Category: Awards

Turkey Bowls (November 23rd, 2023) Reid Jones (Jr.); WR – Cardinal Hayes Cardinals Earning his second Player of the Week distinction in less than a month (previously in week #8), the 6’2, 185-pound wide receiver out of Brooklyn provided the entrée, the stuffings, and the dessert this past Thursday in vaulting the Cardinals to their 9th straight Turkey Bowl victory, 42-10, over Mount St. Michael Academy, in the All-Champion (Hayes the AAA titlists; the Mount claiming the AA-2 hardware) affair that determined Bronx bragging rights!!  Limited to just two catches (both in the finals win over Iona Prep) for 17 yards in the postseason, whether there was added motivation or just additional opportunity, Jones should certainly be “thankful” for that next gear he found this past Thursday, as he’d burn the Mountaineers to the tune of a 5-catch (2nd highest quantity this season), 165-yard (new career-best), 1 TD morning! Making

AAA (Cardinal Hayes Cardinals) Kenneth Antoine (Offensive; Sr.; RB) In a decorated four-year varsity career ripe with individual achievements, the only thing missing on the resume of the 6’0, 190-pound tailback from Harlem [Antoine] was the team hardware to accompany all of his personal feats!!! Last Saturday night, in the final game of the 2023 NYCHSFL Championship triple-header on the campus of Fordham University, t#22 made sure that he checked that box as well, carrying the pigskin 16 times for 82 yards and a pair of touchdowns to propel the Cardinals to the program’s seventh overall Metro Catholic crown (third in the AAA division; first since 2019) behind a 30-29 victory over the Gaels of Iona Prep! Completing his three-game postseason saga having accrued 330 yards and four ground scores on 46 attempts (7.2/per), it did not take Antoine very long to make his presence felt in the title contest,

Semifinals (November 10th-11th, 2023) Rich Belin (Jr.); QB – Cardinal Hayes Cardinals I don’t get a vote, but from where I am sitting (currently on the living room couch of my home), if there was any debate as to whom the 2023 Metro Catholic Offensive Player of the Year recipient ought to be, that discussion was settled on the afternoon of November 11th, as the 6’0, 188-pound junior field general hailing from Harlem [Belin] was a human highlight film and/or one-man show at times during Fifth-seeded Hayes’ 29-26 victory on the road over their top-seeded hosts from Archbishop Stepinac!! Literally having a hand or leg in EVERY single point put on the board by the Cardinals during their semifinal showdown with the Crusaders, Belin notched his 15th-18th rushing touchdowns of the 2023 campaign to give him 41 total scores (23 passing, 18 rushing) this fall!! Amassing 285 yards of total

Quarterfinals (November 3rd-5th, 2023) Israel Centeno-Johnson (Sr.); RB/KR/PR – Kennedy Catholic Gaels There is just something about playing opposite the Pilots of Cardinal Spellman High School that brings out the best in the 5’10, 150-pound fireball hailing from the Nutmeg State [Centeno-Johnson]…. Honored as a Metro Catholic Player of the Week for the second time in his three-year varsity career [both occasions coming following explosive efforts in victories over Spellman; previously week #2 of the 2022 season], the Kennedy Catholic senior was electric every time he had the pigskin in his hands, as he amassed a legendary 305 yards of total production and was directly responsible for three touchdowns in vaulting the “boys of Somers” to the 33-12 quarterfinal triumph this past Friday Night!!! Two of his three scores coming on back-to-back kickoff returns at the conclusion of the 1st half and/or commencement of the 2nd half, Centeno-Johnson raced 75+

Week #7 (October 20th-22nd, 2023) Jon Bartolomei (Sr.); QB/DB – St. Dominic’s Bayhawks Welcome back to the club, Bayhawks!!!   Earning their first Player of the Week honor since week #7 of the 2017 season (per our records) following a 27-6 conquest over Cardinal Spellman on the afternoon of Saturday October 21st, St. Dom’s Head Coach, Gian Villante, could not have asked for a more comprehensive and utterly outstanding effort than the one he received out his two-way starting senior stud [Bartolomei]!! Getting the job done on both sides of the ball to deliver the second victory of the fall to the Oyster Bay based program, the 5’7, 155-pound resident of Deer Park went from having accounted for just one touchdown in his previous four appearances (22-yard TD pass in a victory over Yonkers Force in week #0) to striking for THREE in a single afternoon, as he almost single-handedly defeated

Week #6 (October 13th-15th, 2023) Steven Dowdy Jr. (Jr.); WR – Iona Prep Gaels Already sitting in the driver’s seat be the Gaels’ triple-crown winner in the receiving categories, not to mention the current chart-topper in the entire NYCHSFL with 36 catches heading into week #6, the 11th grader out of the Bronx [Dowdy Jr.] did nothing but further add to the legacy he is establishing in 2023 by emerging with program-highs of 3 hauls for 63 yards, and a pair of TD catches in Iona Prep’s 46-35 victory over Cardinal Hayes on Saturday afternoon!  His immense body of work raising his seasonal totals to 39 snatches for 455 yards, the pair of previously cited TDs (giving him 5 on the year) marked the first multi-touchdown reception game of his varsity career!! Registering the first of his two touchdown-yielding grabs with host, IP, holding a 10-7 lead, Dowdy Jr. slipped

Week #5 (October 6th-8th, 2023) Kenneth Antoine (Sr.); RB – Cardinal Hayes Cardinals ONE SNAP!!!!   That is exactly how long it took the 6’0, 190-pound senior from Harlem to set the tone for the kind of afternoon it was going to be both individually and collectively for the Cardinal flock in their 34-0 dub against Holy Trinity on October 7th! Taking the hand-off on the opening play of the game on Saturday afternoon, Antoine struck for 80 his 151 total yards rushing (12 carries), going all the way to the promised land to give Hayes the immediate 6-0 edge!!! Later in the day, with the cushion having expanded to 22-0, the explosive #22 shirt would not be the one to punch it in, but he handled the banner part of the workload, as two long runs early in the third quarter advanced the pigskin inside the opposing red zone (HT