By Matt Diano: If you ever find yourself doubting the old saying that “it’s not over till it’s over,” consider the 7th week of the Catholic Football season where overcoming multiple touchdown deficits were the norm.
All five of our selected student-athletes this week found their respective teams trailing at one point, two of whom were really walking a fine line as they trailed in the final 2:00 of regulation.
Another of our POTW picks was the man responsible for helping his team post the biggest upset of 2016 as the CHSFL’s last unbeaten program fell.
Bryson Welch (Sr.); RB – Mount St. Michael Academy Mountaineers
The second member of the MSMA backfield honored in the past three weeks, Welch joins fellow senior, Justin Montoyo (week #5 selection) among the many student-athletes recognized this season for going above and beyond in leading their respective school’s to triumph…The “Thunder” to Montoyo’s “Lighting”, at 6’1 and 220-pounds, the Mount Vernon resident possesses the best of both worlds, having the size of a fullback but the explosiveness of a player much smaller…All of his physical gifts were on full display last Saturday when the Mount overcame an early 8-0 deficit to score 22 consecutive points in a 22-16 victory over the present day #1 team in the single-A division, Moore Catholic in a non-league clash of A vs. AA squads.
Referring to his team’s ability to control clock by maintaining drives, Mountaineer Head Coach, Mario Valentini, pointed especially to Welch in this regard as the “big back” repeatedly delivered first down runs on 3rd and 4th downs to enable the offense to remain on the attack.
A true workhorse, Welch’s 25 carries were 19 more than the next closest ball carrier, as he amassed 138 yards (5.5/touch) and scored one of the Mount’s two ground TDs…In doing so, he further increased his team’s leading total to 510 yards (96 carries; 5.3 average)…Welch added a two-point conversation to end the day having accounted for more than a third of MSMA’s total points.
One of the attributes that won us over the most was that the 12th grader seems to have a sense and appreciation for the fact that with each passing week, he comes closer and closer to writing that final chapter in his scholastic career…With these sentiments in minds, as he draws nearer to the end, he seems fully committed to going out with a bang…..A 100+ yard rusher in each of the past two games, since a modest 23 yard effort on September 18th in a narrow loss to Kellenberg, Welch has turned up the juice, dashing for 84, 54, and 91 yards prior to weeks 6 and 7. He has recorded touchdowns in four of his last five games, a pattern Valentini will need for him to extend as the Mountaineers fight for one of the last spots in the AA playoffs.
Frank Guidice (Sr.); OL/DL – St. John the Baptist Cougars
At just about every stage of the 2016 season, we have been firm in our contention that Christ the King was one of, if not the best team in all of New York State…Winners of 14 straight regular season games, when the returning AA runners-up made the journey to West Islip this past Saturday, we’d be withholding the truth if we did not own up to the fact that we thought they’d be leaving with their perfect record very much in tact…..Fortunately for Coach Ralph Carusillo, unlike us, his players did not fall prey to playing the paper game. Instead, they went out and battled for 48 minutes and when the final whistle blew, it was the host Cougars that ruled the day, pulling the upset, 26-13, over CTK.
Holding the previously unbeaten Royals to their lowest point total in over two years (10/4/14 vs. Xavier), when originally submitting his player of the week nomination, Carusillo made the unusual request of asking if his entire defense could be honored…While we were unable to accommodate that request, we are happy to acknowledge that this victory was without a shadow of doubt a total team effort as the Cougars created eight turnovers (4 INTS, 4 fumble recoveries) and held their Middle Village foes scoreless for the final three quarters…The win on October 22nd , the third in a row for SJB after beginning the season 0-4, has the added benefit of serving as a major confidence booster. Currently sitting in the #6 spot in the Double-A standings, if all goes as expected during the regular season finale next week, Baptist will find themselves on the same side of the bracket as Christ the King, as the two teams could square off in a potential semifinal.
Starring for Baptist in this monumental “w” over the previously 5th ranked team in the state was two-way lineman, Frank Guidice…A towering figure at 6’2 and just under 260 pounds, if it is possible, the 12th grader from Wantagh’s level of play was far larger than his physical measurements, as he emphatically checked out boxes in several statistical defensive categories, recording six tackles (3TFL), a sack and a half, three QB hurries, and forcing a pair of fumbles.
Guidice’s knack for not only knocking the ball loose but also having the field awareness to quickly locate and grab hold of the pigskin proved to be a game-changer for the Cougars as it was his three-yard fumble recovery return for a TD in the second quarter that served as the game-winner, as it snapped a 13-13 tie and sent Baptist into the locker room on a high.
Showered by praise by his mentor/head coach as “One of the top lineman in the league on both sides of the ball,” when Guidice was not busy blowing up opposing O-linemen, he was dominating as usual in the role of pulling guard extraordinaire….An invaluable part to an often uncontainable John the Baptist ground attack, it is not by accident or coincidence that over the course of the last two seasons, a backfield by committee consisting of double digit options has accumulated 5,724 yards and scored 57 touchdowns. While the runners change, the constant in the equation is the big fella opening up craters along the line of scrimmage….Last Saturday, the damage done added up to 257 yards and three TDs among five different ball carriers.
As beastly above the shoulders as he is below, the Honor Role student-athlete is a complete package. His overall body of work in all endeavors have not gone unnoticed by college scouts as he has commanded the attention of the likes of Stony Brook University, Bryant, Marist, and Colgate University….It is with ultimate confidence that we proclaim that his best days on and off of the field await him.
