When the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool football teams get together next weekend at LHS Stadium to renew their neighborhood rivalrly, they’ll do so in vastly different stages of development.
For the Northstars, who finally gained possession of the ‘Star Wars’ trophy a year ago on the way to an undefeated regular Section III Class AA finals appearance, all is going well, if the 42 first-quarter points scored in Friday’s 61-0 victory over Horseheads at Bragman Stadium was any indication.
By contrast, the Warriors remain a young side with plenty of room to learn and improve, as it discovered when it went to Union-Endicott and took a 21-14 loss to the Tigers.
Determined to avoid the uneven play it showed in the first half of its Aug. 31 win over Fairport in the Kickoff Classic, C-NS took care of that problem in a fierce way against Horseheads, notching six touchdowns in the first 12 minutes.
And the Northstars scored twice more in the second quarter, so it was 55-0 at intermission, which led to a running clock in the last two periods and ample playing time for the reserves.
Conner Hayes threw just five passes, but four of them were completed for a total of 150 yards, and three of them were for touchdowns, two of them to Shy’rel Broadwater.
Erik Pride rushed for 97 yards on seven carries, scoring twice. Jeremiah Willis, Dominick Napolitano, Jacob Parra and Damion Sausville also found the end zone as Napolitano finished with 84 yards on the ground as C-NS overall finished with 321 rushing yards.
Meanwhile, Liverpool found itself in a battle with a Union-Endicott side that won the Section IV Class A title in 2016 and was determined to prove itself against a visiting Section III foe.
The Tigers scored first, on Tyler Dillenbeck’s one-yard TD run. When the Warriors got even late in the first period on Zach Neufang’s 35-yard scoring pass to Nas Johnson, U-E broke the 7-7 tie within seconds.
Darrius Billingsley took the ensuing kickoff from his own five-yard line, picked up blocks and then was gone, 95 yards for a TD, and the Tigers led 14-7, where it remained at halftime.
Early in the third period, Liverpool again tied it, driving to U-E’s 14-yard line before Neufang found Kaleb Ohlemacher in the end zone. Once more, the Tigers regained the lead with a scoring march culminated when Jack Thomas scored from two yards out.
Though it had ample time to make a third comeback, the Warriors were done in by a series of mental mistakes, along with a tough U-E defense that made timely stops.