Irish capture seven on seven football crown
Members of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish senior football team earned a small measure of revenge Wednesday with a 35-12 victory over the Saint Paul Patriots in the gold medal final of the Fourth Annual Niagara Catholic Seven on Seven Passing Tournament.
Irish quarterback Hunter Cropper tossed five touchdown passes in the victory to help ease the sting of a 21-7 loss to the Patriots five months ago in the Niagara Catholic Athletic Association championship game.
“There is a little bit of a beef between us and Saint Paul, but that’s in the past,” Cropper said. “It (Wednesday) was mostly about getting some practice in with some of the new guys who will be playing on the football team and just having fun with all the boys on the team.”
The 17-year-old is planning to return for a second year of Grade 12 and is hoping to start for the Irish at quarterback for the second straight season. He was expecting to play receiver last season, but was thrust into the quarterback’s role when his brother, Connor, suffered a season-ending injury early in the year.
“I wanted to play receiver before but since Connor got hurt I had to step into it,” Cropper said. “Now I am just used to it and I am ready to play quarterback for ND.”
He feels like he progressed a lot last season.
“It was learning from experience because I hadn’t played a lot at quarterback,” Cropper said. “It was getting out there with Bisci (head coach Tim Bisci) and learning the playbook.”
Losing to Saint Paul in the final was one of the motivating factors for Cropper to return for another year.
“I don’t like losing and that is probably the main reason,” he said.
Wednesday’s tournament featured 35-minute, passing only, touch football games with teams alternating with their offences starting on the 45-yard line. Six points were awarded for a passing major, two points for an interception and a successful passing convert from the 10-yard line and one point for a defensive stop or a successful passing convert from the five-yard line.
“The purpose of it was to get all the schools together to have a day of exercise and fun, and a day to get better and practise their receiving and defensive backfield games,” organizer Rick Oreskovich said. “It was a fun day and the weather was really nice.”
Following are all the scores from Wednesday’s action.
Pool One: Saint Paul 28 Saint Francis 24; Saint Paul 20 St.Ignatius of Loyola 14; Saint Francis 26 St.Ignatius of Loyola 22.
Pool Two: Notre Dame 48 Denis Morris 20; Lorne Park 24 Denis Morris 10; Notre Dame 24 Lorne Park 21.
Pool Three: A.N. Myer 42 Holy Cross 1; A.N. Myer 27 Blessed Trinity 11; Blessed Trinity 37 Holy Cross 5.
Pool Four: Greater Fort Erie 33 Saint Michael 10; Saint Michael 18 Lakeshore Catholic 9; Greater Fort Erie 22 Lakeshore Catholic 17.
Bronze semifinals: Denis Morris 31 Lakeshore Catholic 8; St.Ignatius of Loyola 32 Holy Cross 0.
Bronze final: Denis Morris 25 St.Ignatius of Loyola 17.
Bronze consolation final: Lakeshore Catholic 13 Holy Cross 3.
Silver semifinals: Lorne Park 27 Saint Michael 9; Saint Francis 32 Blessed Trinity 28.
Silver final: Lorne Park 31 Saint Francis 22.
Silver consolation final: Blessed Trinity 32 Saint Michael 23.
Gold semifinals: Notre Dame 46 Greater Fort Erie 18; Saint Paul 30 A.N. Myer 16.
Gold final: Notre Dame 35 Saint Paul 12.
Gold consolation final: A.N. Myer 23 Greater Fort Erie 18.
STATS PACK
Fighting Irish 35 Patriots 12
Mick and Angelo’s/Johnny Rocco’s Player of the Game: Notre Dame quarterback Hunter Cropper with five TD passes.
For Notre Dame: TD catches by David Jones (35 and 12 yards), Bryce Livingston (25 yards), Jacob Succar (31 yards) and Jarod Tessier (4 yards). Interception by Austin Delaney.
For the Saint Paul Patriots: TD passes from Devon Schiller-Cleveland to Jarrel Pappin (20 yards) and Ryan Ryan DiLella. (five yards).
