ENDICOTT – Just because it had happened before, and even though it was familiar, the pain the Cicero-North Syracuse football team felt last Saturday night at Union-Endicott’s Ty Cobb Stadium remained deep and difficult to accept.

For a fifth consecutive time, the Northstars found itself in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class AA semifinals.

And just like the previous four occasions, C-NS found itself on the wrong end of the decision, falling 34-7 to Buffalo Bennett, the same school that prevailed in this same round against these same Northstars one year ago.

Back in 2021, it was a 38-0 shutout the Tigers pulled off at Bragman Stadium a mere five days after it had beaten Rochester McQuaid in a delayed West Regional final.

Here, the circumstances were eerily similar, although in this case it was a massive snowstorm, not COVID-19, which caused Bennett and McQuaid to not play until last Monday night in Rochester.

Once the Tigers rallied from a 14-0 halftime deficit to beat the Knights 20-14, C-NS had the rematch it wanted, even though the result would prove depressingly familiar.

It started out well, though. Quarterback Jaxon Razmovski’s pair of third-down runs on the Northstars’ opening possession keyed a drive that ended with La’Quan Lemon scoring from two yards out and an extra point.

But the 7-0 lead lasted less than a minute. Jayden Lewis, Bennett’s top back, found the end zone and a two-point conversion got the Tigers in front for good.

Then Ja’meer Thomas scored from eight yards out in the opening seconds of the second quarter and, try as it could, C-NS could not have its offense replicate its opening success.

Bennett then added to the lead with an eight-yard TD scramble from quarterback Antonio Davis, that, with another two-pointer, made it 22-7, where it stood at halftime.

A big blow came near the midway point of the third quarter, when Davis, from his own 38, went deep and found Thomas, the 62-yard score extending the Tigers’ margin to 28-7.

And any hopes the Northstars had of pulling off a massive comeback dissipated early in the fourth quarter as Razmovski was intercepted and, moments later, Lewis dashed 42 yards to the end zone for his second TD of the night.

So it was Bennett returning to the state final, where it lost to Carmel a year ago but now faces Newburgh Free Academy this Sunday at the JMA Wireless Dome while C-NS, again, has to serve as spectators, and not participants.