SYRACUSE – At first, when the Liverpool football team went on its COVID-19 pause in late March, the fear was that it would lose both of its games leading up to its long-awaited showdown with Cicero-North Syracuse this Friday at Bragman Stadium.
But after the Warriors resumed practice last Saturday, it was able to make up the game with Corcoran that was originally scheduled for the weekend.
The two sides met at Corcoran Monday night and, after an understandably slow start, Liverpool took charge in the second quarter and went on to defeat the Cougars 41-12.
The relative lack of activity over 10 days affected the Warriors early as it muddled through the first quarter, falling behind 6-0, but a blocked Corcoran punt early in the second period jolted Liverpool to life.
Right after that block, Brendan Mancuso threw a 32-yard scoring pass to Jeremiah Maeweather, and the pair connected again from 27 yards out a few minutes later.
Then, seconds apart, Jahmir Boutwell scored on a four-yard run and Liverpool’s defense forced a fumble that Brayden McClain recovered in the end zone, making it 27-6.
Though the Cougars cut the margin to 27-12 by halftime, it got no closer, and the Warriors tacked on a 14-yard TD run by Jeremy Valerio in the third quarter and a 12-yard scoring dash by Urijah Matthews in the final period.
And now Liverpool could look ahead to Friday, and trying to avenge its 2019 Section III Class AA semifinal defeat to C-NS, who rallied from a 28-7 deficit to prevail 35-28 and went on to win its third consecutive sectional and regional championships.