By Matt Diano:
#2 Monsignor Farrell (6-2) vs. #7 Holy Cross (2-6)
When: Saturday November 5th, 2016
Where: Monsignor Farrell High School
Time: 6pm
The last time they met:
-Farrell won 33-7 on September 25th
–Gavin Monreale ran for 206 of the Lions’ 270 ground yards and scored three of their four rushing TDs
-Frank Patalano completed 8 of his 9 pass attempts for 112 yards
-Junior linebacker, John Kelly, led Farrell with 11 tackles, 2 sacks, and forced 2 fumbles
-The Farrell defense held Holy Cross senior signal caller, Christian Valdez to 3-for-11 passing for only 16 yards and an INT.
Synopsis:
Farrell came within one bad half of earning the top-seed in the AAA playoffs….Of the seven teams in the CHSFL, they seem to be the most consistent on both sides of the ball…On offense, Monreale has looked unstoppable at times, surpassing 100 yards on six separate occasions, and 200 yards three times (including the aforementioned 206 against the Knights)
Fresh off of a shutout against cross town rival, St. Peter’s, the Lions’ defense should be firing on all cylinders and it is unlikely that Holy Cross should expect to score more than 7-14 points against such a stout unit….What this means is that in order to pull off the upset, HC is going to need to make it a low scoring affair. The way to do this is to incorporate a ball control offense where clock can be eaten up and the likes of Monreale and Patalano can be kept off of the field….Despite the one-sided loss at the beginning of the season, the knights did not have success on the ground, averaging more than 5 yards per carry to total a163 rushing yards (led by Valdez who accumulated 61 yards on six touches).
On paper, there is no doubt that Farrell is a heavy favorite based on how the season as a whole has transpired…If Holy Cross does not have a major advantage in possession time, life could become very difficult for the Queens based school…The more their Staten Island opponent is allowed to work with the ball, the more likely it is that we will see a repeat of earlier in the year.
#3 Archbishop Stepinac (6-2) vs. #6 Chaminade (4-4)
When: Sunday November 6th, 2016
Where: Archbishop Stepinac HS
Time: 1pm
The last time they met:
-Stepinac won 41-17 on October 29th
-Junior QB Michael Nicosia threw three TD passes (including a pair to Brandon Gasparre) to end the day 12-for-22 for 187 yards and a quarterback rating of 122.5
-Led by a pair of 100+ yard runners (Antonio Giannico, 120 yards on 19 carries and 1 TD; Jonathan Gomez, 100 yards on 9 touches), the Crusaders racked up 308 yards on the ground.
-Devonte Myles was named a POTW for week #9 following a 9 tackles, fumble return for TD effort
-Sophomore Shawn Harris had a 75-yard Punt return for a TD
Synopsis:
For a second straight year, the Crusaders and the Flyers will face off in the opening round of the Triple-A playoffs…And like last year’s 50-3 quarterfinal win, all signs point at the two-time defending champions advancing to the semifinal round for the fourth consecutive season….
Despite having had to overcome the loss of their top weapon, Trill Williams, the Michael O’Donnell coached Crusaders just seem to find a way to always be in title contention….They truly have become a program that does not rebuild, but rather reloads….To some schools, having to replace three-straight State recognized signal callers would prove impossible; Stepinac did It with ease as Nicosia has not skipped a beat from where Tyquell Fields left off in 2015….He Is completing nearly 60 percent of his passes and has tossed 17 TD passes (including the trifecta against the ‘Nade last weekend).
Stepinac is just as potent on the ground as Giannico and Gomez have combined to total 1,160 of the team’s 1,530 yards….If you factored in a healthy Williams, you would be talking about the best 1-2-3 punch in all of Catholic football…In fact, it is our belief that if not for the injury bug costing them their stud junior, the Westchester based powerhouse would likely have been entering this weekend as the odds-on favorites to claim crown #3.
While we may not be picking them to win on the Lord’s day this weekend, Chaminade, despite their sixth seed, is a team that really rose up and proved a lot of their doubters wrong by posting a .500 record under first-year HC, Kevin Dolan….As one of only two teams this season (#1 seed St. Anthony’s being the other) to get the best of Monsignor Farrell, the Mineola located squad has shown flashes of brilliance. However, when you consider that this same team lost by multiple TDs only a week ago to the Crusaders, it is difficult to predict a complete reversal of fortune….For whatever reason, Stepinac just seems to have the Crimson *& Gold’s number over the course of the last few seasons…None of their previous contests in 2015 and 2016 have been particularly close, so despite the potential for Chaminade to be lights out, the simple fact is that logic and recent history goes against their argument.
