By Matt Diano:
#1 St. Anthony’s (6-2) vs. #4 Cardinal Hayes (5-4)
When: Friday November 11th, 2016
Where: St. Anthony’s High School
Time: 7pm
The last time they met:
-St. Anthony’s won a barnburner, 41-40 on October 28th
-STA Senior RB, Tyler Palminteri, scored 3 rushing TDs on nine carries; he finished the game with 84 yards
-STA sophomore QB, Greg Campisi, threw for 162 yards and one TD and ran for an additional two scores, ending the day with 138 ground yards on 14 keepers.
-Andrew Hancock led all Friar receivers with 3 catches for 52 yards and the team’s lone TD reception
-Hayes’ senior signal caller, Christian Anderson, had one of the finest passing performances of his two-year varsity career, tossing for 344 yards (14-for-31) and five touchdowns to finish the game with a QB rating of 125.5
-Cardinals Junior WR, Lucas Nunez, posted his fourth straight multi-TD game, making nine grabs for 276 yards and three touchdowns…He extended that streak to five in a row with a 4 TD showing in a quarterfinal win over St. Peter’s.
-Despite the loss, Cardinal Hayes does have momentum heading into Friday; they trailed 41-18 in the 4th quarter before ending the game on a 22-0 run.
Synopsis:
A rematch of the 2015 CHSFL triple-A semifinals (won by Hayes by a score of a 44-39), the host Friars are going to be as determined as ever to return the favor this weekend….A perennial powerhouse that advanced to the Catholic Football finals for 15 straight seasons (1999-2013), winning 11 crowns during that span, the Rich Reichert mentored program from South Huntington has found themselves in unfamiliar territory the past two seasons, watching the championship game from the stands after a 2014 loss to Iona Prep and the aforementioned defeat a year ago to Hayes.
While their history may not be as rich at the moment, the C.J. O’Neil coached Cardinals will also be full of incentive as they are out to prove that Hayes football is here to stay and that last year’s AAA runner-up finish was just the start of the Catholic League’s newest emerging dynasty.
Both teams will take to the gridiron on Friday playing their best football of the season….After starting 2016 off with only one win in their first three contests, our hosts from Long Island are currently enjoying the perks of a five-game winning streak…..Our fourth seeded road warriors are themselves no strangers to overcoming early adversity to get this far. Hayes’ season got off to an unexpected 0-3 start…However, since that point, they have run off victories in five of their past six games; the lone loss occurring in the regular season finale against this same Friar squad.
A clash of two offensive juggernauts, much like all of their other recent meetings, expect for these two teams to test the durability of the scoreboard by lighting it up with TD after TD….While we discourage betting on the scholastic level, if we were to try to fathom a potential over/under, we’d have to set the figure at no lower than 65 after combining for 81 on October 25th.
For New York State’s #17 ranked St. Anthony’s, expect to see a more well-balanced offense where points can come via the running attack or up in the air…Since being promoted to the varsity and taking over starting responsibilities for the Friars under center, Campisi has yet to lose a game, as he is completing nearly 57 percent of his attempts for 930 yards and 12 touchdowns (compared to only 2 INTS; a 6:1 ratio)…A freak athlete who is headed to the Ivy League for his lacrosse skills, after struggling to break out, Campisi finally showed his dual-threat ability in the first match-up against Hayes as he surpassed 100-yards and scored his only two rushing TDs of the year.
One of the reasons why Campisi has made such a smooth transition to the high level is that talent that he has at his disposal in the slot and out deep…When dropping back to pass, he has a who’s who of pass catchers who possess the ability to be the one to make a difference….On paper, Andrew Hancock (25, 457, 5) and Terrence Mooney (15, 365, 4) are the senior leaders that you need to keep an eye on…But alas, if you overcompensate in trying to contain them, an individual such as Heron Maurisseau-O’Neal, has all the tools to be the hidden gem. The 6’0 junior averages a TD catch every three receptions, as four of his 12 grabs have yielded a 6 on the board.
