The improved health of running back Mike Williams is one of the big reason’s for the team’s late surge. (An Rong Xu)
The CHSFL Class AA playoffs are looking a little more like the ‘AAA’ consolation prize tournament this week.
All four teams who play their regular-season games in the ‘AAA’ defeated ‘AA-A’ teams and three of the games were lopsided. The most glaring? St. Joseph by the Sea’s 33-7 rout of Xavier. Sea didn’t win a game against a ‘AAA’ opponent this year and Xavier didn’t lost one to a ‘AA’ team.
“In the years past there have been a couple of upsets, but maybe this year there is just a definite gap in the two divisions,” Holy Trinity coach Tony Mascia said.
It certainly seems that way. His team blew out St. Peter’s, 50-6, and Fordham Prep blitzed St. John the Baptist, 21-0. The only ‘AA-A’ team to keep it respectable in the quarterfinals was Cardinal Hayes, which fell to Kellenberg, 41-34. Trinity meets Kellenberg and Fordham takes on Sea in this weekend’s semifinals.
“I think the biggest thing is a lot of those teams have personnel and depth,” Hayes coach C.J. O’Neil said. “That’s what we lack. That’s why I’m never really looking to go up there. I know we lose a couple key kids and we are going to have a rough, rough go about it.”
If anything, it says a lot about how well the coaches ranked the teams in the preseason. Archbishop Stepinac, which is in the ‘AAA’ semifinals this weekend, won the ‘AA’ title last year as a ‘AA-A’ team. The Crusaders’ absence this year created a ton of parity in the league and it also clearly made the space widen between the two divisions.
“I think it’s definitely the physicality,” Mascia said. “There are a lot of large schools up there. There are large rosters. It’s definitely a different situation. It’s like everything else. You compete at that level week in a week out.”
Or it could have just been a weird week, which there have been many of this year. Fordham Prep coach Pete Gorynski called 2011 a “very strange year” marked by inconsistency. Perhaps this was just another chapter into that. His team’s Turkey Bowl game with Xavier could serve to prove or disprove the apparent incongruity between the two divisions.
“I know Thanksgiving Day is going to be a very difficult game for me,” Gornyski said. “If [Xavier coach Chris Stevens] beats me on Thanksgiving Day then that blows out that whole theory. I’m the top seed and he got eliminated first round. … You can flip a coin 10 times and even though the probability is 50/50 you can end up with 10 heads in a row, it could be one of those things were you had 10 coin flips and they all came up heads.”
Or, in this case, all ‘AAA.’
Step’s Garfield excelling at DE: Defensive end may not be Garfield Heslop position at the next level, but the decision to move the 6-foot-3, 185-pound senior there has paid dividends for Arcbishop Stepinac.
“He is one of those guys coming of the edge he is going to give people all he can handle,” Crusaders coach Mike O’Donnell said. “He is so quick. He is so hard to mark.”
Heslop, who O’Donnell sees as a strong safety or linebacker in college, began the season at outside linebacker and did well against spread offenses similar to Stepinac’s but struggled against others. He played some defensive end last season behind Donnie Simmons, who is now at Syracuse.
The move that happened prior to a Week 6 game against Holy Cross allowed Garfield to use his athletic talents and keep teams from doubling Austin Taps, the team’s premier pass rusher.
“It’s great to have him on the other side of me at defensive end,” Taps said. “He kind of reminds me of Donnie that way he plays. He is fast off the ball.”
Added Garfield: “That’s a big difference. Austin is always causing pressure. They can’t worry about [just] one side. We keep it balanced. We are strong at both sides.”
He collected two of his five sacks in a CHSFL quarterfinal win over Holy Cross last week and Taps added two of his own. Garfield has 61 tackles this season and has helped flush opposing quarterbacks out of the pocket. O’Donnell believes if he gains some weight he could have a shot to play defensive end at the next level.
“When we moved him to defensive end the pressure he brings he doesn’t have to think about,” O’Donnell said. “It’s more natural.”
Titans riding three-game win streak: Holy Trinity is healthy, matured and rolling. The Titans, who start eight sophomores, began the year 0-6. They have since rattled off three straight wins, including one over Mount St. Michael to close out the regular season, and find themselves hosting rival Kellenberg in the Class AA semifinals 1 p.m. Saturday n the semifinals.
“They kept playing,” Trinity coach Tony Mascia said. “There spirits were up and they were looking to turn the corner and we were able to roll off three in a row. Their confidence level is high.”
The biggest different has been the reemergence of senior running back Mike Williams from offseason knee surgery. He’s been splitting carries with Ryan Rossi and Joe Ferguson, but his production has grown each week. Williams rushed for 120 yards and took the opening kickoff back 85 yards for a scored against St. Peter’s last week. He did so beind an offensive line that has some pieces back with Peter Leary, Pat Wagner and Myles Bramble returning from injury. Matt Sheehan and Ryan Alexander have also developed a fine chemistry with star junior quarterback Chris Laviano.
“He seems like he’s come all the way back,” Mascia said of Williams. “It’s a tremendous help.”
Super sophomores leading Ford D’: Falcons coach Jim Esposito knew he had a special bunch of players on the horizon working with his JV team last year. He expected some of them to rise to the occasion their first year on the varsity, but has been pleasantly surprised so far.
“I expected a couple of kids to start,” Esposito said. “I didn’t expect us to be able to start five sophomores on defense. Our defense has been pretty good and they are a big part of it.”
Linebackers Dante Aiken and Rodney Gonzales, defensive backs Rolando Ellis and Malik Warner and defensive tackle Walter Ferdinand have helped Ford be one of the Class AA-A division’s best defenses. They have allowed just 150 points, second to division winner Xavier’s 130. Gonzales (6-1, 180) had a game sealing interception in an upset win over Cardinal Hayes. The Falcons face St. Francis Prep 7 p.m. Saturday at Mitchel Field for the Class A title.
They play very well together they are mature kids,” Esposito said. “If you are not mature you are not going to step up and perform. They have just performed at an unbelievable level.”
Gonzalez as a tight end and Aiken at running back, have also been major contributors on offense. Aiken, a 5-foot-11 bruiser, excelled filling in for the injured Devon Mitchell late in the season. Last week in a win over Christ the King he ran four times for 177 yards and two touchdowns, including an 80-yard score. Esposito compared him to former Ford star Willis Dendy, who played at Marist.
“He is really strong and really fast,” said Esposito. “He has a knack for just breaking tackles.”
