Date and time: Sunday, 3 p.m., at the Carrier Dome, Syracuse.

   Teams: Troy Flying Horses (Sec. 2) vs. Rush-Henrietta Royal Comets (Sec. 5).

MORE PREVIEWS AA: R-H vs. Troy A: Aquinas vs. Harrison B: Hornell vs. Schalmont C: Gen. Brown vs. Bronxville D: Cal-Mum vs. Tuckahoe

   Records: Both are 12-0.

   Rankings: Troy is ranked No. 2 and Rush-Henrietta No. 3 by the New York State Sportswriters Association. The winner will end the season tied with St. Anthony's, which won the Catholic High School Football League large-school title last weekend.

   Coaches: Jack Burger (Troy) and Joe Montesano (R-H).

   Digging inside the schedules: Troy opened its season with four straight shutouts and blanked six opponents overall. The Flying Horses outscored their opponents by 486-108 and had only one victory by a TD or less (35-28 over Niskayuna) before last weekend's 20-19 triumph against New Rochelle in the state semifinals.

   New Ro is almost always a treat to reach Syracuse, so the close call wasn't surprising. Troy drove eight plays and 50 yards to an 8-yard TD run by Brian Marsh with 1:54 to go then forced a turnover on downs at the Flying Horses 34 last week.

   Rush-Henrietta survived a crazy opener to beat Webster Schroeder 32-26 and then kept the pedal pressed to the metal until nearly blowing a 35-14 lead against Clarence in the NYSPHSAA quarterfinals in Week 11. The Royal Comets have outscored their opponents by 570-168. The margin is six postseason games is 301-97, an indication of just how well the offense has clicked even though the level of competition has gotten better.

   About Troy: The ground game is Troy's preferred mode of transportation, and the Flying Horses do it well. Senior running back Jordan Canzeri has 215 attempts for 1,847 yards and 28 TDs; Shatiek Lewis is closing in on 1,000 yards and has scored 11 TDs despite being slowed early in the season by an ankle injury; and first-team all-league quarterback Brian Marsh has rushed 78 times for 587 yards.

   Troy tends to throw only seven or eight times a game, but Marsh has racked up nearly 700 yards, with his favorite target being Josh Blaauober.

   Troy's offensive line isn't immense with the exception of 6-foot-1, 280-pound guard Carlos Hill, who joined Kyle Czarnick in the first team of the All-Liberty Division team. Canzeri was voted offensive player of the year and Kyle Geraci shared defensive honors in a vote by league coaches.

   Burger is a 1975 Newburgh graduate who led Troy to a state Class A championship in 1996 and the state Class AA title in 1998. He has six Section 2 championships and four trips to the Carrier Dome under his belt in 15 seasons at Troy.

   About Rush-Henrietta: Here's what dual-threat QB Ashton Broyld has done in his six postseason games en route to 13 TDs through the air and 14 on the ground:
   • Gone 11-for-13 for 211 yards and four touchdown passes vs. Rochester Wilson.
   • Thrown for 153 yards and ran for 97 to beat Gates Chili.
   • Completed 9 of 13 attempts for 174 yards and two scores vs. Pittsford.
   • Rushed for 225 yards and four touchdowns against Irondequoit.
   • Rushed for 299 yards and two touchdowns to KO Clarence in the state quarterfinals.
   • Thrown for 300 yards and two TDs, fan for 136 yards and four TDs vs. Baldwinsville in the semifinals.

   Chad Kelly of Buffalo St. Joe's recently became the first New York QB to run for 1,000 yards and throw for 2,000 in a season. Broyld will become the second if he throws for 135 in the final. (Note: Ryan Rielly of John Glenn needs 172 through the air this weekend vs. Seaford in Long Island Class IV to pull off the same feat.)

   It's not as though he has to do it all by himself. Devon Maio caught five balls for 201 yards last week vs. Baldwinsville as the offense clicked for a state-tournament record 606 yards, and running backs Bay Barley, Devin Wofford Sonly Carter and Christian Harris are interchangeable, though R-H functions a bit better overall when Harris can be left to focus mostly on special teams.

   The stock of lineman/linebacker Chris Swanson has gone through the roof in the last month.

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   Past championships: Troy has the two NYSPHSAA titles mentioned above. R-H owns a New York State Sportswriters Association large schools crown from 1976 in the pre-playoff era. The district split into two high schools (Sperry Comets and Roth Royals) shortly afterward and then reconsolidated in the late 1980s (both teams won sectionals in their swan song) but hadn't won a sectional title under the R-H banner until last fall.

   Making a pick: You'd have to be nuts to not be excited by the possibilities in this game, and some pundits are rightfully eager to frame this as a Broyld vs. Canzeri showdown with the title and perhaps state player of the year honors on the line. But the game is still played 11 vs. 11, offense vs. defense.

   Some of the 62 points surrendered by R-H the last two weeks stemmed from the absence of 6-foot-1, 294-pound Mike Lawson to an injury. If he's healthy enough to play even 20-25 downs on defense, Troy faces an obstacle in the figurative and literal senses because the lengthy, productive drives they need to keep the ball out of Broyld's hands probably won't be there.

   The six shutouts this year are indicative of how well Troy can play defense, but they have not had to do it against the likes of the Royal Comets. It's usually a cliche, but not here: The 6-foot-4, 225-pound Broyld is a man among boys, and the surrounding cast includes quality performers at the skill positions and on the lines.

   The pick is R-H 35, Troy 14.