“We’ve become a better team,” junior Luis Carpio said.

A negative punt kept the ball deep in the Christ the King end, but a penalty erased a Scardapane run down to the 1 and allowed the CK defense to hold. A bad snap on another punt gave Xavier the ball on the Royals 15. Four plays later, Carpio punched in a 1-yard run to give Xavier (1-1, 1-0) a 15-0 lead with 1:36 left in the first quarter.

“Last week we didn’t get a first down in the second half,” Xavier coach Chris Stevens said. “So you are always pressing and every play is important. When you get a couple points ahead you can get a little freer with how you call the game.”

He said he simplified the offense for a young offensive line after the 17-14 loss to Pine Bush and it led to better communication and execution. Scardapane threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to wide-open Connor Sweet and ran in the two-point conversion just before the half to make it 23-0. Xavier has won all three meetings since former Christ the King head coach Kevin Kelly joined its staff as defensive coordinator.

Scardapane later connected with Kevin Cochrane for a 24-yard score. Brendan McCabe and Danny Donahue added TD runs of 13 and 5 yards, respectively. Scardapane compiled 179 yards of total offense, including 91 yards in the air. Coleman had a long touchdown run called back late in the fourth for Christ the King (0-2, 0-1), which never got in sync.

“We just went back to our basic stuff and executed it great,” Carpio said.

It’s the team’s defensive play that has Stevens seeing the Week 1 loss a little differently than his players. Pine Bush has combined for 81 points against its other opponents. The Knights allowed just 14 and in this game completely stifled a Christ the King offense that includes Coleman, highly recruited tight end Kalief Joyner and a host of talented receivers. Xavier will take that momentum into its game next Saturday against an improved Bishop Ford team.

“It’s a lot of confidence back,” Scardapane said. “I think we are ready to play how we should be playing.”

The Team Formerly Known as the Kaydets... and then the Bruins (Est. 1882) begins its drive for the Catholic High School Football League AA-A Division title this Saturday night at Aviator Field when they meet Christ the King Regional High School from Middle Village, Queens.  (No, Tommy Horton, the Knights are not playing the King of Queens.)  Kickoff is at 8:00 PM Jamaica Bay Time. 

Coach Chris Stevens' gridironmen are 0-1 after coming off a tough 17-14 loss last Saturday against Pine Bush High School in Middletown, New York.  Meanwhile, the newly-resurgent Royals stumbled in their season opener against AAA Division St. Joseph's-by-the-Sea, 38-18.

The Bushmen were trailing the Knights 14-7 at intermission but came back to win on a field goal with just 6.1 seconds left.  Possession was the key to this game and Pine Bush dominated, running an astounding 75 plays to Xavier's 29.

"It was a joke," Coach Stevens said the next day.  "Our pass game is enough to support our run game well, but not enough to sustain us if we cannot run the ball at all.  Once Pine Bush saw the bullets in our gun and knew they did not have to respect the run, we were in trouble.  We went into halftime winning 14-7, but could not manage a single first down in the second half.  We won the explosion play battle 5 to 3, but lost the turnover battle 2 to 1."  (An "explosion play", for my fellow gridiron dinosaurs, is a play that gains 15-plus yards.)

So what was the problem with this year's model of the Amazing Fantastic Gridiron Wayback Machine, as football's venerable single-wing offense is known around 16th Street?

"We're real young on the offensive line and I think that I confused them a bit by trying to get the best scheme for each play.  As a result, the kids were very tentative.  When you bunch eleven guys together in this offense, they need to know what they're doing. Otherwise, it's a mess.  We need to get off the ball on the O-line."

Despite Xavier's scant time of possession, a number of offensive players stepped forward last Saturday to offer hope for the weeks ahead.  "Charles Guiraud has been one of the most improved players from the off-season," said Coach Stevens.  "He had a long TD in our scrimmage and again this week.  He scored our first touchdown on a 63-yard run to give us the lead 7-0.  Then he had a big catch for 28 yards to keep our second drive alive." 

"Matt Cilmi caught two balls for 65 yards and Brendan McCabe had a TD catch for 19 yards.  Jimmy Wolfer was 2 for 2 in extra points and punted three times for 139 yds.  That's a 46-yard average."

The bright spot for Xavier on Saturday was the defensive unit.  "I'm real proud of the D," Coach Stevens told me.  "I knew the kids were going to be up against it, but not nearly as much as they were.  We bent, but we rarely broke.  We had at least three stops in the red zone.  And we gave up few big plays against a very good fullback."  The mainstays on defense, he said, were senior Erik Nicholes and sophomore Trey Solomon, one of the stars of last year's undefeated freshman team.

I have some articles on the Pine Bush game and this week's meeting with the King of Queens (Dammit, Horton!) for you in the after end of this E-Blast, but first things first.  Here is some important information for youse mugs (and mugettes)...