On Friday October 12th the St. Anthony’s Friars (4-0) took on the Iona Prep Gaels (4-0) in matchup for first place and the one seed in the NYCHSFL. This game however was more than just a game, it was a game to honor Coach Reichert who will be retiring at the end of the season. Coach Reichert in his illustrious 32 year coaching career has won 14 championships while posting a record of 265-65-3. Many of Coach Reichert’s former players were on hand to pay homage to a great man and to root on the Friars in their final home regular season game.
Iona Prep received the ball to start the game and on their opening drive marched down the field and scored a touchdown. It was an 8 yard pass to running back Frankie MacFadden and after the PAT they lead 7-0. The Friars answered right back as Sr. Greg Campisi ran right through the Gaels defense as he took it 52 yards to the house tying the game at 7-7. In the waning moments of the 1st quarter the Gaels would score again as McFadden punched it in for a 1 yard touchdown. The Gaels would make the PAT and lead 14-7 after one.
The Friars wasted no time in answering right back as Campisi found Sr. Daniel Parker for a 27 yard touchdown. Campisi eluded the heavy pressure by the Gaels defense and found Parker who made several defenders miss on his way to the endzone. The PAT was good and the Friars tied the game at 14-14. Iona would take the lead again as quarterback Derek Robertson found receiver Matthew Panker for a 32 yard touchdown. However this time the Gaels would miss the PAT making the score was 20-14. With 4:20 remaining in the half, the Friars offense went to work again and began to move the ball against the Gael defense. Mixing runs and passes, they drove down the field and scored on a Kyle Angus 5 yard touchdown run. The Friars would make the PAT and go into the locker room up 21-20.
The third quarter was a defensive battle with the lone score coming on a 5 yard pass from quarterback Derek Robertson to Matthew Panker. The Gaels went for the two-point conversion but the Friar defense held making it 26-21 Iona after 3 quarters.
The 4th quarter was setting up to be an absolute showdown as both teams wanted to clinch the number 1 seed. The Friars opened up the 4th quarter and scored right away as Campisi completed an 11 yard touchdown pass to Jr. Greg Randall. Randall would later say, “I was in the right place at the right time and Campisi just made a great pass.” The Friars would go for 2 and would convert as Campisi found Parker in the endzone giving them a 29-26 lead. The Friars defense played tough and would hold the Gaels again. The offense seemed to feed off this as Campisi found Sr Makai Murphy for a 38 yard touchdown. Murphy used his speed and shiftiness to blow by the Gael defenders. After the PAT the Friars had a ten point lead at 36-26 lead and believed to have put the game away.
Credit to the Gaels as they would not quit and quickly drove down the field scoring on a 39 touchdown pass from Robertson to Ryan Soules. After a successful PAT the lead was cut to three at 36-33. The tension began to rise as on the ensuing kickoff the Gaels completed an onside kick recovering the ball near midfield. Believing the momentum had shifted, they would begin to drive down the field. The Friars defense stiffened and Iona faced a 4th and 3 on the Friar 21 yard line. After a timeout, the Gaels coaching staff decided to go for it instead of attempting the tying field goal. That decision did not payoff as the Friars defense came up big again making a huge stop.
The Friars offense wasted no time as Campisi broke to his left and busted it down the sideline for a 79 yard touchdown run as he left the Gael defenders in his dust. This salted the win for the Friars and gave Coach Reichert a 43-33 victory in his final regular season home game.
Greg Campisi was 15-24 for 219 yards as well as 3 passing touchdowns. He also totaled 195 yards and 2 touchdowns on the ground. Kyle Angus had 23 yards and a touchdown on the ground and 5 catches for 61 yards. Daniel Parker had 4 catches for 82 yards and a touchdown. Makai Murphy had 3 catches for 53 yards and a touchdown. had a key interception and was all over the field.
The Friars play their regular season finale on Friday October 26th against Monsignor Farrell on the road.
Alex Rocco is a junior at St. Anthony’s High School, writing for his third year with the Friar Scoreboard. He hopes to have a career in Sports Management and Media one day. He is also a member NHS, SALT, Friar Faithful, Special Needs Ministry and Franciscan Youth Ministry.
