CICERO — As the first-half clock hit zero, Conner Hayes rolled to his left. It was end zone or bust. The Cicero-North Syracuse quarterback threw across his body toward the back boundary.

It looked like the throw would come up just short as a Christian Brothers Academy player leaped to snare it. But the ball tipped off the defender’s hands. Behind him, the Northstars wide receiver Shy’Rel Broadwater slipped as he tried to plant and was laying on his back. As the ball was deflected, Broadwater didn’t lose focus and it fell right into his lap to complete the 20-yard touchdown, the third Hayes threw to Broadwater in the first half.

“I went to the side and said, ‘Thank God I’m Irish,’” Hayes said. “… I knew if I had to throw it to anyone, it was gonna be to number 13, Shy’Rel, and he made a great play like he always does.”

Hayes and Broadwater — both seniors and veterans from last season’s sectional champion C-NS team — led the charge for the Northstars on opening night at Bragman Stadium in a 47-6 win over Christian Brothers Academy. Hayes threw four touchdowns, and Broadwater caught three of them. After graduating 33 seniors from the 2017 sectional winners, it was the Northstars’ veterans that set the opening-night tone.

“We saw how big the seniors were for us last year and what they did for the team,” Hayes said. “So this year we realized that we had to pick it up.”

It was running back Jaiquawn Mcgriff who got the Northstars off and running. After C-NS forced a three-and-out, he had two big runs. The first was a 26-yarder that put the Northstars deep in Brothers’ territory, but Mcgriff was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after the play so the ball was pushed back 15 yards.

No matter: Mcgriff took the next carry 31 yards to the house. All night long, the senior tailback showed an ability to cut in traffic and to keep his foot moving to get extra yards. He finished the game with 12 carries for 139 yards and two scores, numbers that would’ve been higher if he had gotten any rushes in the second half.

---

---

“He makes tremendous cuts,” Hayes said. “You don’t expect, you don’t really see that at the high school level that much.”

After the first score, Hayes and Broadwater connected twice for six. The first came on a 36-yard pass over the top, and the second on a one-yard pass from the goal line. Both times, Broadwater created ample space between himself and his defender.

“There’s God-given abilities that are beyond what we can teach them,” said C-NS head coach Dave Kline. “And it’s just they’re athletes and they love the game and they have fun playing it.”

It didn’t stop there for the Northstars. Mcgriff scored his second touchdown on a 13-yard run. The handoff sent him up the middle, but he planted his right foot in the ground and juked left. With daylight to the end zone, he found another gear and dove with the ball outstretched to complete the play.

CBA got its lone score of the game shortly thereafter when JJ Razmovski found Jack Szatkowski from 24 yards out. But then Hayes found Broadwater sitting on the ground to end the half with C-NS up 28 points. Mcgriff added to that total early in the third quarter when he jumped a Razmovski pass and took it about 70 yards to the house.

Before Hayes was pulled at the end of the third quarter for his backup, the senior and four-year starter made a bit more magic. Out of the shotgun, he rolled to his right, but then near the hash marks, he spun and rolled back left. A handful of CBA players were in pursuit, but Hayes was too fast. As he reached the numbers on the left side of the field, he let fly off his right leg.

Naturally, it was another senior waiting in the end zone to catch his pass: Nate Geloff. Hayes finished 13-17 for 167 yards and four scores. And in the first regular season game that C-NS had to play after losing 33 seniors from last year’s squad, every touchdown the Northstars scored came from a senior and defending sectional champ.

“The seniors put a lot on themselves,” Hayes said. “That definitely was a big thing for us, and we just gotta bring the young guys with us. We’ve gotta teach them the way so the year after this and later down in the season they know what to do.”

Published on September 1, 2018 at 12:02 am

Contact Billy: [email protected] | @Wheyen3