CICERO — After Mike Washington stiff-armed the final Fayetteville-Manlius defender, he became the running back that head coach Dave Kline needed. The junior’s feet kicked through turf as he sprinted into the end zone untouched, a 30-yard score in the second quarter that put Cicero-North Syracuse up 15-0. The offense exchanged high-fives and chest bumps, but they weren’t done celebrating.

A dozen Northstars walked over to the sideline and perched around a black cart with wheels, a common occurrence for C-NS during its games. They rewatched the previous scoring drive on a small TV screen in the center of the cart, and once Washington’s touchdown run flashed across the screen, cheers resounded again. 

Friday night marked the breakout game for Washington in his second game as the Northstars’ full-time back. His three touchdowns — including two on 50 and 60-yard runs — kick-started an overall performance that, aside from a fumble on the first possession and one strong scoring drive by F-M to close out the first half, C-NS dominated. Two weeks ago, Washington was a wide receiver, not a tailback. But in C-NS’ 29-8 win over F-M, he showed signs of being a backfield cornerstone. 

“This game put C-NS back on the map,” Washington said.

Before the victory, however, C-NS was headed in the opposite direction of previous seasons. The Northstars had lost only two games in the last four seasons combined, but lost two of their first three games this year. Jeremiah Willis and Jaiquawn McGriff, the two-headed backfield that led C-NS to the state semifinals less than a year ago, had both graduated. Entering the season, tailback depth was thin.

Washington is listed on the team’s roster as a wide receiver and cornerback, but started playing running back last week. Kline said the move came after a 10-0 loss to Liverpool, a game when the C-NS running game was non-existent. He had his players do a full-equipment practice the Monday after that loss, something that rarely happens. It was then when he found his newest tailback. 

Midway through the third quarter against the Hornets, Washington again gave the Northstars points. After calling a timeout on fourth down, Kline decided to go for it — a decision that paid off as Washington took the handoff and sprinted down the left sideline for his second touchdown of the night. 

“The coaches put me in that position, they wanted to get me the ball,” Washington said.

And though Washington was responsible for three of the four touchdowns, the offensive line’s consistency allowed Washington to find holes and break free — he credited his six runs for 20 or more yards to his blockers up front.

Their protection also allowed quarterback JJ Razmovski to have a quiet but effective night commanding the C-NS offense. He threw a 20-yard touchdown early in the second quarter to give the Northstars a 9-0 lead, a slant route on the left side, and converted on other short passes when needed. Kline said after the game that his junior quarterback, the replacement to longtime starter Connor Hayes, was more relaxed than previous weeks. 

“JJ started to feel confident, he was pressing things a little bit,” Kline said. “(He) finally relaxed and started going with the flow of the O.”

With F-M starting quarterback Zak Conley out with a knee injury from last week, the Hornets were without a single quarterback on their roster. Alex Dauksza, listed as a safety and defensive back, stepped in. Though the majority of his Dauksza’s role was handing the ball off in F-M’s running-based offense, he manufactured a scoring drive at the end of the first half. A 30-yard dime down the right sideline found a streaking Jordan Leuze on 4th-and-15, and Leuze stuck his left hand out and raced into the end zone. A two-point conversion off a play-action fade followed and cut the deficit to seven points before the half. 

But CNS’ defense did well to hold Dauksza to just that. Even with the game out of reach in the fourth quarter, the Northstars continued to make tackles for losses and apply constant pressure. 

“That’s a hard offense to adjust to,” Kline said. “The guys just came out and understood the game plan.”

After two more touchdowns followed Washington’s run and after players from both sides branched out to their respective end zones after shaking hands, a few C-NS coaches pulled out a black bag for the TV and began to disassemble. They zipped up the bag, turned it vertically to fit in the cart and pushed it off the field toward the locker room. 

Next week against West Genesee, C-NS’ players will gather around it once again. They’ll continue to reflect on their best and worst plays from the previous drive. Continue to sit down with assistant coaches to figure out what went wrong. And, if Kline’s vision flourishes, continue to re-watch Washington touchdowns.

Published on September 28, 2019 at 12:32 am

Contact Roshan: rferna04@syr.edu | @Roshan_f16