#1 Archbishop Stepinac (8-2) vs. #5 Cardinal Hayes (8-2)
When: Saturday November 11th, 2023 @1:30pm
Where: Archbishop Stepinac HS Campus (950 Mamaroneck Ave, White Plains, NY 10605)
Watch: LocalLive (Stepinac Page)
Previous Meeting: Cardinal Hayes, 33-28, on October 1st (Week #4)
Overview: A back-and-forth game that went down to the wire when the two prestigious programs met in week #4, the top-seeds out of White Plains [Stepinac] were driving late in the contest and had advanced the ball inside the opposing 10-yard line when a 4th down pass attempt into the end zone fell incomplete in the last 24 ticks to spoil the comeback bid!
We anticipate the rematch this Saturday to be every bit as good as its predecessor as both the Crusaders and the Cardinals enter the afternoon playing their best football of 2023, as the former [AS] have not tasted defeat since that loss and are riding a 5-game streak that has seen them outscore their foes by an average of 40.2 to 14.2…The latter [Hayes] have strung together a 3-game rally (42.7 to 10.7 average margin), including being fresh off of avenging one of their two losses this season when they dethroned the 2022 Metro Catholic and CHSAA State Champions, St. Anthony’s, 42-14, in the quarterfinals last weekend!
A mano-a-mano clash at the quarterback position between the individuals that in some order have to be regarded as the #1 and #2 favorites to win the NYCHSFL “AAA” Offensive Player of the Year Award, neither gentlemen disappointed on October 1st, as Stepinac senior, Will Currid, connected on 22-of-32 throw attempts for 305 yards and a 3 touchdown hurls; while his junior counterpart, Rich Belin, was altogether unstoppable, as he chucked for 295 yards and 2 TDs in the air (12-of-22), which also tacking on additional 109 yards (2 more scores) on 12 keepers!!!….With 64 combined touchdowns between themselves this fall, if weather conditions are suitable, you just know that they are getting to treat the audience to a show on November 11th!!
Since the previous meeting, the running back dynamic has also been altered, as in addition to Lorenzo Robinson (180 yards, 1 TD on 21 hand-offs on 10/1), the hosts from Stepinac have welcomed back the second-head of their two-headed backfield beast in the person of Jordan Osbourne, who after being limited to just 5 yards (1 touchdown) on 2 carries last month, is fully healthy, as evident by his POTW performance in the regular season where when he ran for 175 yards and 2 TDs and caught a 29-yard touchdown pass against STA…For the visiting Cardinals, 1,200-yard rusher, Kenneth Antoine, was bottled up during week #4 (33 yards on 12 tries), but we are expecting to see a much different version of him during this go-round, as he has been en fuego of late, racking up 402 yards and 3 touchdowns the past two weeks (166 +2 in the quarterfinals versus St. Anthony’s)….
As further illustration of the evenly matched manpower that each program boasts, the WR corps are loaded on both sidelines, as seven different receivers (excluding running backs) have 19 or more catches this fall, with Stepinac’s Troy Worrell & Darison Hooper, leading the parade with stat lines of 40 (659 yards, 4 touchdowns) and 37 (573 yards, 8 touchdowns), while the likes of Eli Garcia (32 grabs, 729 yards, 4 TDs) & Cleveland Charlton (28 receptions, 789 yards, 8 touchdowns) are not far behind on behind Hayes….All four of these studs were prominent during week #4, as Worrell (8) and Hooper (5; 2 touchdowns) each went over 100 yards receiving on the day; Garcia went off for 121 yards/1 score on 3 receptions, while Charlton contributed 3 hauls for 47 yards….Don’t sleep on Reid Jones either for C.H., as he was able to amass 106 yards and score once on 4 snatches in October!….Zaire Spellman (Stepinac) was held to a single catch for 6 yards, but his seasonal totals (28 for 384, 2 touchdowns) tell us that he is not about to be silent again in a game of this magnitude!!
Defensively, all three levels of both defenses are extremely talented, but are going to be challenged non-stop because of the endless assortment of weapons cited above!!
Each DL features a likely future Power-5 conference student-athlete in the persons of Kadear Dembele (Stepinac) and Blake Belin (Hayes), and trust us when we say that both are game-changers…Dembele especially was lights out last month, as he wrapped up the afternoon with 11 total stops, 6 TFLs, and a hat trick of QB bags….Belin notched his own sack to go along with 3 total tackles!
