CENTRAL NEW YORK – With only seven teams left in the Section III Class AA football ranks, each of them would get a taste of post-season action, no matter how the regular season went.
Thus, Cicero-North Syracuse, with its 7-1 mark, would be joined by 2-5 Liverpool, with the Northstars hosting Rome Henninger and the Warriors going to Utica Proctor this weekend in the opening round.
Before this, both would win their regular-season finales on the road, starting Friday with Liverpool seeing its five-game skid finally end at Rome Free Academy with an emphatic 49-14 win over the Black Knights.
The night mostly belonged to senior running back Jah’Deuir Reese, who tore up RFA’s defense to the tune of 377 yards on just 13 carries and scored five touchdowns, most of it in a first-half showcase of speed.
Twice in the first quarter, Reese would take handoffs on the Warriors’ end of the field and end up dashing to the end zone, his scoring runs covering 56 and 65 yards.
After a third TD by Reese early in the second quarter, Liverpool found itself pinned on its own seven-yard line. All that did, though, was give Reese more territory to cover as his career-long run covered 93 yards and made it 28-0.
By halftime, the Warriors had a 35-7 edge thanks to John Sindoni’s 10-yard scoring pass to Tai’yari Sholtz, but Reese would add one more highlight with a 64-yard TD dash in the third quarter before he exited the game.
Ny’Quez Madison added a fourth-quarter score as the Warriors watched C-NS travel to Utica a day later to face Proctor, knowing its spot in second place in Class AA behind CBA was already locked up.
Perhaps that knowledge led to a so-so effort by the Northstars that put the game in doubt until a big fourth quarter produced a 42-14 victory over the Raiders that did not reflect the concern shown much of the way.
C-NS had jumped out in front thanks to La’Quan Lemon’s six-yard TD run in the first quarter and Jaxon Razmovski scoring from one yard out in the second period.
Proctor did not got away, though, putting together its own second-quarter drive. Kenijaymes Johnson went three yards for the TD and also ran in for two points, cutting the Northstars’ edge to 13-8 going to halftime.
Even when Lemon struck for a 73-yard TD run (his longest run of the season) in the third quarter, the Raiders again had an answer, driving to the Northstars’ five before Todd Abraham found Trevon Anderson in the end zone.
It went to the final period 21-14, Proctor knowing that one defensive stop could make things far more stressful, but never able to get it.
Lemon’s third TD, on a two-yard plunge, began a getaway that continued minutes later when Razmovski hit Nate Williams on an 18-yard scoring pass. Anthony Johnson added a 19-yard TD in the final stages.