If Chaminade was to make a game of it this weekend, it is probably because senior quarterback/lacrosse standout, Matt Chmil, played the game of his life….A Duke commit as a midfielder, more than one opposing CHSFL coach has shared that his athleticism alone makes him dangerous at all times….A more polished runner than he is a pure passer, the week #1 Player of the Week recipient can beat you with all of his limbs.
#4 Cardinal Hayes (4-4) vs. #5 St. Peter’s (4-4)
When: Saturday November 5th, 2016
Where: Mott Haven
Time: 6pm
The last time they met:
-Hayes won 33-14 on October 8th
-Christian Anderson totaled 5 touchdowns, throwing for 304 yards and three scores while also running for an additional two touchdowns (38 yards on 9 touches)
-Hayes jumped out to a 27-0 lead at the half
-Lucas Nunez started his streak of multiple touchdown games by catching two TD passes (3 receptions overall) and piling up close to 200 yards receiving….He has now caught two or more TD balls in four consecutive games and has 13 on the year.
-Junior DT Juan Rosario Jr. had a 3 sack, 9 tackle game
-The Hayes defensive secondary picked off Eagles’ QB, John Martinos, three times, holding him to 124 yards on 12-for-25 in the air.
-The Hayes defensive unit held heralded STP running back, Bobby Wing, to his lowest rushing total of 2016, as the man who Is accustomed to 150-200 yard games was limited to 83 on 20 carries
Synopsis:
If you were to ask us who was going to win this game after week #3, I think the general consensus would have been strongly in the favor of Mark DeCristoforo’s Eagles….However, during the course of the last five weeks, there has been a definitive change in the way the wind is blowing and all of the momentum heading into Saturday is on the side of the CJ O’Neil mentored Cardinals….And this shifting of the gusts can unquestionably be traced back to their previous meeting when the then 1-3 Cardinals picked up their first AAA league victory en route to finishing the regular season winning four of their final five contests (only loss was a 41-40 barnburner in week #8 against St. Anthony’s).
On the flipside, after a perfect 3-0 start that had the pundits talking about a potential finals berth for the Eagles, the Staten Island school finds itself heading into the most important games of the year in the midst of a slump….Not including a 48-2 drubbing of St. Francis Prep (AA), St. Peter’s lost their last four games of the season against league opponents, including being held to outputs of 6 (St. Anthony’s), 14 (Hayes), and zero (Farrell) in three of these four key contests…
The best way to phrase it is that these two schools appear headed in opposite directions, with the returning AAA runners-up [Hayes] getting hot at the perfect time, while the two-time semifinalist Eagles are limping into the postseason.
All of the clichés having been utilized and whatnot, this is a game that we most certainly intend to focus on because regardless of recent performances, we consider this quarterfinal a toss-up because Wing, along with the STP defense all possess the skills necessary to upset the apple cart….If unlike their previous meeting, the senior tailback is able to come out of the gates strong, who is to say what might materialize as a result of early good fortune…So many times over the course of the last two years we have seen Wing take over games, dominate time of possession and break (both mentally and physically) the opposing defense.
And even if Wing only has a good game (by his standards), the Eagles are not short on other potential game-changing student-athletes….Take for instance the person of sophomore wideout, Chris Ledlum…At a time when his team may have been underperforming, the 10th grader has emerged as one of the top underclassmen receivers in the Empire State….It also was not long ago that Martinos posted a perfect 19-for-19 passing game; thus, we have already seen what he is capable of doing when he is in the zone.
Defensively, A.J. Mistler is one of the top defensive backs in the Catholic Football League….If he can find a way to keep Nunez under control, then that one factor could lead to an entirely different outcome.
Switching our concentration to Hayes, the scouting report is simple; these guys are athletic and if we have learned nothing from the successes that programs such as Hayes and Stepinac have enjoyed in the last few seasons, it is that speed kills….Anderson is the epitome of a dual-threat QB, so if you drop extra people into coverage, he will not hesitate to take off and eat you alive with his legs. His six TD runs represent half of the ground scoring done in 2016 by the boys from the Bronx.
Aerially, we have already suggested that there may not be a better tandem in the northeast than Anderson to Nunez….The way these two stars have been aligned the last half of the regular season was a thing of beauty. It Is almost as if they are playing a fun little game of pitch and catch out there with no opponent attempting to stop them….Emmanuel Oliver (who actually leads the Cardinals with 34 receptions) is another dangerous target to whom Anderson can look if Nunez is drawing double coverage…..And you can never discount or overlook the versatility of junior running back, Carlos Fernandez, who is anything and everything his team needs at a given moment….A pass catching threat out of the backfield, Fernandez has run for 321 yards and produced another 251 with his steady hands.