The effectiveness of the linebackers will also be a big deciding factor as Eddie Palumbo (11 tackles, 3 TFLs, 2 sacks), Morgyn Howell-Browne (10 stops, 3 TFLs, 1 sack), and Julian Ramos (7 tackles, 3 stops for losses, 2 sacks) were all active/impactful for the Crusaders… The Cardinals will rely on Abdoul Bah (10 stops, 1 TFL), Souleymane Diallo (8 stops, 1 TFL), Ayden Smartt (8 tackles) to play as well, if not even better during the rematch…A squad that has been hampered by the injury bug a bit this season, Hayes seems to be healthy, which means that individuals such as Giovanni Downer & Aldrich Boakye, who did not even appear in the box score, will bolster the unit!
The blend of seasoned veterans—Samuel Madu, Deonte Douglas, and Damon Smith, with blue chip junior, Garrison Heslop, gives Stepinac one of the most formidable secondaries in all of New York State…As a unit, this group collected 28 tackles (11 by Douglas) and broke up 8 passes (4 by Madu; 2 each by Smith and Heslop)…Hence, Corey Rock, Tyrone Smith, Raymond Cruz, and Ray Boyd, all of whom were remarkable throughout the year, will have a big task ahead of them as they try to match the production of their opponents!
As one final note, should this be another 47:30-minute war that is not settled until the waning moments, if a clutch kick is needed, the clear advantage belongs to Stepinac’s Marco Graci, who in addition to being almost automatic on his PAT/FG attempts, is also quite adept at dictating field position, as his booming and accurate leg has been known to bury many a rival inside their own territory!…Graci placed three punts inside the 20 on October 1st and added a touchback on a KO as a demonstration of how his presence is felt as a specialist!
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#2 Iona Prep (7-3) vs. #3 Monsignor Farrell (8-2)
When: Friday November 10th, 2023 @6pm
Where: Wellington T. Mara Field on the campus of Iona Prep (255 Wilmot Rd, New Rochelle, NY 10804)
Watch: LocalLive (Iona Prep Page)
Previous Meeting: Iona Prep, 31-20, on September 30th (Week #4)
Overview: Definitely a game that the third-seeded Lions would love to get back, when the two programs collided during week #4, Farrell enjoyed respective leads of 14-0 and 20-7 before the host Gaels stormed back to strike for 24 unanswered points in the final 25 minutes of action!!!
Playing marquee roles in the midst of the comeback effort would be a the backfield tandem of junior quarterback, Joseph Gaston (23-of-35 in the air for 254 yards and 2 TDs; 66 yards and one additional touchdown on 8 carries), & sophomore RB, Kadin Huling, who recorded his only century-mark outing of the fall when he darted for 109 yards and one touchdown on 12 carries. Huling also hauled in an 8-yard grab as a display of his versatility!!…Crew Davis (17 yards on 2 carries; 7 receptions for 57 yards) may have been quiet on the ground, but more than compensated for his lack of rushing yardage by showing himself to be the ultimate universal weapon as a pass-catcher out of the backfield…Keep an eye on Kyseem Springer too, as the senior hailing from the bronze is fresh off of a 2TD effort in the quarterfinal win over Kellenberg!
Among the wideouts, Steven Dowdy Jr., has separated himself from the rest of his peers during the second half of the year, as he heads into the semifinals having hauled in 24 passes for 387 yards and 7 touchdowns in the past weekends (including a 3-grab, 111-yard, 2TD performance last week)….Dowdy Jr., turned on a monster game on September 30th, as topped all Gaels with 9 snatches for 107 yards and 1TD versus the MF secondary!…Dylan Iorgoveanu was a solid complement, making 2 grabs for 33 yards!
Defensively, the gents from New Rochelle have grown stronger with each passing week, as Zakar Morris, Jaylin Hicks, Brennen Pressley, Alex Truelsen, Declan McCauley, and Victor Huttinot form a front-7 that in the previous meeting were able to limit their Staten Island rivals to 114 yards rushing (second lowest total of the season) and no touchdowns (only time all year they did not have at least one TD on land)….
