A new coaching era at St. Marcellinus began on a bright note, as the Spirit squeezed out an 8-0 home win over the St. Joseph Jaguars in their Friday Night Lights match.
The two teams couldn’t quite get into an offensive rhythm but St. Marcellinus took advantage of its opportunities near goal, with kicker Gabe Ferraro scoring a pair of field goals, to give Vinnie Saliba his first victory in his debut season as Spirit head coach.
“It’s the way in which we won. The boys came together, they really played hard. We knew it was going to be a dogfight,” said Saliba, who replaced Peter Turano at the helm.
“We had to fight for every point, for every yard so it’s a great feeling.”
In other South division games on Friday, Our Lady of Mount Carmel dismantled Meadowvale 42-6 while St. Joan of Arc blanked St. Francis Xavier 20-0 to open their campaign in the Region of Peel Secondary Schools Athletic Association in rousing fashion.
In the lone game on Thursday, Philip Pocock routed Father Goetz 31-12 in a Central division matchup.
St. Marcellinus’ football grounds were packed on a Friday night traditionally celebrated by the school to showcase its community spirit.
But St. Joseph proved to be stubborn guests, making key stops when the hosts were in 2nd-and-goal situations and even threatening to score what could have been the night’s first touchdown with less than a minute left in the game.
If its visitors were gritty, however, so was St. Marcellinus, which controlled ball possession and matched St. Joseph’s effort on the defensive end.
“We knew they were going to play hard, and the score was indicative of that,” Saliba said.
So what tipped the scales in Saliba’s favor? He had a trusted and strong kicker in Ferraro.
“It’s not just his field goals that got it to an 8-point game, but it’s his punting,” Saliba said. “Like I said before, our special teams are really going to be a big factor for us and he heads our special teams.”
At Meadowvale, Kaine Summerfield had three touchdown passes and Javari Bennett ran for a couple of scores as the Crusaders routed the Falcons in their season-opener.
The home side looked ready to shock the South when Andrew Rose raced to the end zone on a kickoff return to put the Falcons in front early.
But the Crusaders, who fell one game short of winning the 2011 Ropssaa championship, countered with a pair of Bennett touchdowns in the first quarter to take the driver’s seat.
Then it was the all Summerfield from there.
He hit a wide-open Tyrell Rogers in the end zone to make it 20-6 in the second quarter. Then he heaved one, this time a deep throw to a running Brandon Neal, to extend the lead. A few plays later, Summerfield found Jason Anyimadu in traffic for his third TD pass, before coach Pat McCallion gave his play-calling phenom a much-deserved rest.
“I just went out and did what the coaches told me to do, and it turned out my team worked together and pulled off the W today,” Summerfield said.
McCallion was impressed with his quarterback’s output, but he spread the love nonetheless.
“[Summerfield] managed the game well. I thought our running game was outstanding. The credit begins with the offensive line playing strong against their front seven, front eight. We did a lot of good things on the offensive end,” McCallion said.
Advocating for football prospects one story at a time.
