Sweet 16 seed? CM routs St. John’s (S)
When the MIAA released its first football power rankings last week, diehard Catholic Memorial fans were stunned to see their Knights slotted No. 16 overall in Div. 2.
Clearly, that sparked junior quarterback JC Petrongolo and his teammates Saturday.
The Knights came out ready to make a statement, and Petrongolo was 9-for-14 passing for 174 yards and four touchdowns in a convincing 44-0 rout of St. John’s (Shrewsbury) in a Catholic Conference matchup.
“It was definitely a motivating factor,” Petrongolo said afterward. “Saying that we weren’t inside the top 10 (in the power rankings).”
It took only 12 seconds for Catholic Memorial (4-0) to strike. On the first play, junior Carson Harwood took a handoff and found a seam, off on an 80-yard touchdown.
When the Knights forced a safety with a blocked punt during St. John’s opening possession, Catholic Memorial immediately capitalized. Petrongolo dropped back and fired a pass across the middle to Kole Osinubi, who slipped past a diving tackler before taking off for a 73yard touchdown reception, giving the Knights a 16-0 lead just 2:20 into the contest.
At the conclusion of the first quarter, the Knights blocked their second punt of the game, setting up a 9-yard touchdown run by junior Datrell Jones. By then, Catholic Memorial was ahead 23-0, and the Knights would coast to victory.
In fact, the biggest scare they would arguably face during the game came on a completion from Petrongolo to Osinubi along the sidelines. As the junior was shoved out of bounds, Osinubi came very close to knocking over CM coach John DiBiaso.
DiBiaso not only maintained his balance — he struck a Heisman pose at the play’s conclusion, as the crowd cheered.
“I saw it coming,” DiBiaso chuckled. “It was like those slow-motions, I knew he was coming. I backed up … there was just nowhere else to go.”
Osinubi finished with three receptions for 93 yards.
Catholic Memorial opened its season by scheduling three out-of-state opponents, eventually cruising past Capital Prep (CT) (a 44-6 victory), La Salle (RI) (42-26) and Bishop Hendricken (RI) (55-28).
However, the matchups didn’t present as strong of an impact on the MIAA rankings as in-state games provided. You can likely expect a massive surge up in the standings for the Knights after the events of Saturday.
“We’re holding up that No. 16 spot,” DiBiaso joked. “There’s 15 teams above us, and we’re holding them up. Everybody laughed at me when I said I don’t understand (the rankings). It’s the truth, I don’t understand them.”
Catholic Memorial will face its toughest test of the season next week, when the Knights take on an archrival in St. John’s Prep.
“I think (this) was a pretty good win,” Petrongolo said. “But we’ve still got bigger fish to fry, with Prep, Xaverian and BC High. So yeah, we’ve got more challenges up ahead.”