On Friday, September 28th, St. Anthony’s (3-0) took on Archbishop Stepinac (1-2) at Cy Donnelly Field in a rematch of last year’s CHSFL AAA championship matchup. The Friars looked to get revenge on the Crusaders from Stepinac after losing 47-22 in the championship last year.
The Friars got their revenge, winning a thriller 45-42 to advance to 4-0.
St. Anthony’s came into this game with an extra chip on their shoulder looking for revenge. Senior RB Kyle Angus said, “After losing in the championship last year we knew coming into this game we weren’t going to take no for an answer. We were going to keep fighting through all the way to end and take back what was ours.”
Stepinac came out hot early on in the game. RB Malik Grant tore the Friars up on the ground with big run after big run. On their second drive the Crusaders punched it in the endzone on a Malik Grant touchdown run. On the ensuing drive the Friars went 3 and out and gave the ball back to Stepinac with great field position. The Crusaders took advantage, scoring on a QB draw making the score 14-0 with 2:53 left in the first quarter.
The Friars looked to flip momentum in the second quarter. QB Greg Campisi led the Friars down the field, including a 4th down conversion to WR Greg Randall. Later in the drive Campisi completed a 19 yard pass for a touchdown to WR Danny Parker to put the Friars on the board. However, they missed the extra point so the score stood at 14-6. On the next Stepinac drive the Friar defense came up with a huge play. DL Xavier Green forced a fumble and it was recovered by DB Nick Espada. Now with the ball back the Friars had momentum. On the very first play of the drive Greg Campisi hit Danny Parker for another 19 yard touchdown. The Friars opted to go for two instead of kicking the extra point. That decision payed off as Campisi found Danny Parker once again to convert. The score was all tied up at 14-14 with 10:42 left in the second quarter.
Both teams added another touchdown before halftime, but the Friars went for two and were unable to convert. Stepinac led 21-20 at halftime.
St. Anthony’s got the ball to start the second half. They took full advantage of it, scoring a touchdown on a Greg Campisi pass to Greg Randall. Again though, the Friars were unable to convert on the two point conversion so the score was 26-21 with 8:47 left in the third quarter. The Friars added another touchdown and a field goal by Silvio LoSardo before the end of the third quarter, while the Crusaders added one touchdown. St. Anthony’s led 37-28 going into the fourth quarter.
With 8:32 left in the game, Greg Campisi ran for a 36 yard touchdown that seemed to put the game out of reach. To their credit, the Crusaders did not give up. They scored two touchdowns in a span of two minutes to cut the lead to 3. After the first touchdown Stepinac attempted an onside kick and was successful. That really shifted the momentum. Stepinac had a chance to tie the game with less than two minutes left, but the field goal hit off the post and was no good.
At this point everyone thought the game was over with Stepinac not having enough timeouts to stop the clock. To everyone’s shock, the Crusaders were able to call an extra timeout. In other words, Stepinac called 4 timeouts in the second half. The referees clearly forgot how many timeouts the Crusaders had. Fortunately for the Friars it wouldn’t matter as St. Anthony’s would go on to win 45-42.
About The Author:
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Gabe Angieri Gabe is a senior writing at St. Anthony’s High School, writing for his fourth year with Friar Scoreboard. He is also a member of NHS, SALT, and Friar Faithful. |
