MORE FOOTBALL
St. Thomas More wins third city title in a row, but Newman is itching for a rematch
Another year, another title for St. Thomas More.
After falling behind early, the country’s top-ranked Knights came back to beat the rival Cardinal Newman Cardinals 17-7 to earn their third straight Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic senior high school football championship at Tim Hortons Field Friday.
Despite going into the game with a perfect 7-0 record, head coach Claudio Silvestri said he knew his Knights would be in for a “dogfight.” They always are against Newman.
“This is a really good football team, and it’s difficult beating a team of this calibre twice in a season,” he added. “We knew they were going to be coming at us and we tried to prep as best we could and the kids came out and really rebounded after a slow start.”
It’s an understatement to say these two schools have history. In each of the last five years, More and Newman have met in the city final, and one or the other has won the championship in each of the last 12.
And, though More has come out on top on three straight occasions, the country’s No. 18 ranked Cardinals have made it to the city final eight times in a row.
“They’re a good team, we’re a good team, but tonight they were better,” said Newman senior Anthony Moretuzzo. “We’ll be back, though. We’ll be back, and they know it. You can mark my words on that one.”
Moretuzzo, 17, set up the lone Cardinals touchdown with a 25-yard run to the More one on the game’s opening drive. Teammate Calvin Kelly punched it into the end zone for the score and Vince Triumbardi made good on the convert to put Newman up 7-0 — a lead that held up until early in the second quarter.
That’s when More started to take over.
First Dante Medeiros booted a 34-yard field goal to close the gap to four points before quarterback Evan Hillock threw a bomb downfield to a wide-open Janiel Gordon, who put More ahead with a 91-yard catch-and-run touchdown.
Medeiros made the convert and his side picked off Newman quarterback Daniel Eldrige twice to allow the Knights to maintain their 10-7 lead at the half.
More received the ball to start the third quarter and wore over seven minutes off the clock marching it down the turf to the Newman 21. Isaiah Parkinson ran it in from there and Medeiros was good again to put More up by 10 — which was all the scoring the Knights needed.
“I couldn’t ask for a better team than this,” said Gordon, the 17year-old More receiver. “Our offence was good on the ball, our defence was good on the ball. No one could stop us.”
The Knights thrashed Cathedral to advance to the final, while the Cardinals moved on with a win over Bishop Ryan. In their only previous matchup this season, the Knights — who have now allowed just 33 points in eight games — upended the Cardinals 22-10.
Both schools are back in action again Wednesday in the Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference semifinals, with More moving on to face Nelson, the Halton public board winners, and Newman meeting the Halton Catholic champions from Corpus Christi.
If they both win, they’ll meet again in the GHAC final — a rematch already on the mind of Newman coach Lino Battilana.
“We don’t want to have to wait another year to meet up with St. Thomas More,” he said. “We’re not looking beyond Corpus, but this is certainly going to be motivation to do well the next game so we can play these guys again.”