XAVIER  21  -  St. PETERS  42

Huge passing day leads St. Peter's over Xavier

St. Peter's Quarterback Billy Triglianos passed for 423 yards and four touchdown passes.
(Staten Island Advance / Hilton Flores)

St. Peter's head coach Mark DeCristoforo knew the day would come when his run-happy Eagles would be forced to the air to win a game.

That day was Saturday and the Eagles passed the test with flying colors as quarterback Billy Triglianos threw for a whopping 423 yards and four touchdowns, including three TD bombs to talented receiver Willie Dale, in St. Peter's 42-21 Homecoming/Senior Day CHSFL victory over Xavier of Manhattan.

It was the high-flying Eagles' seventh straight win after losing on opening day. They are 7-1 overall and 7-0 in the CHSFL.

"Billy had huge expectations coming into the season and with all the injuries we had, he really became a game manager and we ran the ball a lot," explained DeCristoforo. "And as you saw today when Willie Dale (is healthy) and when he's matched up with (fellow receiver) Dom Santa Croce we can be a very balanced offense. Xavier took our run game away, and we knew that one day that passing was gonna have to win us a game and today was that day."

Triglianos and Dale struck early, connecting on a 65-yard bomb on the fourth play of the game.

Three plays after Xavier marched 46 yards to paydirt to knot the score at 7-7, Triglianos hooked up with Dale again, this time on a 78-yard strike on a post pattern to make it 14-7 with 1:35 left in the first quarter.

"When Willie is healthy he's unstoppable," said Triglianos, who had 299 yards passing in the first half. "He and the offensive line made my job easier."

The two would connect again on a 33-yard TD pass early in the second quarter that put the Eagles up 21-7.

The Knights got back within 21-14 on Callahan Ciriacks' 3-yard TD run, but the Eagles extended the lead to 14 again when Triglianos found Santa Croce down the sideline on a 44-yard TD pass.

"The kid (Triglianos) had a great game, but when you can't cover a post you expect those type of numbers to be put up," said Xavier head coach Chris Stevens. "What really impressed me were his passes over the middle in the second half."

After a scoreless third quarter, the Eagles put the game away with two rushing TDs from Galo Carrera, who was held to 29 yards on 11 carries.

The win enabled the Eagles to secure a home game in the CHSFL AA playoffs two weeks from now. St. Peter's sits close to the top of the CHSFL but was denied entry into the AAA playoffs by the league.

DeCristoforo isn't happy about the ruling, but says it won't take away from all his team accomplished so far this season.

"It comes down to when I got here the seniors really talked about not waiting to turn it around. They said they wanted to do it right now," said the coach. "And I said, if they wanted to do it we would all put the work in ... and this is a great thing for them."