Rushing wise, STA has found the end zone 18 times in 2016, led b
y co-#1s in the category, Palminteri (29 carries, 192 yards; also the team leader in receptions with 32) and Sean Bryan (57 touches, 467 yards) who have each scored six….Even though he has not been as significant a TD threat, Dion Williams and his 462 yards of ground production is another person out of the Friar backfield that you must always account for.
While the Hayes rushing attack is capable, of late, the story has been the fireworks that has been decorating the sky….Among the state leaders (per Max Preps) in touchdowns passes thrown with 28, Anderson (who also leads the team in almost all rushing categories) and his partner in crime, Nunez, have been out-of-this-world good during the back half of the season…Teaming up for 17 TD passes this year, including four already in the playoffs, if STA is not able to find a person capable of matching Nunez’s speed, then there is no reason why he should not continue to be the hottest receiver in the Empire State…Emmanuel Oliver, has been a fantastic complementary piece to the aerial firepower, as he has posted a 30+ catch season as an 11th grader…Carlos Fernandez (over 600 yards of total offense) and Elijah Jones (had a 67-yard TD catch last weekend) are also known to create a spark when necessary for the “Bronx Bombers”.
Defensively, look for the defensive lines and linebackers to be the impact players….For St. Anthony’s, their front four, anchored by Danny Lord and Nicholas Greer, and the linebacking corps captained by Charles Barsella have held opponents not named Cardinal Hayes to under 20ppg….Nick Scozzari and Nick Espada will need to be at the top of their games from the defensive secondary if they hope to make Nunez like mortal.
Damir Bligen (leader in tackles and TFL), Juan Rosario Jr. (leader in sacks; had a fumble return for a TD + an iNT last week), Jay-len Anderson and Terrell Alexander stir the drink up front, while Sofian Massoud (team leader in picks), Nunez, Randy Brito, and Jose Franco will be called upon to prevent STA’s super sophomore and his list of merry men from getting going aerially.
#2 Monsignor Farrell (7-2) vs. #3 Archbishop Stepinac (7-2)
When: Saturday November 12th, 2016
Where: Monsignor Farrell High School
Time: Noon
The last time they met:
-Monsignor Farrell won a barnburner, 23-20 on October 15th
-Farrell placekicker, Paul Inzerillo, went 2-for-2 on 4th quarter FG attempts (3-for-4 overall), kicking a 53-yarder and then a game-winning 36-yarder with 11 seconds remaining in regulation
-Lions QB, Frank Patalano, completed 13-for-24 pass attempts for 267 yards and two touchdowns
-MF running back, Gavin Monreale, averaged over six yards per carry, finishing the game with 125 yards on 20 touches.
-Farrell wide receiver, Rocco Miraglia, had a career afternoon, racking up 219 yards and caught both of Patalano’s TD passes as he concluded the day with six overall receptions
-Farrell’s linebacking trio of Robert Froner (13), John Kelly III (12), and Jake Valensi (11) all notched double digit tackle games….Froner suffered a serious injury in the 4th quarter and has not played since
-Stepinac first-year varsity QB, Michael Nicosia, had a solid day, throwing a pair of TD passes of his own on 11-for-21 for 148 yards.
-Antonio Giannico, who has been hampered by injuries for much of his senior season, had a 100-yard running game, ending with 103 on 16 carries.
-Jonathan Gomez, who scored the only rushing TD of the contest, had a modest day by his standards (35 yards on 12 carries), but was explosive as a special teamer, returning a kickoff 80 yards.
-Louis Blackwell, Devonte Myles, and Izayah Powell all tied for the team lead in stops for Stepinac with eight apiece….Blackwell and Powell each forced a fumble as well.
Synopsis:
A game that was so back and forth and competitive that the winner was not decided until the final 11 seconds (Inzerillo’s field goal), expect the return affair to be just as legendary, with the visitors, Stepinac, focused on keeping their trek for a third straight AAA title intact, while the 2nd-seeded Lions consider 2016 to be their best chance for hardware since last winning it all in 1999 and 2000 (runners-up in 1998).
