By Matt Diano: While the rest of us were at home preparing for our respective Thanksgiving feasts, seven of the CHSFL’s finest were out nice and early this morning to take part in annual holiday contests.
Featuring a pair of All-Catholic battles between Fordham Prep/Xavier and Cardinal Hayes/Mount St. Michael Academy, 2016 also witnessed the return of the classic Westchester rivalry between Archbishop Stepinac and White Plains, as well as the commencement of two new traditions as St. Peter’s squared off against Tottenville in a battle for Staten Island bragging rights, and Holy Cross went toe-to-toe with Campus Magnet to determine who the kings of Queens would be.
No doubt working up a nice appetite for their individual “postgame” banquets, when the final whistles blew, it was the [FP] Rams, [HC] Knights, [CH] Cardinals, and [Step] Crusaders all claiming victory….St. Peter’s may have fallen, but did themselves proud as they pushed a very good Pirate opponent to the very brink.
Fordham Prep-21; Xavier-18
In one of the oldest high school rivalries in all of the nation (today marked the 93rd edition), the host Rams rallied from an 18-13 4th quarter deficit to take the lead for good when junior quarterback, Matt Valecce hit fellow 11th grader, Liam McHale (TE) on a touchdown strike with 2:18 remaining in regulation and then ran in the 2pt conversion himself to account for the final tally….A 42-yard hook & lat just prior was essential in setting up the score.
The game-winning toss to McHale was the third of the game for the All-State signal caller as he had previously connected with his favorite target, Will Loffredo, twice in the first quarter to give his school an early 13-0 lead….Valecce, who went 20-for-30 for 305 yards today to conclude 2016 with a 27 TD pass season, will enter his swan song next fall on track to further secure his legacy in the NYS record book. Currently he sits 9th all-time in passing yards and 11th in touchdowns thrown….Per the New York Sportswriters Association, his three TD game today broke a tie with Tony Capozzoli (St. Dom’s; 1972-1975) for top CHSFL honors. He now has 71 in his career.
Playing in the final game of his high school career, even if the scoreboard did not go in his favor, Ifeany Emeh will have plenty of fond memories to hold onto as he goes out on a personal high note, scoring all three of Xavier’s touchdowns….His first score came on a 25-yard dash with 1:25 remaining in the first quarter to get Coach Chris Stevens’s squad on the board….Right before the halftime break, he cut the deficit to within one point when he was on the back end of a 28-yard TD toss…His longest scoring play of the game came with just over 6:00 to go in the third quarter when it was again his explosive legs taking him 35 yards into the promised land to give the Knights their first advantage of the game….Emeh entered the game having not recorded a TD on the ground all season and only had one in total.
Fordham Prep ends the season with a .500 record (5-5), while surprise AA semifinalist, Xavier, slips to 3-8.
Cardinal Hayes-43; Mount St. Michael-24
It took 74 editions, but for the first time in history, Cardinal Hayes has won the Turkey Bowl for a fourth consecutive season, as they traveled on the road to defeat a very determined and fired up Mountaineer squad.
Utilizing the full depth of their star-studded roster, five different student-athletes found the end zone for Hayes on Thursday morning, with only player [junior RB, Carlos Fernandez] scoring multiple touchdowns.
The 2016 AAA champions wasted little time drawing first blood as it was the most prolific pass/catch duo in New York State hooking up on the first drive of the game as Christian Anderson tossed a 40-yard touchdown pass to Lucas Nunez (his 20th TD reception of the year) to give the favored Cardinals the early 7-0 lead.
Following a Mount TD + two-point conversation (David Lopez on a 1-yard run] to briefly take the lead, Fernandez posted the first of his aforementioned pair of TDs when he “danced in” (borrowed from journalist, Greg Thompson) from one yard out to put Hayes back In front 15-8 at the end of 12 minutes.
Triple-A title game Defensive Outstanding Player, Tahshawn Brinson, who could emerge as a potential replacement under center for Anderson in 2017, demonstrated that he is pretty darn good on the offensive side of the ball as well, as he logged the only score of the second quarter, breaking tacklers and cruising 10 yards to send Coach O’Neil’s program into the locker room up 22-8.
Hayes and the Mount exchanged touchdowns in the third quarter, as the hosts were successful on the initial drive of the second half as Justin Montoyo’s 1-yard journey on the ground brought the Mountaineers to within 22-16….Hayes, as they seem to be able to do on command, had an answer, as Anderson tossed his 2nd TD of the game (34th of the season) when he teamed up with junior, Elijah Jones, on an 8-yarder to make the score 30-16.
