Leading off today: Cue up the frenzy for this year's regular-season game of the century.
Top-ranked Canisius and No. 3 Aquinas won local rivalry games Saturday to set up a Week 7 confrontation in Rochester between Class AA football powers.
Aquinas defeated McQuaid 48-7 as senior quarterback Jake Zembiec went 13-for-19 with 307 yards and four touchdowns. Jamir Jones made four catches for 130 yards, including TD grabs of 22 and 69 yards in the second quarter as the Little Irish raced to a 35-0 lead at the half.
Jones added five tackles and two sacks on defense.
In Buffalo, Canisius junior running back Cole Burniston rushed 13 times for 163 yards and three touchdowns and passed for another score to lead the Crusaders past St. Joe's 35-9 for their 22nd consecutive win.
Burniston hit Justin Jones in the end zone for a 3-yard touchdown on an option pass to help lift Canisius into a 7-6 lead. "Everybody bit on the sweep," he told The Buffalo News. "I just had to make sure I got the ball over in his area. He's going to make that catch."
Burniston, who scored four touchdowns last week, tacked on what proved to be the winning points 55 seconds later, scoring on a 21-yard run after the Marauders' second turnover of the day.
Canisius played without senior quarterback Tyler Stranahan, who suffered a shoulder injury last week and whose status for next week is not known.
A year ago, it was Aquinas facing a quarterback issue. The Little Irish lost Zembiec, the 2013 New York State Sportswriters Association's Class AA player of the year, to a broken wrist early in their Week 2 loss at Canisius.
No. 2 wins, too ... After some recent uncomfortably close calls, second-ranked Archbishop Stepinac scored three times in the fourth quarter and posted a 43-21 win over Cardinal Hayes, ranked 29th in Class AA.
"We were a little worried that we hadn't been finishing," coach Mike O'Donnell told The Journal News. "This is the first time in a couple of weeks that we put the game away. We did it against a very, very good football team and we're going to see them again before this is all over."
Quarterback Tyquell Fields ran for two TDs and threw for two more.
... but No. 4 stumbles: Twentieth-ranked Lindenhurst had a big day in Suffolk County action, beating No. 4 Longwood 26-7 as third-year starting QB Ryan Hofmann went 22 of 34 for 246 yards and four touchdowns.
Hofmann was 3 of 4 for 73 yards on the opening drive, capping it with a 37-yard TD to River Zotto, en route to a 20-0 lead.
More Class AA: Grand Street Campus, ranked 12th, edged No. 22 Abraham Lincoln 30-21 as Rutgers recruit Taysir Mack made five catches for 71 yards and a TD. Quarterback Sharif Harris-Legree threw for 138 yards and ran for 114, accounting for two scores through the air and one on the ground in a contest delayed 90 minutes by lightning.
Tough test for Forks: Chenango Forks held onto its No. 1 state ranking in Class C by means of a 34-21 victory over No. 6 Newark Valley. Forks broke to a 27-0 lead at the half, but Newark Valley fought back with scoring plays of 48, 64 and 65 yards to make it a two-score game with nine minutes to play.
Quarterback L.J. Watson (115 yards) was one of a trio of Forks backs to go over 100 yards on the ground.
