Iona Prep 14
Chaminade 7
David Weaver clearly remembers how his season finished last year.
“It was good to have won, but it wasn’t as satisfying as it could have been,” said Weaver, who was a part of Iona Prep’s CHSFL AA title-winning team. “We want to do bigger things this year.”
Like winning the league’s AAA crown, which the Gaels may well be on their way to making a run at, especially after their 14-7 win over Chaminade yesterday at Kings Point.
Iona Prep (3-0) opened the season with convincing wins over Fordham Prep and St. Francis Prep, but neither team is among the league’s best. Chaminade, despite its 1-2 record, is.
“Those were good wins for us,” said Vinny Christoforo, who ran for 76 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries. “But we know that we have a lot to do to prove how good we are. I think we did that today.”
And they did it in unconventional fashion. Iona Prep’s quarterback, John O’Neill, has drawn interest from schools in virtually every major college conference. But with yesterday’s wet, blustery conditions, both teams relied mostly on the run, which was fine with O’Neill.
“Every quarterback wants the chance to lead his team,” said O’Neill, who finished 8-for-15 for 73 yards and had a one-yard touchdown run. “But I know that if we’re going to contend, we have to have a good running game and defense.”
The Gaels had both.
“Everyone knows how good John is,” said Weaver, who had a stellar game at linebacker and also ran the ball five times for 38 yards. “But it was pretty obvious that no one was scoring a lot of points today, so we had to make sure we didn’t let anything up.”
After a slow start, Iona Prep succeeded. On the opening drive of the game, Chaminade drove the ball 80 yards on 15 plays – all runs – in 7:30, a sequence disheartening enough to suck the life out of a defense. Instead, the Gaels never allowed the Flyers to sustain another prolonged drive the rest of the game.
“We’re tougher than them,” Weaver said. “We had more heart.”
O’Neill ran for a two-yard touchdown with 3:17 to go in the second quarter to tie the score at 7-7, where it stood at halftime. The Gaels opened the second half with a 13-play, 72-yard drive that ended with Christoforo’s touchdown, also from two yards. Neither team moved the ball much after that, especially as the rain and wind picked up.
But the Flyers made one last attempt before Todd Debiak sealed the win with an interception with 2:24 to go at Iona Prep’s 15.