CENTRAL NEW YORK – Seven games, seven victories – and the Christian Brothers Academy football team stands on the brink of a second consecutive undefeated regular season.
The state Class AA no. 9-ranked Brothers followed up its big Oct. 6 win at Cicero-North Syracuse by going to Utica Proctor last Saturday and smoothly working its way past the Raiders 45-6.
A morning start time led to a slow start for the usually potent CBA attack, but the defense and special teams made up for it in a big way. In fact, it was a blocked punt that led to the first Brothers touchdown.
Not until the second period did the offense strike, with Porter Matt going 19 yards to Daunte Baucheyle for the score and later throwing a 15-yard TD pass to Darien Williams after Everett Gilchrist’s 35-yard field goal.
Up 24-0 at the break, the Brothers saw Jamier Handford, who ran for 206 yards, intercepted a pass and forced a fumble against C-NS, get his lone TD of the day in the third quarter on a seven-yard sprint.
Williams would score twice more, on a 33-yard pass from Matt and a 15-yard pass from reserve Brayden Smith in the fourth quarter. Only then did Proctor get on the board, CBA not quite able to get the shutout.
With the Raiders focused on containing Handford, Matt flourished, completing 15 of 18 passes for 227 yards, with Williams catching seven of those passes for 122 yards.
Over seven games the Brothers have outscored opponents a combined 354-72, with 40 of those points put up by Corning on Sept. 15 and three shutouts in the books.
CBA will still need to beat visiting Baldwinsville in Friday’s regular-season finale to guarantee the regular-season Class AA-1 division title since the Bees are 3-1 in league play and have won three in a row since an 0-4 start.
B’ville won that third straight game over Fayetteville-Manlius last Friday at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, keeping the Hornets without a victory in a 41-13 decision where a 21-point second quarter helped the Bees get away.
Also on Friday, East Syracuse Minoa made a successful trip to Fulton, the Spartans earning most of its points in the first half and prevailing by a score of 41-14 for its fourth win in five weeks.
Far on the other end of that spectrum was Jamesville-DeWitt taking a 52-8 defeat to South Jefferson, who left no doubt about the outcome by putting up 28 points in the first quarter alone and leading 42-0 by halftime.
That initial blitz included Landon LaDuke throwing a pair of TD passes and Aidan Pooler returning a Red Rams fumble 65 yards for six points. Isaac Quonce added a pair of scores in the game’s middle stages as Anthony Guidone ran five yards for J-D’s lone TD in the fourth quarter and added a two-point conversion.
