Through three weeks of the city high school football season, Corcoran is still perfect, and Institute of Technology Central is still exceeding all expectations in its initial varsity campaign. Yet the most exciting contest this weekend involved Henninger, who was in prime position to knock off undefeated Utica Proctor Saturday at Sunnycrest Park, only to see the Raiders rally to beat them 35-31. Twice, the Black Knights surged to the lead, fueled by Proctor turnovers. In the first quarter, this meant a pair of fumbles leading to 10 Henninger points. Off that first turnover, Eric Dykes threw a six-yard scoring pass to Shakim Clark. The second fumble led to sophomore Andres Abadie belting a 47-yard field goal and setting a school record in the process. Proctor came back and took a 13-10 lead by halftime, but the Black Knights struck again in the third quarter, aided again by the Raiders’ generosity. Sophomore Chris Hicks recovered one fumble, then scored a few plays later on a 13-yard run. One play after Proctor’s Richard Pete saw a 65-yard TD run taken off the board by an illegal block, another sophomore, Darrel West, intercepted a Jordan Treen pass and returned it 29 yards for another score. Going into the final period, Henninger led 24-13, and the wild stuff was just beginning. Proctor, on fourth-and-10 with 9:03 left, stunned the Black Knights when Maurice Peace broke a tackle and took a screen pass 50 yards for a TD. Pete added the two-pointer to make it 24-21. Not for long, though, as Hicks reeled off a 70-yard run, then snagged a 25-yard TD pass from Dykes to build the margin back to 31-21 with 6:53 to play. On Proctor’s very next play, it began the final comeback, Tross going deep and finding the speedy Pete for a 64-yard TD pass – this to go with the 154 yards he had on the ground for the day. Henninger could not restore its margin, and a poor punt set up the Raiders for a 10-play march that culminated in Treen’s seven-yard scoring pass to Peace with 2:41 left. Still with a chance to win it, the Black Knights drove it past midfield, but on fourth down Michael Lackey picked off Dykes, clinching Proctor’s win. A night earlier, Corcoran moved to 3-0 on the season, downing Cicero-North Syracuse 43-21 at Bragman Stadium to stay atop the Class AA-2 division. Chao Porch scored an early TD, but left due to injury. In his place, Jeremy Derby had a memorable night, scoring three times, all in the second half, on runs of five, 18 and 11 yards. Together, these plays helped the Cougars pull away after enjoying a 14-7 halftime lead. Shakem Buckmon contributed a 29-yard TD pass to Anthony Heard and also took off on a 52-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter. Back at Corcoran’s turf, ITC was in some trouble against its fellow Eagles from Jordan-Elbridge, but made a stirring comeback to prevail 27-19 and improve its mark to 2-1. J-E had just taken a 19-7 lead in the third quarter on Mitch Cooper’s five-yard TD run. But on the ensuing kickoff, Saquan Dozier sped past all the J-E kick coverage, returning it 92 yards for six points. Just like that, ITC was energized, and it took the lead 21-19 late in the period as Dozier caught a nine-yard scoring pass from Jabron Thomas and Delquan Ross secured the two-point conversion. In the final period, Dozier’s five-yard TD run built the margin to eight. As this went on, Nottingham took a 44-14 home loss to Christian Brothers Academy, who used 23 unanswered points in the third quarter to pull away. Marty Clanton did throw a pair of TD passes to Josh Ivey. Fowler, playing on Thursday night at Sunnycrest, fell to Fayetteville-Manlius 42-6.
The Hornets, like CBA and Utica Proctor, beat a city team to improve to 3-0, the Falcons’ only points coming on Kelvin Amparo’s 11-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. That came, though, amid a 28-point F-M barrage that all but decided the outcome. Corcoran puts its 3-0 mark on the line against West Genesee on Friday, just as Henninger visits CBA, Nottingham plays at state Class AA no. 3-ranked Baldwinsville and Fowler goes to Auburn. ITC plays Saturday at LaFayette/Fabius-Pompey.