CM holds off challenge from La Salle Academy
But coach DiBiaso displeased with penalties
CATHOLIC MEMORIAL 42
LA SALLE 26
If you thought John DiBiaso would be full of the warm and fuzzies after his team earned a 42-26 win over La Salle Academy of Rhode Island, then you might not know the Catholic Memorial coach as well as you think.
After Friday night’s win, DiBiaso told his team in no uncertain terms that he was not pleased at all with the performance.
“The Super Bowl losses (by the Knights in 2018 and 2019) were better than that,” DiBiaso said.
Well, if the win over La Salle was so bad, you have to wonder what the Knights will do when they play up to their coach’s liking.
Junior quarterback JC Petrongolo completed 15 of 25 passes for 235 yards and three touchdowns, two of which went to classmate Jaedn Skeete for scoring tosses of 49 and 6 yards. Through two games against out-of-state competition, the Knights are averaging 43 points per game, and it remains a mystery whether someone they play can run with their fleet of speedsters.
But none of that satisfied DiBiaso, who was fixated on his team’s shortcomings.
“What didn’t I like?” DiBiaso said. “The penalties. The turnovers. Guys cramping up. Not playing until the whistle. Playing through the whistle and getting personal fouls. I didn’t like any of it.”
The message got through to Skeete, who caught four passes for 68 yards.
“We’ve just got to do better,” Skeete said. “Our performance wasn’t that good. Luckily, we came out with a win today, but we need to be more disciplined. There were too many flags on the field. We’ve just got to work harder. We’ve got to do better. It starts in practice.”
The Knights took the opening kick and scored in less than a minute on a 3-yard touchdown run by Datrell Jones. La Salle answered with a 17yard touchdown pass from Dean Varrichione to Justin Benson to cut the CM lead to 7-6. In the second quarter, CM answered on a 49-yard Petrongolo pass over the middle to Skeete, who outraced the La Salle secondary to the end zone.
La Salle then cut the deficit to 14-12 on a 3-yard scoring run by Jameszell Lassister, and it looked like it would stay that way until halftime. But another one of the terrific CM junior receivers, Kole Osinubi, took a 25yard pass from Petrongolo to give the Knights a 21-12 lead at halftime.
“We try to distribute it like a basketball team,” DiBiaso said of his skill players. “This guy gets it. That guy gets it. But, again, we didn’t do as good a job as we should.”
CM finally began to pull away in the third quarter. Jones added a 13yard touchdown run, then Skeete lost his man for a 6-yard score as CM pushed its advantage to 35-12. La Salle scored two touchdowns in the fourth sandwiched around a Carson Harwood 3-yard scoring jaunt.