Patriots end season on winning note
It was an emotional week for Saint Paul lineman Jesse Murphy.
On Thursday, a signing ceremony was held at the Niagara Falls high school to mark the 18-year-old’s commitment to a scholarship to McMaster University. On Friday, he concluded his five-year Saint Paul career with a 36-0 victory over the Holy Cross Raiders.
“It’s a great opportunity,” the 6-foot-3, 240-pound offensive lineman said of McMaster. “I have been playing football for 11 years and football is pretty much my life.”
The 12B student put in the effort required to make the scholarship a reality.
“I worked really hard this year to get my grades up and I worked super hard at games and practice because it’s a great school and a great program.”
The offensive/defensive tackle also has some interest in Windsor and Guelph before zeroing in on McMaster, where he plans to study humanities.
Saint Paul head coach Rick Oreskovich is excited to see Murphy move towards playing at the post secondary level.
“He is a good player and he has a lot of potential,” he said. “He has to add some strength and he needs get a little faster because the guys he is going to play against at the next level will be a lot bigger.”
Despite finishing in second place in Niagara Catholic Athletic Association play with a 5-1 record, Saint Paul’s season ended Friday. The Patriots were deemed ineligible for post-season play after the team used two ineligible players in a pre-season game.
“Of course the boys are upset, but I couldn’t have asked for a better team to play on,” Murphy said. “They still played as hard as they could every game we played and we gave it all we had. We had some injuries and some people quit, but we pretty much stuck together and had a great season.”
Oreskovich wishes the season wasn’t over.
“Obviously the team deserves a lot better and it’s nobody’s fault but mine in what happened,” he said. “If I could change things I would, but I can’t.
“This team deserves to go on in the playoffs despite what happened.”
He was proud of how his team kept playing despite the hand it was dealt.
“They played hard, they didn’t give up and, in some cases, some other teams may have given up if they knew there was no final,” Oreskovich said. “Our guys didn’t and they are a good group of talented players, especially our older kids and 12Bs.
“They are exceptional players and they will be a big loss to our program.”
Murphy leaves with nothing but great memories about his football career with the Patriots.
“It was a great coaching staff and we pretty much had a great team every year,” he said. “All the players are really close and we are pretty much brothers.”
Obviously, the highlight of his career was winning the Niagara championship in 2018 and advancing to the Golden Horseshoe Bowl.
Holy Cross finished the season with a 1-5 record but had coach Gerry DiSanto with his squad’s return to senior football after a one-year absence.
“We won a game which is better than most people thought we would do,” he said. “We have a whole team back next year and we will built off of it. Hopefully, next year will be better.”
DiSanto liked a lot about how the season went.
“The kids kept coming out which was the most important thing,” he said. “It easy to get down and not think practice is important but they keep coming out.”
The Raiders weren’t helped by losing starting quarterback John Serrano to injury in their first game of the season.
“Losing him was huge but everybody stepped up and did their jobs,” DiSanto said.
STATS PACK
Patriots 36 Raiders 0
Johnny Rocco’s/Mick and Angelo’s/Cracker Jacks Player of the Game: Saint Paul’s Jarrel Pappin with a strong game on defence and offence, including a 52-yard TD run.
For the Saint Paul Patriots: Pappin, TD and sack; Devon Schiller-Cleveland, 55-yard TD run and 13-yard TD pass to Ryan DiLella; 75-yard kick return TD by Marley McCray; 30-yard interception return for TD by Enzey Youyoute; 37-yard field goal by Nicholas Abbruscato.
For the Holy Cross Raiders: No scoring.
Game stats: First downs: Saint Paul 9, Holy Cross 4. Net offence: Saint Paul 316, Holy Cross 65. Turnovers: Saint Paul 0, Holy Cross 3. Penalties: Saint Paul 4 for 30 yards, Holy Cross, 1 for 15 yards.
