CBA cruises into semifinals

Shenendehowa's 42-0 victory over Christian Brothers Academy three weeks ago may have been the best thing to happen for the Brothers. CBA (7-1) has been on a tear since that loss, outscoring its two most recent football foes – Ballston Spa and Schenectady – 73-7 on its way to Friday's Section II Class AA semifinal game at Columbia. "The kids are feeling good about themselves," said CBA coach Joe Burke. "We've had two really strong performances against what we consider to be two really good teams." The Brothers have made a habit of taking control of games early in the last two weeks. They scored on their four first-half possessions on their way to a 33-7 victory over Ballston Spa in their Empire Division finale, and they did the same in last Friday's 40-0 Class AA quarterfinal victory over Schenectady in Colonie. Burke said the offense has stepped up since being shut out by Shen Oct. 8. "That Week 6 game really woke us up," said Burke. "We may have underestimated their speed on defense. Most of that game, they really got after us good. But I think it gave us a couple of days to think about what went wrong and what we could do to fix it." There wasn't enough time for Schenectady (3-5) to fix what it was doing wrong against CBA. After forcing the Patriots to punt early in the first quarter, the Brothers needed only five plays to march down the field and score their first touchdown of the game – a 15-yard run by Cameron Wynn. All the while, Schenectady had a difficult time tackling Wynn or any other CBA ball carrier. The trend continued a short time later. CBA forced a Schenectady turnover near midfield on the Patiots' next series, and the Brothers moved quickly down the field again. This time, Cody Zappone scored on a 1-yard run to make the score 14-0 midway through the opening period. CBA had a touchdown called back at the end of the first quarter on a penalty, but that only delayed the Brothers' next scoring play. That play was a screen pass from Ted Cillis to Zappone, who then raced down the right sideline for a 54-yard touchdown. Andrew Jensen's extra point was blocked, but the damage was done as CBA took a 20-0 lead. "They were coming pretty hard off the edge … and we ran a screen play," said Burke. "Cody [Zappone] does a very good job on those." Cillis continued to exploit Schenectady's defense in the second quarter. The senior quarterback tossed a 56-yard touchdown pass to Pete Luizzi to extend CBA's lead to 27-0. Cillis then added a 12-yard scoring strike to Pete Rustowicz in the third quarter to effectively seal Schenectady's fate. Cillis completed 11 of his 15 passes for 228 yards to lead the Brothers' balanced offense. Wynn rushed for 146 yards and a touchdown, and Zappone added 89 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Burke said his team will need to do the same thing when CBA meets Columbia Friday in East Greenbush. "We think they're a very good defense. They're big up front, and they're very physical," said Burke of Columbia, which won the Liberty Division title this season. "We'll look to get the ball out on the perimeter [with the running game]. At the same time, we've got to throw the football. A really good mix of passing and getting out on the perimeter should really challenge their defense. If we don't do that, we will be in serious trouble." CBA's defense will be challenged by Columbia junior tailback Christopher Smith, who has gained nearly 1,400 yards and scored 19 touchdowns this season. Smith is coming off back-to-back games where he has gained more than 200 yards, including a Columbia-record 285-yard performance in last Friday's 40-19 Class AA quarterfinal victory over Guilderland. "He's picked up an awful lot of yardage this season," said Burke. "He's a big kid who is hard to bring down, so we're going to practice our tackling this week." In other Class AA quar-terfinal action last Friday, Shaker (3-5) found itself on the wrong side of the score-board against Shen for the second time this season, as the Plainsmen pulled away for a 35-7 victory over the Blue Bison in Clifton Park. Shen (8-0) scored two touchdowns in each of the first two quarters to build a 28-0 halftime lead. The Plainsmen added a fifth touchdown in the third quarter before Shaker scored to prevent a shutout. Shen quarterback Teddy Van Galen threw for 210 yards and three touchdowns. Tailback Tony Fusco contributed a pair of scoring runs as part of a 139-yard evening. Shaker wraps up its season with a crossover game against Ballston Spa. Colonie (0-8) will try to end its season on a positive note when it plays Albany (0-8) in a crossover game. The Garnet Raiders put up a lot of points, but they allowed 13 more than they scored in a 53-40 loss to Saratoga Springs (2-6) in last Friday's crossover game. Colonie scored the first touchdown on Steve Wutzer's 7-yard run, but Saratoga scored the next three touchdowns to take a 20-7 lead. Giancarlo Sainato returned a kickoff 87 yards for another Garnet Raiders touchdown before the Blue Streaks pulled away for good with two more scoring drives. Sainato returned two kickoffs for touchdowns and made two extra point kicks for Colonie. Jesse Spencer rushed for 236 yards and three touchdowns to lead Saratoga.

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CBA cruises into semifinals

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