Football Preview: Chaminade

After two straight trips to Staten Island, the St. Anthony’s road tour continues this week. But at least the Friars won’t have to leave Long island.

St. Anthony’s faces Chaminade in a CHSFL showdown of 5-1 teams at 7 p.m. Saturday at Mitchel Athletic Complex in Uniondale. Football games don’t get much more intense.

The Friars (5-1 overall, 4-0 CHSFL) are coming off a 37-28 win over St. Joseph by the Sea. As usual, Tom Schreiber directed a potent offense and Atiq Lucas and Nick Mercurio proved to be versatile weapons out of the backfield. But the defense has continued to show a disturbing trend of surrendering big plays.

Chaminade (5-1, 3-1) rallied from down 13-0 in the fourth quarter to edge Holy Trinity, 14-13. The Flyers have platooned quarterbacks in their newly-installed spread offense. While the running game couldn’t get traction against Holy Trinity, wideouts Michael Ehrhardt (6-4, 185 pounds) and John Urbank (6-3, 185 pounds) proved to be dangerous downfield threats.

While St. Anthony’s has arguably the top cornerback in the league in Matt Metalios, the Friars had to do without safety Ryan Fumai last week. He was named CHSFL player of the week for his performance against Farrell, but sat out last week with a foot injury. If he remains sidelined, the Flyers have a spot to exploit.

Last season, St. Anthony’s shut out the Flyers, 17-0, in a Week 8 downpour. The Friars own a 30-11 series edge dating to 1974 and have won the last 14 meetings. Chaminade last beat the Friars, 31-19, in 1998. That’s a lot of history for Chaminade to overcome.

– JASON MOLINET