CENTRAL NEW YORK – Two games into its state Class AA championship defense, the Christian Brothers Academy football team already owns a powerful identity, at least on one side of the ball.
The Brothers have played eight quarters and not allowed a single point, continuing its defensive dominance Friday night at Alibrandi Stadium when it shut down Cicero-North Syracuse 27-0 in the first match-up between the two powers since last November’s Section III final.
It only figured that the defenses would be the focal point. Each had recorded opening-week shutouts – CBA over East Rochester, C-NS over Victor 21-0 in the Kickoff Classic at the JMA Dome – and here the tone was quickly set.
On C-NS’s first play from scrimmage, quarterback Braydon Dems went back to pass – and before he could even step up to throw, Marquann Sadler burst in to sack him.
All game long, C-NS would find occasional success through the air, but that didn’t make up for how Saddler and the rest of CBA’s front seven neutralized running back Anthony Johnson, who gained 175 yards and scored three TD’s against Victor a week earlier.
For its part, C-NS did a solid job of defensive containment in the early going except for one big play on CBA’s second drive – a 77-yard scoring pass where Brayden Smith found Kieghlin Hicks in mid-stride down the sideline and Edenfield went the rest of the way.
The game’s biggest sequence took place late in the second quarter, C-NS making its only drive all night inside the Brothers’ 20 but then stopped before Jakob Purdy missed a 34-yard field goal.
From its own 20 the Brothers promptly marched down the field and, with just 25 seconds left in the half, Smith hit Darien Williams on a 23-yard scoring pass, extending the margin to 13-0 going to the break.
Both teams got hurt by penalties and other mistakes, but CBA still put the game away in the fourth quarter with two short drives that Smith capped off with TD passes of one and 18 yards to Daunte Bacheyie. All told, Smith completed 19 of 25 passes for 233 yards.
Two other local teams played at home on Friday and took defeats, with East Syracuse Minoa falling 28-20 to Rome Free Academy and Jamesville-DeWitt) losing to South Jefferson 47-14.
ESM’s biggest problem was that it could not contain RFA’s passing attack. Mark Barone threw 25 passes for the Black Knights, completing 16 of them for 251 yards and two TD’s. For the Spartans, Josh Rojek ran 28 times for 137 yards and a score and added 6 ½ tackles on defense as Joe Atkinson led with seven tackles.
In J-D’s case, it fell behind South Jefferson 13-0 after one quarter, only to score twice in the second period to answer the Spartans’ pair of TDs and trail 27-14.
It stayed that way until the fourth quarter when South Jefferson got away, three times finding the end zone. Spack excelled with19 tackles to go with interception as Dae’Jier Brooks added 11 tackles.
Saturday’s action saw Fayetteville-Manlius, who lost its opener Sept. 6 to Auburn in overtime, again find itself in a close one at Utica Proctor and again take a defeat, 30-28, to the Raiders.
What made this more frustrating was that the Hornets led 28-22 with 16 seconds left and Proctor pinned on its own 25. But a long pass play set up Wyatt Robinson’s 40-yard TD pass to Walter Phillips, and the Raiders added the winning two-point conversion.
They were scoreless until the second quarter, when the Hornets gave up a TD but then answered it when Colin Clark returned the ensuing kickoff 85 yards to the end zone, tying it 6-6.
Another exchange followed, Proctor scoring and getting a two-point conversion before Jack Hearn found Sam Goepfert for a 34-yard scoring pass, the missed conversion meaning F-M trailed 14-12 at the break.
Finally getting in front in the third period, the Hornets had Hearn throw nine yards to Goepefert for another TD, only now it was the Raiders answering on Kamal Cisson Ali’s five-yard dash to the end zone.
Early in the fourth quarter, F-M drove to Proctor’s five, from where Hearn found Clark in the end zone, and for a while they appeared to be the winning points – but the Raiders would pull it out.
Eight-man football got away for Bishop Grimes on Saturday afternoon, and despite TD runs by Kamari McMullin and Ryken Heffron, the Cobras lost 28-16 to Tupper Lake.
