Greg Galligan and his St. Anthony’s football teammates can finally get a good night’s sleep.
Ever since the Friars fell to Chaminade by one point in last season’s CHSFL ‘AAA’ title game, the senior quarterback had nightmares about the loss in which his team’s game-winning field goal attempt was blocked as time expired. St. Anthony’s players said they thought about it daily, and didn’t just want to get back to the championship game, they wanted to face Chaminade and get payback against their bitter rivals.
The league’s best team all season did just that Saturday at Mitchel Field in Uniondale with a 35-0 win over the Flyers. St. Anthony’s has now won a title 11 of the last 13 seasons.
“Finally I got it back,” Galligan said. “I just feel like redemption’s mine, and I’ve been waiting a year for this and I’m really excited right now. I couldn’t have a better team.”
Galligan completed 14 of 23 passes for 142 yards and a touchdown and ran five times for 62 yards and a score. His 30-yard rushing touchdown on a bootleg gave the Friars (11-1) a 7-0 lead with 1:03 left in the first.
Perhaps the biggest play of the game came on the preceding possession by Chaminade (10-2.) After Flyers senior running back Rob Speranza took an 83-yard run down to the Friar 8-yard line, Speranza caught a screen from senior quarterback Sean Cerrone - who gutted through a left ankle injury suffered during last week’s win over Holy Cross - and Speranza had the ball stripped by Friars senior linebacker Joe Sotomayor. St. Anthony’s recovered in the end zone for a touchback.
It was just one of many big plays by St. Anthony’s first defensive unit, which coach Rich Reichert said only allowed six touchdowns all season. After Speranza had 186 yards on just eight touches in the first half, he managed just eight total yards after halftime.
“We talked about all week trying to get a shutout for the championship,” said Sotomayor, who called last year’s loss “one of the saddest moments of my life.”
On the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter, Friars junior running back Jordan Gowins ran for a 47-yard touchdown, putting St. Anthony’s up 14-0. He ran 27 times for 193 yards and finished the season with 24 rushing touchdowns.
“I definitely used it as motivation,” Gowins said of last season’s title defeat. “I felt last year I kind of choked a little bit in this game, so I knew I had to come out here and make a statement.”
About three minutes later, senior Naim Jones scored on a 5-yard screen from Galligan. Jones ran one in from 3 yards late in the third and sealed the game with a 57-yard touchdown run with 4:08 left in the game, giving him his first three-touchdown game of the season.
“(Last year) I cried my eyes out,” Jones said. “This year it feels great.”
Cerrone was clearly hampered by his ankle, which appeared heavily taped, and it prevented him from breaking off a couple of big runs like he usually does.
“He’s just a tough kid,” Galligan said of Cerrone. “If he’s hurt, he will not show it. He played unbelievable (Saturday.)”
Reichert says he knew what his players went through after last season, having to deal with a crushing loss to a rival. It was one of the reasons the team switched to a spread offense from its usual option attack, and it allowed all of its playmakers to thrive.
“I think the loss last year woke us up, that we (said) ‘Let’s change something. Let’s do something to make it different,’” Reichert said. “And I think it made us a much better football team.”
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