VESTAL – Three straight times from 2017 to 2019, the Cicero-North Syracuse football team added a Class AA regional championship to the trio of sectional titles it earned.
After an unscheduled 2020 hiatus, the Northstars have now made it four-for-four, even if it proved quite stressful.
C-NS put away Section IV champion Corning 20-16 Saturday night at Dick Hoover Stadium in Vestal, not taking the lead until the fourth quarter as clutch defensive play, plus one well-timed long run, turned the game in the Northstars’ favor.
Corning made C-NS quickly aware of its ability, scoring on its first play from scrimmage when Logan Booker ran 48 yards for a touchdown and Dillon Kennedy ran in for two points.
The Northstars countered, Jaxon Razmovski sneaking for a TD but unable to add the conversion, and the Hawks made it 16-6 with Burch’s TD pass to VanWoert and Booker’s two-point run.
Razmovski then hit a big play with a 56-yard scoring pass to Josh Kubala, which made it 16-13, all before the first quarter was done.
Booker made another impact play in the second quarter when he intercepted Razmovski deep in Corning territory, denying the best chance either team had in a scoreless second period.
Still down 16-13 at the break, C-NS nearly saw it get worse in the third quarter. The Hawks used up more than nine minutes of clock and drove to the Northstars’ four.
Though C-NS made a fourth-down stop, it fumbled on the 16, with Corning getting the ball in the last minute of the period and again moving inside the Northstars’ 10, and again getting turned back.
Farouk Ibrahim then broke through the Hawks’ defenses for consecutive runs of 21 and 56 yards to the Corning 16. From there, Anthony Testa rattled off a 13-yard run and scored from four yards out with 9:44 left, giving the Northstars its first lead of the night.
Twice in the closing minutes, the Hawks were forced into a fourth down and unable to convert, C-NS able to again move within two wins of the program’s first-ever state title.
Razmovski completed 16 of 20 passes for 184 yards, most of it to Kubala (79 yards on three catches) and Mason Ellis, who had six catches for 57 yards.
