CHSFL predictions, Week 1 playoffs
Xavier @ Chaminade, Class AA Quarterfinals - Sunday, November 7th 1:00 p.m.
Staszewski: Chaminade has shown plenty of life that last two weeks with a comeback attempt against Holy Cross and leading Fordham early, but points have been a struggle. This could be the shortest game on record the way both teams run the ball. I picked against Xavier last week and got burned. The Knights are a lot better than people think. They will control the clock with Brent Scardapane and hit a few key passes when needed. Xavier advances in a close one. Pick: Xavier
Butler: If you held a gun to Chris Stevens head, not that anyone should, the Xavier coach would say last year’s team was better than this year’s edition. And yet, the Knights had a better season this year, earning a higher seed in the Class AA playoffs. Xavier has won five of its last six games and heads to Mineola to meet a winless Chaminade squad. The Flyers have been in many games this year, but they haven’t figured out how to pull out a win. Those losses take a toll and Xavier wins a tight one. Pick: Xavier
Chaminade 38, Xavier 14…
Knights
Down… and Out
Let’s
start with the good news. Xavier
Nation showed up in force at Chaminade on Sunday afternoon.
We filled the visitors’ stands to capacity and outnumbered the
home crowd. Thanks, boys and
girls.
The
bad news: The Team Formerly
Known as the Kaydets… and then Bruins… lost in the first round of the
Catholic High School Football League AA Division Playoffs for the second
straight year.
Sunday
afternoon’s defeat was a tragedy in three acts.
In Act I, Chaminade marched down the field for a touchdown on their
first possession, kicked the extra point, recovered the ensuing onside
kick and drove on Xavier a second time.
The Blue and Maroon line bent but did not break, however, and the
Flyers had to settle for a field goal.
Just minutes into the game and the Knights were already down 10-0.
And they had yet to even touch the ball.
In
Act II, Stevens’ Amazing Fantastic Gridiron Way Back Machine roared back
to life even as the Xavier D rallied to completely shut down Chaminade’s
attack. The Knights scored a
TD and the two-point conversion to close the gap to 10-8, and even with
two running backs, including top gun Brent
Scardapane, going down with game-stopping injuries that,
fortunately, did not prevent them from returning to action, the Blue and
Maroon surged again to within one foot of the Chaminade goal line as the
first half ended. There
wasn’t a living soul on Xavier’s side of the field— save, perhaps,
Chaminade’s band— who doubted that the
But
that first-half-ending drive turned out to be the Knight’s high water
mark of the game. In Act III,
Chaminade stormed back to score 28 points.
Xavier’s last touchdown came long after the day was lost.
Our
kids played hard— they always do— but except for the first half
following Chaminade’s field goal, they were inexplicably flat.
And Chaminade, which is in the second year of a rebuilding program
under head coach and former Detroit Lion and Pro Bowl linebacker Stephen
Boyd, is much better than their 0-8 regular-season record would indicate.
Playing in the CHSFL’s AAA Division, the Flyers lost five of
those eight games by 7 points or less.
No opposing offense— not even mighty St. Anthony’s— scored
more than 28 points against them.
Chaminade, which has a student body of 1,600-plus boys
to our 900-and-something, and whose classrooms overlook its football
fields (Just because our guys won’t make excuses doesn’t mean I
can’t.), was bigger and faster than Xavier, and to beat them the Knights
needed to play their A game for the full 48 minutes.
They didn’t, and that’s basically the story.
Standing by...
Tom O'Hara '69
