By John Orrell, Contributing Writer
Shrewsbury – Thirteen-year head coach John Andreoli has seen more than a handful of nail-biting, white-knuckle finishes in his tenure guiding the St. John’s High School varsity football team, but this year’s season home-opener versus Catholic Memorial Sept. 10 has to rank near the top of high-anxiety outcomes.
Andreoli’s Pioneers appeared to be cruising to a decisive victory with a commanding 23-point advantage with time running down in the third quarter only to see things nearly slip away with a dramatic Knights comeback. With just under three minutes remaining in the contest, Catholic Memorial pulled to within two points with a series of late-game scoring drives only to see the game saved with cornerback Owen Ryan’s breakup of a needed two-point conversion that sealed the 30-28 St. John’s victory.
“They’re (Catholic Memorial) never going to consider themselves out of the game and that was very evident today,” said Andreoli. “We dominated them in the first half on defense. We scored a lot of points but they came right back. But our guys stepped right in there and they made plays. We saw some real good things today. Most importantly, we had guys that knew they had to compete and when it came down to it we made plays when we had to to win the game.”
“This was a great day and an overall team win,” added first-year varsity junior quarterback Steven Bucciaglia. “First game we wanted to come out of the gates strong and I think we did. We got off to a rough start but we picked it up after that.
“This win is good for team morale. Everyone was excited to be out there and we’re excited to go out and get the next one. We didn’t play a full game today, definitely not. In terms of closing out the game, we did a good job in the end but at the beginning of the fourth quarter we struggled so we have to focus on playing a full game.”
The Knights opened with an early touchdown, but St. John’s answered back with one of their own late in the first quarter. Minutes later, the Pioneer defense would explode upon quarterback Matt Marcantano for a momentum–swinging safety that opened up an 8-7 host team advantage.
The second quarter was all St. John’s with 15 points coming on the board from a two-yard TD pass from Bucciaglia into the outstretched arms of Hunter Gorgas, who would also go on to record a clutch QB sack late in the game. As time ran down in the half, Bucciaglia once more made his varsity debut even more successful, finding Nick Pallotta from five yards out to put St. John’s up 23-7 at the break.
Tom Feraco would race through traffic and into the end zone from five yards out to open a seemingly secure 30-7 third quarter lead. But the Knights had other ideas, launching a comeback on scoring drives that saw them just a two-point conversion away from a tie with just over a minute remaining. Marcantano attempted to loft one into the end zone for a waiting receiver but was denied when Ryan broke up the attempt for a game-saving win.
“All day long they were picking on him (Ryan) a little bit. He’s scrappy,” said Andreoli. “He plays against guys who are bigger than him but he’s always breaking on the ball. He plays very disciplined man-to-man coverage and he was there to break up a play that keeps them in the ball game. He plays the game the right way and that was evident in the way he made that play when he had to.”
The Pioneer offense managed to run down the clock helped largely by a Dan Byers (208 yards) first down and the home crowd celebration was on.
“Every game’s its own entity and we look at one at a time,” remarked Andreoli. “Our type of schedule, you can’t get ahead of yourself and we prepared for these guys this week. We knew they were going to be a very good team.”
“If we’re going to come out and carry any momentum into the season and try to get as many wins as possible, we need to start off with a win,” added tall and rangy Gorgas who is set to play a decisive role for the team going forward. “This is really good for us. We’re all hyped and have the energy momentum to get out this week and practice for the next game.”
The Pioneers next host the Rams of Shepherd Hill Regional Friday, Sept. 16. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.