An experienced secondary comprised of Jaden Codrington, Terron Johnson, Matthew Davitt, Adande Nartey, etc., have the ability to erase any team’s receiving corps and are quite good as earning takeaways, as was the case when Davitt banked a pair of INTs…
On the other sideline will be a hungry Rocco Del Priore mentored cohort that surprised some pundits when they advanced to the 2021 AAA finale (before losing to IP), but will be less of a Cinderella story if they prevail this coming weekend!
Unbeaten since the loss to the Gaels in Week #4, all the Amboy Road hammers have done in the subsequent wins is beat the defending League/State Champions, St. Anthony’s, as well as a Holy Trinity team that had won back-to-back NYCHSFL crowns in 2021 and 2022…
Pitching two shutouts and allowing no more than 21 points during any appearance during this ongoing 5-game streak of prosperity, DEFENSE has been the word of the day in Staten Island for the past month-plus!!!
Even in the games where they have lost, the “D” has never failed to make some noise, which was especially true in the loss to the Gaels in late-September when it was Michael Zaremba (6 tackles) & Michael Barzal (2 tackles) each logging pick-6s from distances of 50 and 35 yards to account for the only two touchdowns on the board for MF!!!
And believe it or not, the Lion DL might be the strength of the unit as a whole thanks to the person of—-Yasire Dejesus (5 stops, 1 QB hurry in week #4) & Seth Clarke (4 tackles, 1 sack, 1 induced/recovered fumble during the previous meeting), who were back-to-back POTW selections in week 8 and the quarterfinals, and quite frankly are capable of inflicting more pain than they did on September 30th, as proven by a track record that boasts combined totals of 21 TFLs and 13 sacks!!!….Factor in the likes of Louis Martinez (6 tackles, 2 QB hurries, 1 punt block) and you have the makings of a trio in the trenches that are were born to create chaos!
Mikai Gamble (5 stops, 1 TFL, 1 QB hurry), Gerard Sheehan (6 tackles), Joseph Giovanelli (team-high 7 stops), and Zaremba provide that next wave at LB…
And Will Andrade (7 stops, 1 TFL, 1 PD), Nicholas Souffrin (4 tackles), and Brendan Mullen (3 stops, 1 PD) complemented Barzal by rising to the occasion during week #4…
The offense really coming alive during the late part of the regular season and keeping that mojo going, Farrell has accrued games of 27, 32, 28, and 36 points in their past four outings and this explosion can best be attributed to the junior tailback, Nafis Muhammad, flipping a switch and elevating his game to an entirely different level, as the 170-pound hometown kid has detonated to the tune of 276, 66, 101, and 128 yards (4 total TDs) in weeks 6 through the quarterfinals….Muhammad was held to 40 yards (12 attempts) by the Gael “D” in September; so expect for him to step on the field with a chip on his shoulder looking to make amends!
If Muhammad is the potential head-turner that supplies the spark to the “O”, then it is poise and senior leadership of QB/WR partners—Cristian Pinto & Souffrin, that imparts the wisdom, confidence, and security when the ball belongs to the Lions…
Both carryovers from that 2021 team that earned the berth in the ship, Pinto, the three-year starter, knows what it takes to pass this test and we believe that his dual-threat capabilities will be on full display yet again after hitting on 9-of-16 for 116 yards with his arm and rushing for 52 yards on 10 carries during week #4…
Souffin’s defensive prowess was more pronounced when he played in the semis as a sophomore (had a key INT); but in the seasons since, he has evolved into a gem on both sides of the ball, which he showed via a 4-catch, 45-yard outing on 9/30!!!
As a much-deserved plug/endorsements of both kickers, let it be known whether you are Coach Spagnolo or Del Priore, if victory is to be determined by a clutch field goal, both staffs ought to feel VERY encouraged, as Sam Bisesi (IP) & Chris DiGiacomo (MF) are two of the finest specialists in the entire northeast….Of the seven combined PATs and/or FGs attempted by them on September 30th, the result was a perfect 7-for-7 (Bisesi: 4/4 on PATs; 1/1 with a 37 FG….. DiGiacomo 2/2 on PATs; 2/2 on FGs with a long of 49)….Blessed with cannons for legs, both can flip the field as their team’s punter as an added bonus!