By Larry Moko
The St. Mary Crusaders high school football team appears to be rounding into form after a slow start to the season.
Fifth-place St. Mary concluded its Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic regular schedule Friday with an impressive 21-6 victory over the visiting Cathedral Gaels. And that marked the second-straight win after four losses for the Crusaders.
"We're happy with the outcome," Crusaders coach Sean Dennison said. "I think we're playing our best football here at the end."
In other action, the Bishop Tonnos Titans remained undefeated with a 20-2 decision over the St. Jean de Brébeuf Braves while the St. Thomas More Knights downed the St. John Henry Newman Cardinals, 24-3, in a contest that decided second-place in the standings.
Tier I semifinals on Nov. 1 have Bishop Ryan at Tonnos and Newman at More. In Tier II, Cathedral travels to sixth-place Brébeuf for a semifinal. The winner then takes on St. Mary for the Tier II title.
"We've been working hard towards trying to get better every game," the St. Mary coach said.
In a battle between the only two lower-city schools, St. Mary took a 14-0 lead into the halftime break. A one-yard run by Cole Elms opened the scoring and quarterback Josh Canzio connected on a a five-yard TD toss to Caden Okis.
In the second half, however, Cathedral made a strong push. Several long pass plays by quarterback Nick Jokic gave the Gaels a spark.
"I'm happy with the way we answered," Gaels coach Pierpaolo Bianco said. "We had to change some things. The running game wasn't working for us today. So we tried to go to our strength and air it out as much as we could."
A deep ball from Jokic to a wide-open Dominik Kearnes went for a 40-yard touchdown to get Cathedral on the scoreboard.
Then, on Cathedral's next possession, Jokic fired a 53-yard strike to Kearnes. That drive stalled, however, when Cathedral turned it over on downs by not getting the ball set up for a 30-yard field-goal attempt. Linebacker Hunter Richer of St. Mary made the tackle.
"We could have cut it down to 14-9 with that field goal," the Cathedral coach said. "After that, it got away from us."
St. Mary replied with a 15-yard touchdown pass at the start of the fourth quarter from Canzio to a leaping Jonathan Makarski in the back corner of the end zone.
"It was a 50-50 ball," the versatile 6-foot-1 Makarski said. "The defensive back had great coverage. He played it very well. He actually had the ball but I was able to take it from him on the way down."
Makarski, whose availability has been limited over the past year by a back injury, also gained significant yardage along the ground against Cathedral.
Said Dennison: "Jonathan has recently come back to playing a position. He was kicking for us at the beginning of the year.
"Two weeks ago he had one of the best games a St. Mary kid has had in a really long time (two touchdown receptions and 200 all-purpose yards). And he followed that up today."
Other key plays in the first half included an interception in the end zone by Cathedral's defensive back Jaden Campbell and a blocked punt by St. Mary's linebacker Zach Foster.
Jack Stanley and William Wilkinson also contributed for the Crusaders with quarterback sacks.
"We had some very important special team defensive plays," Dennison added. "Some of those nitty gritty things we did on special team defence (blocking a convert) paid off."
All three of the St. Mary convert tries by Nico Batagelj were successful.
Despite their record so far and having a reduced roster, Bianco said his team always gives a great effort and plays with pride.
"Coming up short obviously hurts," he said.
Both the Tier I and Tier II championships are scheduled for Friday, Nov. 8.
Photos by R.F. (Bob) Butrym, RFB Sport Photography
More photos on the HWCDSB Athletics Facebook page here
