Irish QB has hot hand in win over Gators
What a difference a year has made for Notre Dame senior football quarterback Brandon Graziani.
“I’m a lot more mature, and now that I am in Grade 12 I feel more confident, I’m more of a leader and I play a bigger role now,” the 17-year-old said.
The 5-foot-11, 170 pounder showed off all those attributes Wednesday, passing for four touchdowns and running for another to lead the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to a 38-24 victory over the visiting Lakeshore Catholic Gators in Niagara Catholic Athletic Association play.
The Grade 12 student has been playing football since he was six and quarterbacking since he was in Grade 7. There’s nowhere else he would rather be on the football field.
“You always have the ball in your hands, and it’s always on your back to lead the team to a win,” he said. “I feel like it’s a good position because you get to control and manage the field.”
Notre Dame coach Tim Bisci loves how Graziani has developed.
“He’s really matured; just growing up that one year and taking the offence and understanding it. He has come a long way.”
Graziani does it all for the Irish running their option-style offence.
“He has a lot of poise and he has a fiery competitive nature,” Bisci said. “He really wants to do well and he’s a helluva athlete. He can run, he can throw and it makes him tough to stop.”
Graziani would have had even more impressive numbers Wednesday if not for a number of dropped balls.
“Sometimes it’s mental lapses, us not concentrating and dropping balls. If we catch them, we are a tough team to beat,” Bisci said.
Notre Dame kept its playoff hopes alive by improving to 3-3 with the victory.
“We have to win the next two because we shot ourselves in the foot last week, when we should have had a win.,” Bisci said. “Getting this one is big time for us, especially winning at home which we haven’t done in a while.”
The Irish last won at home in 2013.
“It’s great, especially for the seniors,” he said.
Lakeshore Catholic fell to 1-5 with the loss.
“The guys kept coming right until the end and I am proud of them for that,” Lakeshore coach Bernie Tessier said. “When we do what we’re coached, we do really well offensively and defensively.”
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“Unfortunately we break down in different areas with penalties and missed assignments and that’s what hurt us.”
Tessier didn’t want to blame the breakdowns on his team being tired.
“We work pretty hard in practice to prevent that knowing that our numbers are low,” he said. “Only having a 22-man roster out here is definitely difficult, but we keep moving toward the future and we’ll see what we can do.”
Mustangs 42, Raiders 0
Max Nazartchyk scored a pair of touchdowns to lead the Saint Michael Mustangs (4-2) to a 42-0 victory over the Holy Cross Raiders (0-6) in NCAA senior football action Wednesday.
Also contributing to the Mustang win were Ryan Giles, Angel Pjepi and Harry Walker, TDs; Ryan Naar, two field goals; Teven Gallen, Iulian Corila and Carter Kurcz, interceptions; and, Jerry Nguyen, fumble recovery.
Reds 56, Phoenix 14
Zach Barber had an interception return and a fumble recovery for touchdowns, helping the Denis Morris Reds improve to 6-0 in NCAA senior football Wednesday with a 56-14 victory over the St. Francis Phoenix (2-4).
Also contributing to the win were Travis Arp, TD passes of 75 yards to Dylan Warnock and 25 yards to James Holt; Brock Benevento and Austin Pilato, TD runs; Warnock, three interceptions, including a return for a major; Mason Kamminga, interception return for a TD: and Owen Wallace, interception.
For St. Francis, Matt Morris caught a pair of TD passes from Ethan Reid.