Irish capture fifth straight Catholic crown

At the start of the Niagara Catholic Athletic Association senior football season, Notre Dame head coach Tim Bisci highlighted a particular need on offence.

“It is going to come down to what our quarterback play is like — we need better quarterback play this year,” he said in a Sept. 11 interview.

Returning quarterback Ben Tsanoff took those words to heart.

“I took that as the biggest challenge of my life,” Tsanoff said Thursday, moments after quarterbacking his team to a 20-18 victory over the visiting Saint Francis Phoenix in the Niagara Catholic championship game. “It made me mad but he was right. I needed to play better at quarterback and I had to listen to him. I am not going to get better if I don’t.”

The 17-year-old feels he has made progress this season.

“The biggest difference in my opinion is the pocket. I was afraid of (staying in) the pocket last year and afraid of the pocket this year and just trusting my line. Now I feel like I have got it.”

Bisci is happy his quarterback heeded his words.

“He is a work in progress and there are times where we’re reading that he should give the ball up but he plays with so much passion and wants to do so much,” he said. “He wants to win so bad that sometimes it gets the best of him and when he should give the ball up he doesn’t.”

Tsanoff agrees with that statement.

“It is a process. I am a kid loving football but I need to focus on football, read the plays, read the defence and read everything.”

Sometimes holding on to the ball works out as evidenced by a 26-yard run he had in the fourth quarter Thursday

“He’s a tough kid but he’s strong and he plays with pain. He had a charley horse and he just kept going. You need leaders like that,” Bisci said.

He feels Tsanoff has done the job in 2024.

“If you ask me at this point, when I said we needed better quarterback play, we got better quarterback play this year and I am happy with where he is at. Hopefully he can make a couple good reads next week and we can get through it.”

Bisci believes the year of development in Grade 12 is huge.

“It’s that year of growing and it will be even bigger if he comes back for 12B. It’s the maturity and the understanding of the offence. You look all the way back to Brandon Graziani. When he was here in Grade 11, he was shellshocked. By 12B, he was the best player around and good as they get. It’s the buy-in. They know they are going to get yelled and criticized, hopefully constructively, so we can coach them up. I am very proud of how he has done and I am happy with his success this year.”

Tsanoff has no issues when a passionate Bisci points out his mistakes during the game.

“That is very big. Everyone around me — my parents, my coaches, my coaches from years ago — has told me to keep my composure and just learn everything from everybody in everything you do.”

He is planning to return for 12B next year and is looking forward to continue his development.

“I have to read defences better and everything. There is always room to improve in everything,” the 6-foot-1, 188-pounder said.

The Irish led 13-4 at the half and 20-4 going into the final quarter before the Phoenix scored two majors to make the game a nail-biter.

Notre Dame turned the ball over six times and there were plenty of missed assignments on offence and defence.

“We have been off for three weeks and you could tell. It looked like we had been off for three weeks and it looked like a game from the middle of September,” Bisci said. “Mentally, we just weren’t ready to play and I think we are a very good football team. It shows because we played so bad and were still able to win. Saint Francis is a good football team and they are as tough a team in Niagara as you are going to face.”

Bisci felt his squad shot itself in the foot time and time again.

“We dropped passes, we dropped interceptions, we blew coverage and we can’t do that next week. We just have to shore things up and get back to playing the football we have played all year,” he said. “We are rested and hopefully we can get our rhythm back and get ready for next week. We needed a game like this where we had to play and struggle with adversity. We gave up points for the first time this year and we shouldn’t have given them up.”

Tsanoff agreed it was not a pretty win.

“It was mistakes upon mistakes and that is not Notre Dame football. We had a rough week of practice and we will need to pick things up because Myer is not a team to fool around with. We just can’t make that many mistakes against the better teams.”

Saint Francis did not look out of place in its first championship game appearance in the Niagara Catholic league.

“We fought hard all game and we had a chance at the end,” Saint Francis head coach Joe Lentini said. “20-18 is a great score and is a lot better than the last time as well. I’m proud of the boys for putting their heart into it but Notre Dame is a tough team and they deserved it.”

Lentini was thrilled his team was able to come within three points of stopping Notre Dame’s quest for a fifth straight Niagara Catholic championship.

“I am very proud especially with the size of our school. We are a very small school but we have a lot of great athletes with great heart and we do look forward to next season,” he said. “We had to be tested and Notre Dame tested us well. We developed chemistry and look forward to carrying it forward next year as well.

He feels his team’s dedication and its leaders, Cam Mepham, Sadiekie Hayden, Trent Dobson and others, made the team special.

“We worked hard in practice and they want to execute. They did and they worked well together.”

Lentini is looking forward to next season.

“We will have some back and a few of the Grade 12s will be gone and maybe we will get some 12Bs back. It will be a different team but we still hope to carry forward that fighting spirit.”

STATS PACK

Fighting Irish 20 Phoenix 18

Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Irish running back Everett Hemauer with TD runs of five, five and one yard.

For the Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Hemauer, three TDs; fumble recovery by Brodie Bevacqua; interceptions by Josh Young (2), Dustin Dulmage.

For the Saint Francis Phoenix: 11-yard TD pass from Cam Mepham to Trent Dobson; one-yard TD run by Mepham; two-point convert on pass from Mepham to Dobson; 35-yard field goal by Gavin Paxton; sacks by Sadiekie Hayden and Jimmy Harb (2); fumble recoveries by Johvanny Orellano (2), Jaxon Mosher

Game stats: First downs: Irish 14, Phoenix 10. Net offensive yards: Irish 271, Phoenix 208. Turnovers: Irish 6, Phoenix 6. Penalties: Irish 3 for 25 yards, Phoenix 10 for 92 yards.

Up next. Notre Dame advances to play A.N. Myer in the SOSSA semifinals next Thursday at 7 p.m. at Myer.