C-NS prevails in Class AA crossover game
CICERO — The latest meeting of two traditionally strong football rivals matched Rome Free Academy and Cicero-North Syracuse in a battle of teams with 0-7 records.
Wednesday’s Class AA crossover game would end with the hosting Northstars breaking into the column and Rome finishing with its first winless season in over a century.
C-NS senior Steve Mirizio had a 65-yard interception brought back for a touchdown to open the scoring in the first quarter, and then caught a 65-yard TD reception over the middle and broke it for a big score in the fourth quarter to seal a 31-9 victory over the Black Knights for the Northstars’ first win under interim head coach Jack McAndrew.
In a game played in front of a sparse crowd, RFA junior quarterback Angus Evans threw for 91 yards on 11-for-23 passing, while senior John Allen caught four passes for 37 yards, Eddie Campos caught four passes for 14 yards, Lindell Reed had two catches for 24 yards, and Josh Reed made two grabs for 52 yards receiving and added another 190 yards in kick returns.
Nico Cheri moved the sticks on the ground with 60 yards rushing on just nine carries.
The loss concluded an 0-8 season for the Black Knights, who endured the school’s first winless season since 1900. Rome went 0-4-1 overall that year with a scoreless tie against Utica in the last game of the season.
Afterwards, Rome players were already looking forward to next year.
“It’s tough to not get a win all season, but we made strides to build towards the future this year. Although people might not see it, we do,” said Evans, one of 23 juniors who is expected to return next season for the Black Knights.
“I believe in this team, I believe in these guys, and I believe that RFA football will be back next year,” added Evans.
“I know that I will do everything I can to get better, and I’m determined to lead this team in the future,” continued Evans, who finished the year throwing for 578 yards with four touchdowns and nine interceptions.
C-NS won its first game under interim coach McAndrew, who was filling in for heavy scrutinized head coach Steve Ellis. Ellis, who took a leave of absence because of medical reasons, has been under fire from the C-NS community because he had only produced two winning seasons and no Section III titles in 10 years at the helm.
C-NS, which came in only having scored 67 points all season, nearly scored half that many points in one game against Rome. The hosts put up 338 yards of total offense, including 218 on the ground, and jumped out to a 21-7 lead at the half.
Xavier Brown ran for 99 tough yards with a score and fullback Mitchell Dunay added 65 yards and a 1-yard TD burst, while quarterback Tyler Griffo passed for 120 yards, including his 65-yard hookup to Mirizio in the fourth quarter.
RFA fourth-year coach Ted Swavely is hoping this season will be a learning experience for the Black Knights and sees reason for optimism next year.
“When I get these guys into our locker room, I’m going to preach to them about what they need to do to get ready for next year,” said Swavely.
“Next year could be a very good season if we do the right things in the offseason. We have a lot of really good pieces. You look at what we had out on the field today, we only had two seniors play full time for us all year, and other than that we had a ton of youth all over the place. Next year, we need to be coming out on all cylinders. We just need to become more physical, and I’m not going to rest until we make that happen,” he added.
The Blacks Knights got started fast on the defensive side of the ball.
Campos picked off Griffo on the 5 yardline to hand the Knights first down on the RFA 15. Rome had a couple big runs followed by a Campos’ catch of 16 yards along with Cheri’s run of 13 yards brought the Black Knights down to the 40. On the next play, Evans dropped back and tried to hit Brian Stapleton on a screen pass out of the backfield, but Mirizio jumped the route and took the interception back 65 yards for the touchdown, giving the hosts the early lead.
RFA responded quickly on their ensuing possession as Josh Reed took a kick return 68 yards and down to the C-NS 27. Five plays later, it was Evans calling his own number with a 2-yard quarterback sneak to tie the score at 7-7 at the 1:44 mark in the first quarter.
Then things would slip away from the Knights.
The Northstars responded with a seven-play, 71-yard drive of their own, capped off by a Brown 34-yard TD burst down the sidelines after he was bottled up in the middle of the field, and then turned loose on the outside for the scoring run.
RFA was then held on fourth-and-7 on their own 47, and the hosts capitalized with a 11-play drive that took 6:08 minutes off the clock and Dunay came away with the 1-yard TD, putting C-NS ahead 21-7 with 48 seconds remaining in the half.
The Black Knights came out inspired in the second half. They forced the Northstars deep in their own territory. Griffo then recovered his own fumbled off a snap, and then a punt was snapped too high and over the punter Mirizio’s head into the back of the end zone for a Rome safety.
RFA was then driving down the field before a tipped pass found the arms of safety Brian DeMonte for another interception.
Rome stuffed the hosts on the 8 on fourth-and-short, but the Black Knights were forced to punt on their ensuing drive.
Their best drive of the second half saw Campos hit a streaking Josh Reed down the sidelines for a 32 yard gain on a halfback pass, but the Northstars’ defense held strong with three Rome passes into the end zone coming up short with the last pass broken up by Tray Wynn on fourth-and-goal to force another Rome turnover on downs.
RFA was also stopped on fourth-and-goal from the 2 on their last possession of the game when Campos took another halfback pass and tried to hit Evans coming out of the backfield but the ball sailed well over the 6-foot-5 Evans’ head for another turnover on downs.
“We didn’t finish drives. We had opportunity after opportunity, and we didn’t capitalize on them,” said Swavely, who added that the loss of an injured junior tailback Julius Berry hurt the Knights because those would have been goal-line touches for Berry would he have played.
“We couldn’t run the ball as effectively as I would have liked today, and we were forced to pass a little more than I would have liked. There are a lot of things that I have to look at this offseason, especially in the running game. I’m going to change some things up to bring in a balance of everything with the outside runs, option runs, and still put us in a great situation to pass the ball,” he added.
Senior outside linebacker Brett McKinney finished the game with a team-high 11 tackles, and finished the year with team-highs in tackles with 68, rushing yards with 334 yards and finished with three TDs.
Anthony Capron finished with 10 tackles on Wednesday, and Mishaun Reed and Gabe Acevedo both added six tackles.
RFA was outscored, 206-27, in the first halves of games, 135-14 in the second quarter alone, and then stayed competitive in the second half of games, just being outscored, 125-114.
They were outrushed this season, 2,511 to 1,101, but managed to throw for 930 yards while their opposition managed just 801 yards through the air.
UNDER PRESSURE — RFA junior quarterback Angus Evans keeps his eyes downfield looking for an open receiver as Cicero-North Syracuse defender Kyle Hale closes in on him during Wednesday’s Class AA crossover game played
at C-NS High School. Evans passed for 94 yards and rushed for a 2-yard touchdown in Rome’s season-ending 31-9 loss. (Sentinel photo by Makenzi Enos)
BRINGING HIM DOWN — RFA junior middle linebacker Anthony Capron wraps up Cicero-North Syracuse ball carrier Duquan Mathis during Wednesday night’s Class
AA crossover game played at C-NS High School. Capron finished with 10 tackles in Rome’s 31-9 defeat.
(Sentinel photo by Makenzi Enos)
PUSHING THEM BACK — A group of RFA defenders converge on a play during Wednesday’s Class AA crossover game at Cicero-North Syracuse. The Black Knights went
away with a season-ending 31-9 defeat.
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