Already up by a comfortable two-score margin, Hayes put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter, notching their second and third unanswered touchdowns behind a a Fernandez 6-yard trek and a Nasier Salgado’s first TD run of the year from the MSM 5-yard line…The Mount tacked on a safety off of a bad snap and ended the year on a positive when they punched in one final score following Yasir Gibbs’s fumble recovery.
Mount St. Michael sees their 2016 campaign wrap up with a 3-6 record….Hayes (8-4) still has some unfinished business as they will play one of the biggest games in program history on December 4th when they head to Fordham University to faceoff with Monsignor Martin titlists, Canisius, to decide who will become the CHSAA State Champions….The third year the game is beginning contested, thus far, upstate and downstate have split.
Stepinac-49; White Plains-32
Back after a three-year hiatus (had previously played every year since 1971), the quest for backyard bragging rights actually got off to a great start for the 3-6 public school team as they built a 12-0 lead behind two rushing touchdowns compliments of junior running back, Glenmour Osbourne, who proved his worth from far (48 yard rush for first TD) and near (4-yarder)…He added two additional TDs (12, 41) on the ground before the half to finish the game with four in total.
Needing a response in order to flip momentum and prevent the upset, it was sophomore Shawn Harris stepping to the plate and hitting it out of the park not once, not twice, but three times during the remainder of the first half to help Head Coach, Mike O’Donnell’s cohort to a high-scoring 35-26 advantage at the intermission.
Harris, who darn-near had the play of the season last week when he caught a 43-yard Hail Mary TD pass in the final half minute to keep Stepinac’s hopes for a third straight league crown intact, was every bit as flashy and clutch in bringing his team back from the early deficit this morning, returning a kickoff 73 yards, and catching respective 42 and 61-yard strikes from junior field general Mike Nicosia….Jonathan Gomez (2yrd TD run) and Tyger Winston (42-yard fumble recovery) also were big in the comeback effort.
Electing to give some younger players some in anticipation for the future, Stepinac added two insurance scores in the second half as Tyler Winston ran in a 7-yard QB keeper and J.V. call-up, Joey Carino hit Isaiah Walker on a 15-yard TD pass to increase the lead to 49-26 with 4:24 remaining in the third quarter.
With less than two minutes on the clock, White Plains made the score closer when someone other than Osbourne tacked on a 6 on Thomas Pace’s 2-yard run.
Stepinac concludes 2016 with a strong 9-3 overall record.
Tottenville-36; St. Peter’s-35
The most exciting of our Turkey Day games, this Staten Island war was so competitive that the winner was not decided until the final 21 ticks of regulation when the visiting Pirates scored a TD on a 47-yard pass to senior WR Tim Barrow and added the 2pt conversion to steal the victory.
A game of rallies, Tottenville jumped out to a 14-0 edge when quarterback, Jason Feldman, ran a TD in from three-yards out and then connected with Michael Jones on a 29-yard toss with 11:51 remaining in the opening half.
Peter’s responded with back-to-back TDs of their own, with their senior signal caller adding a QB keeper of his own from the 1-yard line, followed by a 17-yard TD trek from All-Everything tailback, Bobby Wing to even the score at 14 with 5:31 to play in the 2nd quarter.
Feldman added his second ground TD of the game (another 3-yard) in the last 30 seconds of the second quarter and then tacked on his fourth overall TD in the final 4:00 of the third (2-yard run) to give Tottenville a 28-14 edge with just 12 minutes remaining.
Queue another STP rally as just about the entire 4th quarter went the way of the Eagles, as Wing powered his way from 4-yards-out into the end zone 1:50 into the final quarter of his high school career to cut the hole to 28-21….Approximately five minutes later, it was a Martinos to sophomore Chris Ledlum hook-up from 23-yards away that knotted the game at 28.
After stuffing Feldman on 4th down with a little less than 3:00 remaining in regulation, Peter’s took their first and only lead of the game when Martinos threw his second touchdown pass of the game with 1:01 still to play…This time, the stud on the other end of the pitch-catch was fellow 12th grader, A.J. Mistler, who snagged the pigskin from 30-yards away to set up a 2-yard Wing TD run.
Unfortunately, on a field where no one could call themselves “loser” and the fans were the ultimate winners, Tottenville had one last hurrah left in their beings, as Feldman and the Pirates simply refused to walk the plank and accept defeat.
Holy Cross-54; Campus Magnet-16
Happy Thanksgiving to all!