ONONDAGA COUNTY – Step by step, and lopsided victory by lopsided victory, the Cicero-North Syracuse football team inches closer to the form it wants in pursuit of a fifth consecutive Section III Class AA championship.

When the Northstars blasted Rome Free Academy 43-7 Thursday night in its last regular-season home game of 2022 at Bragman Stadium, it was the team’s fourth win a row by a combined 174-48 margin.

And just like in its previous two outings against Henninger and Liverpool, C-NS took the drama out of this game early, bolting out to a 35-0 halftime lead.

Twice in the first quarter, La’Quan Lemon found the end zone on short runs of seven and four yards, and right near the end of the period the Northstars made it 21-0 with a big play from Leonzo Zimmerman, who dashed 57 yards for the touchdown.

Not done yet, Zimmerman caught a 25-yard scoring pass from Jaxon Razmovski in a second period where Razmovski also threw a 25-yard TD strike to Tristan Johnson.

Reserves were in the game by the third quarter, when Marcus Reed ran two yards for a TD and also threw a two-point pass to David Shafer-Mooney .

As C-NS started to ready for this Saturday’s regular-season finale at Utica Proctor, Liverpool hosted unbeaten, state Class AA no. 6-ranked Christian Brothers Academy, attempting to break out of a month-long skid.

For a while, that seemed possible as the Warriors gave an all-out effort to keep up with the Brothers, only to have CBA’s penchant for big plays show up late to lead to a 35-13 defeat.

Fired up to face the reigning state Class A champions (where head coach Joe Sindoni once served as an assistant), Liverpool’s defense kept the Brothers off the board in the game’s early stages.

And an offense that didn’t score once a week earlier against C-NS struck when Jah’Deuir Reese broke free on a 40-yard TD run, with Marco Roja adding the extra point.

However, CBA recovered enough to score twice, on runs of 14 yards by Jamier Handford and six yards by quarterback Jordan Rae, so Liverpool found itself trailing 14-7 at halftime.

As long as the Warriors were able to keep the Brothers from getting those trademark big plays, it had a chance, but three second-half strikes helped CBA get clear.

First, Rae found Amarri Pitts on a 39-yard scoring pass. Then CBA’s defense got a touchdown when a Liverpool fumble in the end zone was pounced on by Andrew Cooney.

Then, after Reese scored a second time on a one-yard plunge, the Brothers thwarted any possible comeback when Rae, from his own 35, threw deep and found highly-touted receiver Syair Torrence, who went the rest of the way for a TD.

Liverpool finishes its regular season Friday at RFA, a day before C-NS travels to Proctor.