ONONDAGA COUNTY – It wasn’t that easy, but the Cicero-North Syracuse football team has earned itself the opportunity to earn a sixth consecutive Section III Class AA championship – but only if, as it did in 2022, it can find a way past Christian Brothers Academy.
The Northstars earned this latest trip to a title game at the JMA Wireless Dome through getting past Baldwinsville 32-14 in Friday’s sectional semifinal at Bragman Stadium.
B’ville had improved plenty since it lost to C-NS on Sept. 22 to drop to 0-4 on the season. The Bees had gone 4-1 since and were convinced it could avenge both what happened in the regular season and its 2022 sectional semifinal loss to the Northstars, too.
Even after C-NS grabbed an early 6-0 lead, B’ville answered in the opening minute of the second quarter and went up, 7-6, only to have the Northstars find the end zone again and ultimately take a 12-7 lead to the break.
Taking full advantage of the early departure of Bees quarterback Greg Marinelli, C-NS forced his replacement, Nico Wellman, into a pair of interceptions, and never allowed many big plays, though B’ville running back Kaleb Young still had 114 yards on 21 carries.
In the second half, the Northstars put the game away with 20 unanswered points, and once this was done, it could start plotting for its latest showdown with CBA.
Jaxon Razmovski completed 11 of 17 passes for 189 yards and two scores. Leading the ground attack, Leonzo Zimmerman had 10 carries for 101 yards and a touchdown as Razmovski ran for 72 yards, Miy’jon McDowell Reid for 79 yards and Anthony Johnson for 72 yards.
Alex D’Arrivo paced the Northstars’ defense, earning six tackles. Terrell Wright, with 5 1/2 tackles, was close behind, with Johnson getting five tackles. Davine Bennett, Cody Heller, Edward Bethea and Anthony Dillarcipretto each finished with 3 1/2 tackles.
Liverpool, who erased a 20-point deficit to win its first-round playoff game over Utica Proctor, found a far different outcome at Alibrandi Stadium, where CBA topped them 53-7.
Unlike their first meeting Sept. 30, the Brothers would find more success on offense in the early going ,eventually building a 27-0 advantage by halftime as Jamier Handford scored three of CBA’s four touchdowns, then added a fourth in the third quarter.
John Sindoni would get a third-quarter TD pass, but nothing more as the Brothers easily earned a third straight sectional finals berth dating back to the state Class A title it won in 2021.
Next Sunday’s title game at 6 p.m. follows, by a month, the 34-18 loss the Northstars took to CBA in early October, a game dominated by Handford, who ran for 206 yards and two TDs, recorded an interception and forced a fumble that led to another score.
A year ago, in this same scenario, C-NS got even and maintained its streak of sectional titles. Everyone has waited 12 months to see if the Northstars do it again, or if the Brothers bring half a decade of dominance to a close.
