CBA seeks first state title trip
ALBANY, NY (NEWS10) -- The CBA football team is on to the state semifinals. The Brothers have accomplished a lot since Bob Burns took over as head coach, winning four straight section titles. But on Saturday, they'll look to do something the program has never done before: punch their ticket to the dome in Syracuse, to play for a state title.
CBA will take on Corning-Painted Post on Saturday at Middletown High School at 6:00 PM. The Hawks are the at-large bid for Section IV, with a record of 7-3 this season.
The Brothers are a perfect 12-0 after their 28-7 win over North Rockland in the Regional Final. Burns has said multiple times this season he can always count on this group giving their best come gameday, more so than any group he's had before. That stems from the investment they've made in the program.
"On the important meter for their lives, it's high," said Burns. "This football team is extremely important to a great deal of them, especially the senior group and the guys that have been with me for three or four years now. I tell them all the time, it's only two things in my life. This football team, my family, and that's it. My family comes first. But I spend every day with these guys for 300 days out of the year. So for us to be able to be at the precipice of playing for a state championship is really special. That's why I know I'm gonna get everything they got."
"I think it starts with us waking up at 5:00 AM every day in the off-season," said senior running back and linebacker Anthony D'Aloia. "It gave us that discipline to know that we put in all that work in the offseason, sacrificing our sleep, sacrificing our time. I think it brought us to the point where we're like, 'Alright, it's game day. We don't want to waste all those hours'. We want to make it all the way this year because we put in all this work, we put in all this time, woke up early, we're tired in school and we just gave it our all throughout our whole lives. I just feel like when we get to game day, we're like, 'This ain't going to be the last game we play.'"