Heron Maurisseau-O’Neal (Jr.); WR – St. Anthony’s Friars
Trailing 23-0 midway through the third quarter on the road against a very motivated Monsignor Farrell squad, all evidence pointed to the fact that last Friday night simply was not meant to go the way of the perennial powerhouse from South Huntington…All of this misfortune and frustration would turn around in an instance though when sophomore QB Greg Campisi, hooked up with 11th grader Heron Maurisseau-O’Neal on a 26-yard strike to get the visiting Friars on the board…While at the time, still trailing by multiple scores, this TD may have seemed minor in the larger scope of the situation, in truth, this first sign of daylight represented the initial spark that ignited a streak of 29 unanswered points over a span of six minutes 15 seconds to catapult STA to a 29-23 victory….Now 5-2 on the year (5-0 in AAA), this win guaranteed that no matter what transpires in week #8, the Friars will be your top-seed in the Triple-A playoffs.
In addition to being one half of the duo that broke the ice, the 6-foot, 175-pound junior wide out also notched the eventual game winner, when he was again on the back end of a Campisi pass, this time from 49-yards out, with 8:23 remaining to put St. Anthony’s in the lead for the first and final time…The nearly 50-yard TD reception marked the first time in his scholastic career that Maurisseau-O’Neal recorded two TDs in the same game.
Fourth on a depth chart that features a trio of talented senior receivers, what stands out the most about the “HMO” is his talent for making something out of every opportunity he gets…Next year after Tyler Palminteri, Andrew Hancock, and Terrence Mooney have all moved on to the collegiate level, it goes without saying that he will naturally ascend into that top target role. When that happens, expect for every game to resemble the 4th of July as this young man has already proven himself worthy of the “All-Firework” team, scoring touchdowns on 33 percent (12 catches, 4 TDs) of his catches in his rookie season on the STA varsity….if he is already this dangerous, imagine how combustible he will be after he and Campisi have developed a deeper rapport.
Tyger Winston (Sr.); WR/DB – Archbishop Stepinac Crusaders
Locked in a back-and-forth game that saw each team take turns holding a slight edge, when St. Peter’s capitalized off of an ill-timed Interception and then scored on a 17-yard TD run a little later to claim a 20-13 lead with just over 2:00 remaining in regulation, momentum was firmly in their corner…But, as they seem to do whenever the occasion calls for it, the defending state champion Crusaders refused to roll over and perish, answering back with a TD of their own to send the game into OT.
The O’Donnell mentored school from White Plains would score on the first possession of overtime, putting all of the pressure on the visiting Eagles….Needing to find the end zone in order to prolong the game, St. Peter’s bid to move up the AAA standing was halted when the 6’3 senior from New Rochelle [Winston] intercepted his second pass of the game to prevent the equalizer.
A part of a Stepinac secondary that has been decimated by the much hated injury bug (lost team captain, Trill Williams), Winston’s senior leadership was invaluable last Saturday as the D-back unit kept opposing quarterback, John Martinos, to under 100 yards passing (94), as he completed only seven of his 16 attempts, getting picked twice as noted above by Winston…Martinos was fresh off of a perfect 19-for-19, 320-yard game that earned him POTW honors in week #6. Thus, to keep him that far in check says a lot about the level that Winston and company were performing at on October 22nd.
Winston complemented his excellent effort on “D” by making a pair of catches for 10 yards.
The 27-20 (OT) home victory snapped a rare two-game losing streak for Stepinac, improving their 2016 record to 3-2 in league play and 5-2 overall…Should the two-time defending AAA titlists win again next week in the regular season finale against Chaminade, they will secure the #2 seed in the postseason.
Lucas Nunez (Jr.); WR/DB – Cardinal Hayes Cardinals
Seeing his team trailing by as many as three scores in the third quarter (27-8) to Holy Cross, it was the Bronx resident, Nunez, that put Hayes on his back, catching all three of his TD receptions in the second half (including the game-winner on a 46-yard Hail Mary on the final play from scrimmage) to turn what looked like a once insurmountable hole into a 36-33 victory…The “w” extended the winning streak for CJ O’Neil’s program to four games, putting them in the hunt for a top-3 seed as we head into the last week of the regular season.
Unlike his counterpart on this week’s list, Welch, when you look at the 5’5, 143-pound junior [Nunez], he does not immediately strike fear in you…But alas, inside that compact frame is the talent of a giant, as he is averaging 29.5 yards per catch this season and half of his 20 receptions have resulted in touchdowns. His 10 TD snatches ranks him first in the AAA division (2nd overall regardless of league) of the CHSFL.
The 11th grader from the Bronx erupted for his first TD of the game when quarterback Christian Anderson, lofted a perfect pass over his shoulder for a 48-yard strike to make the score 28-16….After a 33-yard scoring throw to teammate Carlos Fernandez made the score 27-22 in the third quarter, Nunez gave the Cardinals the edge (30-27) for the first time all evening when he beat his man over the middle from 38-yards out for the first of his two fourth quarter touchdowns….He proved just as elusive on the previously cited game-clincher, shedding his man and giving a distressed Anderson (was on the run) a much easier throw for his 5th and most important TD of the weekend.
Nunez’s stat line last Saturday read as follows: 4 catches, 153 yards, and three TDs….Defensively, he also recorded four tackles and forced a fumble.