Unlike the STA/Hayes game where we are fully expecting points to be fast and plentiful, this classic #2 vs. #3 match-up could go either way in terms of how the day is won….While both teams are immensely talented on both sides of the ball, if we had to pinpoint a single unit that could end up being the keys to victory when the clock strikes 3pm on this Saturday, it would be the MF defense, who ranked 1st in AAA (and 3rd in all of the CHSFL behind Class-A schools, Xaverian and Moore Catholic)…In their nine games this season, the Lions “D” have posted two shutouts and held all but two (both losses) of their opponents to 20 points or less to average just a little over 14ppg surrendered….Because this cohort has the capability of being so dominant, it could be suggested that the lower the final score, the higher the probability that it will be the host school that is celebrating with their helmets raised high above head.
While Kelly (who has drawn interest from the University of Notre Dame; took a campus visit two weeks ago for the Irish’s win over Miami) is the surefire linchpin on defense, totaling 90 tackles, six sacks, 12 QB hurries and an INT (last week in a 31-13 QF win over Holy Cross), It should be mentioned that Valensi (62), Sean Koppenheffer (49), Adley Raboy (CHSFL week #1 POTW recipient; expected to return from injury this week), and Anthony Mangi (40) have all averaged five or more tackles per game…Raboy’s sack total of six ties him with Kelly for the top spot on the squad.
Chris Taliercio and Monreale, who both perform double-duty, staring in the defensive backfield, as well as on offense (starting WR and RB) join with James DePalma in patrolling the secondary…The trio has been responsible for 23 of Farrell’s 37 successful pass defenses.
Tasked with trying to solve the mystique of the Farrell defense will be Stepinac’s Triple-A leading Offense, who has scored 40+ points in back-to-back wins over Chaminade and are averaging 34 points per game this season (38.4 in their seven wins).
Following in the growing tradition of elite quarterbacks, first-year starter Michael Nicosia may not yet be the equal to Tyquell Fields (2015 AAA Offensive Player of the Year), but he is well on his way to having a great two-year varsity career as he is completing just under 60 percent of his throws, connecting on 127 of 215 attempts for 1,655 yards and 17 TDs….Eight of those 17 touchdown tosses were to breakout senior star, Brandon Gasparre, who led the Crusaders with 32 catches for 616 yards.
Even more powerful has been the two-headed running back combo of Giannico and Gomez, who have earned 1,441 of the team’s 1,946 yards on the ground…Gomez, who transferred to AS for his senior year, leads Giannico, 7-6 for the Stepinac lead in TD runs.
Perhaps overshadowed by their league #1 counter units, the Farrell offense and the Stepinac defense are not to be overlooked by any means…. Farrell’s “O” is producing 27.3 points and the AS “D” is only yielding 21.7…Thus, there are potential heroes here as well.
Patalano has a 58 percent completion rate and tossed nine TD passes this season….Miraglia has racked up 580 yards and four TDs as the Lions’ #1 receiving option, and Monreale is a definite All-League and potential All-State candidate, as he brings a 147.6 yards per game (1,328) and 13 TDs with him into the weekend.
Shining for the Stepinac defense has been Blackwell (team leader with 78 tackles), junior safety, Justin Hairston (2nd in tackles and pass defenses with 76 and 7 respectively; tied for the team lead with 3 INTs), Gene Brown (68 tackles, three sacks), Myles (60 tackles, 7 pass breakups), and Powell (59 tackles; high man on the totem pole with five sacks).
While they have done a fabulous job coming together to overcome his loss, Stepinac will without question miss Trill Williams on both sides of the ball…In addition to being among the best cornerbacks in the northeast, the junior classman is such a rare specimen of athlete that you could line him up anywhere on offense and he’d find a way to make something special happen from that spot.
Best of luck to all teams this weekend!