, he threw 36 yards to Adron Pafford, followed by Washington going 30 yards on a sweep to the Proctor five.
And then it got crazy.
Pafford was called for offensive pass interference on a possible go-ahead TD catch with less than two minutes to play. Pushed back to the 25, the Northstars then moved closer when the Raiders were flagged for defensive pass interference.
Thus, on third-and-goal from the Proctor 12, Razmovski rolled out right, saying that he “was just trying to make a play to win the game”, only to throw across his body toward the middle of the field, usually a no-no for any good quarterback since it often means a pass into traffic.
Except that, this time, Razmovski’s throw was letter-perfect, finding Matt Klamm in the end zone with 1:26 to play.
Proctor still had a chance, driving it inside C-NS’s 35, only to stall right there and have Peterson throw an incomplete pass on fourth down, setting off another championship celebration for the Northstars, one far sweeter than the previous two because of the way it rallied from season-long adversity to get it.
Now C-NS can turn its attention back to the state playoffs, where next Saturday at 6 p.m. at Vestal it faces Section IV champion Corning. The winner gets Rochester McQuaid (Section V) or Lancaster (Section VI) in the Nov. 23 state semifinals.
