ONONDAGA COUNTY – The area’s two remaining high school football teams had far different notions about what a trip to the JMA Wireless Dome for the Section III championships would mean.
Christian Brothers Academy would see it as a natural course of events, having got there for the third year in a row by virtue of a 53-7 victory over Liverpool in Friday’s Class AA semifinal at Alibrandi Stadium.
It was far different for East Syracuse Minoa, though. With modest expectations going into 2023, the Spartans defied most of them and, by going on the road to defeat defending champion West Genesee 23-21, made sure that this season, however it turns out, would be quite memorable.
Twice in October, ESM took defeats to Central Square and stood at 4-4 going into the playoffs. But it rallied in the fourth quarter to get past Auburn 12-8 in the opening round and, at Mike Messere Field, the Spartans would again fall behind and again battle back, only doing so earlier in the game.
WG struck first with Jack Wade’s 73-yard scoring pass to Rob Newell. For the rest of the half, though, ESM’s defense stifled the Wildcats, allowing the offense a chance to settle in.
With a pair of scoring drives in the second period, the Spartans moved out in front as quarterback Nick Commisso found the end zone himself and also threw a touchdown pass to top running back Mikah Combs.
Far from content with a 14-7 lead at the break, ESM added to it early in the third quarter, another drive leading to another Combs score, this one an eight-yard run to go with a two-point conversion.
Now it was the Wildcats’ turn to battle back. As its defense blanked the Spartans the rest of the way, Wade threw to Nash Oudemool for one TD, only to miss the conversion that kept the game 22-13 going to the fourth quarter.
Thus, Francisco Cross’s 10-yard scoring run with 7:30 left could only cut the margin to two, and the Spartans held on from there.
In Saturday’s sectional final at 6 p.m., ESM is a heavy underdog against Whitesboro, whose 9-1 mark includes beating the Spartans 48-17 earlier this season and 115 total points in playoff wins over Fulton and Corcoran.
A night later, it’s the highly-anticipated sectional Class AA final between CBA and five-time champion Cicero-North Syracuse, with he Brothers hoping that, unlike 2022, a regular-season win over the Northstars is repeated in the Dome.
Before that, though, was taking care of Liverpool. About the only thing that changed from the Sept. 30 meeting with the Warriors was that CBA had more points earlier in the game, scoring four different times on the way to a 27-0 halftime advantage.
Eventually, the margin got to 37-0 before Liverpool was able to get on the board in the third quarter. By then, though, the game was well settled thanks to a dominant Brothers ground attack.
Three different times in the first half, Jamier Handford scored on short TD runs, and he would add a fourth score. Isaiah Coleman added a five-yard scoring run on his way to a team-best 90 yards on 11 carries.
Not to be left out, CBA’s defense twice scored in the third quarter, once on a safety, and again when Zion Green returned a John Sindoni interception 75 yards for six points. Returning to the lineup, Syair Torrence caught four passes for 68 yards.
Handford was the dominant figure when CBA topped C-NS 34-18 early in October. The Northstars, who beat Baldwinsville 32-14 in the other semifinal, know that containing Handford is crucial to keep the Brothers from ending its reign of five consecutive sectional titles.
