Reds have Mustangs seeing red
It didn’t take long before the Denis Morris Reds and Saint Michael Mustangs renewed an old rivalry Thursday.
Saint Michael won the Niagara Region High School Athletic Association Division 2 championship last season and the Reds were Division 1 finalists. With this year’s formation of the Niagara Catholic Athletic Association, the two teams met in the regular season for the first time in several seasons and it was a hard-hitting, nasty battle.
The Redmen (2-0) ended up prevailing 36-7 over the visiting Mustangs (1-1) in a game that featured several unnecessary roughness penalties and a shoving bench at the end of the third quarter that saw one Saint Michael player ejected from the game. The officials and coaches on both benches did a good job of preventing the altercation from turning into something more serious.
“They played very physical and we weren’t ready for that physicality so early in the season,” Mustangs coach Brian Carter said. “That physicality frustrated our guys a lot and we definitely got distracted. They were more focused on that aspect than actually doing their jobs.
“It’s football. It’s tough and you have to keep your mind on your job.”
Carter is confident his team can be a contender for the league title by the end of the season.
“They are ahead of us right now and we are not quite up to their speed yet,” he said. “If kids keep working hard, we have six or seven weeks before playoffs and it will be a different story second time around if we get to the playoffs.”
Denis Morris head coach Rob Battista was pleased with the physical nature of the game.
“It was good for us,” he said. “We needed that type of game and I was very happy with the way they played.”
Battista thought his team improved from last week’s win over Blessed Trinity.
“Our timing was a lot better this week and the guys were where they were supposed to be.”
The Mustangs recorded four first downs on their first possession and didn’t get another until the end of the game. The Reds countered with 20 first downs.
Scoring for Denis Morris were: Mike Domanico, on runs of one and seven yards; Dylan Warnock on a 17-yard pass from Travis Arp; Brock Benevento on a 20-yard pass from Arp; and, Owen Wallace on a 30-yard pass from Arp.
Austin Pialto had an interception for the Reds and Rob Hough recorded a sack.
For Saint Michael, Ryan Giles caught a 29-yard TD pass from Angel Pjepi and Narvaye Daniels-Bailey had two sacks. Marauders 57 Spartans 13
The A.N. Myer Marauders improved to 2-0 in Niagara Region High School Athletic Association play with a 56-13 victory over the Westlane Spartans (0-2) Wednesday.
Contributing to the Myer win were: Rico Charboneau with two TD catches, a 60-yarder from Tre Ford and a 40-yarder from Tyrell Ford; Hayden O’Toole, 45-yard TD run; Rushon Dagelman, TD runs of 25 and 30 yards; Jake Andrews, 40-yard TD run; Tyler Hildebrand, 45-yard TD grab from Tre Ford; Tyler Scholz, 35-yard TD pass from Tre Ford and an interception; Austin Potter, two sacks; Josh Bush, sack; Noah Spadafora, knocked down pass; and, strong game from Josh Lisi and Donovan Vanegas.
“Our defence played a solid, hard-hitting game,” Myer assistant coach Nico Marino said. “Standouts on defence were the defensive line and the youth in our defensive backfield.”
Westlane quarterback Nick Mazzone threw 65- and 40-yard TD passes to Isaiah Maye in the first half.