Niagara Catholic football semifinalists decided
Saint Paul defeated Blessed Trinity 19-7 Friday to clinch second place in the Niagara Catholic Athletic Association senior football league. Photos by WILLIAM VANDERLAND.
Jarrel Pappin was a force all afternoon Friday as the Saint Paul Patriots (4-2) clinched second place and home-field advantage in the semifinals with a 19-7 victory over the Blessed Trinity Thunder (4-2) in Niagara Catholic Athletic Association senior football action.
The 17-year-old scored the winning touchdown on a 22-yard run and had several key blocks and runs from the fullback position while also contributing a bruising performance from his middle linebacker’s position.
“He doesn’t know it yet, but to me he has been the MVP of our defence,” Saint Paul coach Mark Antonelli said. “He has been fantastic and he has been such a revelation.”
Antonelli has a lot of faith in Pappin.
“I just trust him,” he said. “He has great lateral quickness, but it is beyond that. If I ask him to go make a play, he is going to make a play and it doesn’t matter if it is offence or defence.”
The 6-foot-2 , 210-pounder has been playing football since Grade 6, but didn’t play with the Niagara Spears this past summer because of work commitments.
The first-year Grade 12 student likes playing both offence and defence.
“I like to do both and I will do anything to help the team win,” he said.
There is a certain sound made when Pappin hits people and he loves to hear that sound.
“I love delivering it, for sure,” he said.
Pappin is interested in playing football at the university level and he has been approached by a couple of university scouts.
“I’ve loved football ever since I started playing it in Grade 6,” he said. “The first thing I saw on TV was football and I got into it.”
He also plays basketball for Saint Paul.
Antonelli, who taught and coached football at BT for several years, felt strange being on the Saint Paul sidelines.
“My heart goes out to those guys and they played hard,” he said of his former team. “The last three or four years of BT/Saint Paul games have been slug it out, low-scoring, one-possession games and it always seems to be back and forth.
“Today was no different.”
Antonelli, who is never shy to give bold predictions for teams he coaches, said Saint Paul’s defensive performance was the sign of a championship team.
“We are now getting to that point where we can compete for a championship not next year or the year after, but this year,” he said. “A win like that today really cemented that.”
After opening the season with two losses, Saint Paul has now reeled off four straight wins.
“Before, we didn’t have enough guys coming out to practice, but then we all bonded together and we are pretty much a family,” Pappin said.
Blessed Trinity’s failure to capitalize on great field possession in the first half proved its undoing. The Thunder scored only once despite starting drives at the Patriots’ 43-yard line, its 53-yard-line, Saint Paul’s four-yard line, Saint Paul’s 50-yard line and the Patriots’ 42-yard line.
“We definitely didn’t capitalize on that and we had some missed opportunities when we took some shots down the field and didn’t connect on those,” Thunder head coach Sean Jones said. “And then we got a little tired heading into the fourth quarter, had a couple of injuries and those things started to mount.”
The game was tied 7-7 going in the final quarter, but Saint Paul scored on its first play of the frame and never looked back.
The Thunder lost home-field advantage in the semifinals with the loss, but will live to fight another day.
“We wanted this one and we wanted to play next week on our home field, but we get a rematch next week and hopefully we can take that one,” Jones said. “They were well-prepared for what we tried to run and we have to do a better job of preparing for them next week.”
In semifinal action next Friday at 1 p.m., Notre Dame will host Saint Michael and Saint Paul will host Blessed Trinity.
STATS PACK
Patriots 19 Thunder 7
Mick and Angelo’s/Johnny Rocco’s Player of the Game: Saint Paul’s Jarrel Pappin with a 22-yard TD run and a strong game at middle linebacker.
For the Saint Paul Patriots: Pappin, TD; Carlos Calderon, two-yard TD run and sack; Nicholas Abbruscato, 13-yard field goal; two-point safety by defence; Will Schmahl, interception and partial punt block; Enzey Youyoute, interception.
For the Blessed Trinity Thunder: Isaac McAlonan, nine-yard TD run, interception and rouge on punt; Jeffery McIntyre, punt block; Max Mosquite, sack; Gabe Lavender, sack.
Game stats: First downs: SP 16, BT 5. Net offence: SP 275, BT 77. Turnovers: SP 3, BT 3. Penalties: SP 10 for 65 yards, BT 16 for 109 yards.
IRISH 42 GATORS 7
Notre Dame (6-0) completed an unbeaten regular season with a 42-7 victory over the Lakeshore Catholic Gators (0-6) Friday in NCAA senior football action.
Contributing to the win were: Jacob Succar, TD runs of 65 and 57 yards and an interception; Jacob Tessier, 42-yard punt return TD; Zack Melnyk, three-yard TD run; Dylan Vachon, two-yard TD run; Isaac Larch, 47-yard TD catch from Hunter Cropper; Ralph Leroy, interception; and, Gerrid Holton, punt block.
Corey Vazquez scored for the Gators on a four-yard scramble and Nathaniel Riel booted the convert.
MUSTANGS 27 PHOENIX 7
The Saint Michael Mustangs (3-3) clinched the final semifinal berth in the NCAA playoffs Thursday with a 27-7 victory over the Saint Francis Phoenix (2-4).
Leading the way for the Mustangs were: Zack Keldson, 250 yards passing and three TD throws in his best game of the year; Noah Wilson, TD grabs of 25 and 40 yards and a pair of field goals; Riley Hart, 65-yard TD grab; and, Qasim Khan, 80 yards rushing.
The lone score for Saint Francis was a touchdown by Sam Braithwaite.
“Hats off to seniors Tinashe Dindato, Mitch Demers, Zach Everard, Michael Sharpe, Nick Thibault, Alberto Repetto and Peter Li,” Saint Francis head coach Jim Whittard said.
Whittard felt the combined team of Saint Francis and six Holy Cross players produced an amazing season.
“In the change room, I asked each athlete for their highlight of the year and the overwhelming majority said it was the love of playing football with their brothers and the overwhelming support of a bunch of kids from two schools coming together to have a great year.”
