For the Christian Brothers Academy football team, the start of Class AA-1 division play brought with it a reunion with plenty of familiar faces from the program’s recent past.
Yet the sentimentality ceased the moment the game against Cicero-North Syracuse kicked off Friday night at Bragman Stadium, and though it took a while to get going, the Brothers did so and cruised to a 42-21 victory over the Northstars.
Joe Sindoni, the long-time CBA assistant who won a Section III Class C title at Skaneateles in 2012, left the Lakers to take over a C-NS program that had won just two games in the previous two seasons.
In doing so, Sindoni brought along his top assistants, including offensive coordinator Tim Brown and defensive coordinator Tim Lee, both standouts on CBA teams in the early 2000s under the tutelage of Sindoni and his coaching mentor, Joe Casamento.
All of this served as a backdrop, as did CBA’s placement at no. 3 in the first state Class AA rankings of the season. But the Brothers hardly looked the part of overwhelming favorite during a scoreless first quarter that gave C-NS fans reason to hope for an upset.
Deshawn Salter quickly dashed those hopes, though. He scored on a four-yard run early in the second quarter to put CBA on the board, and then made the game’s biggest play when, from his own 39-yard line, he broke loose and went 61 yards to the other end zone, making it 14-0.
Not content with that, Salter added a third TD in that period on a two-yard run just before the break, and with that 21-0 cushion, the Brothers could relax a bit.
A streak of six consecutive scoreless periods for CBA’s defense ended in the third quarter when Mitch Dunay found the end zone on a five-yard run. But Salter answered with his fourth TD on a five-yard run after Andre Dowdell scored from nine yards out.
Johnathan Stackhouse got CBA’s sixth and final touchdown of the night in the fourth quarter on a 16-yard run. Overall, the Brothers had 232 yards on the ground, with J.R. Zazzara and a modest passing attack accounting for 152 yards through the air.
Now the challenge grows for the Brothers as it finally has its first true home game this Friday at 6:30 against West Genesee at Alibrandi Stadium.
Led by senior tailback Naes Howard (who is going to Syracuse University next year), the Wildcats are 2-1 and coming off a 62-21 romp over Central Square, done with sophomore Dashon Turner throwing four touchdown passes in place of an injured Bailey Gauthier. It’s still unknown who will start for WG under center against the Brothers.