September 19, 2005Trinity Catholic shut out by St. Josephfrom The Stamford Advocate STAMFORD -- It was a simple case of St. Joseph High School making plays and no mistakes. In contrast, Trinity Catholic did not make plays and was error-prone in yesterday's season opener at Trinity Catholic's Alumni Field. Those factors combined for a 28-0 St. Joseph's victory over Trinity Catholic in a showdown of the two private Catholic high schools in the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference. "This is a rival of ours," St. Joseph eighth-year coach Joe Della Vecchia said. "Every time we play them it's an absolute battle. You know it's not going to be easy. And our kids played very well today. Our defense was awesome. They bent a little but never gave in. Last year we couldn't score. Today we scored when we needed to." St. Joe's quarterback Dave Chervansky and running back Mike Bartlett each made several big plays to lead the Cadets. Bartlett scored three touchdowns, including a pair of long TD receptions from Chervansky. Bartlett swept around the right side for a 2-yard touchdown run and Chervansky converted the first of his four extra-point kicks to give St. Joseph a 7-0 lead with 5:28 remaining in the first quarter. Chervansky fired a 27-yard TD pass to Bartlett in the second quarter and that tandem broke it open by connecting on a 73-yard scoring toss on the first play of the fourth quarter. The Cadets had no turnovers and just two penalties totaling 10 yards. The Crusaders, meanwhile, fumbled five times in the first half and turned the ball over on two of them. St. Joseph cashed in with touchdowns after both of those fumbles. Chervansky converted first downs on fourth-and-long situations on each of those drives. In addition to those turnovers, the Crusaders had fourth-and-goal situations twice in the first half and were stymied. "This is as bad as it gets," Trinity Catholic coach Bryan Fox said. "We turned the ball over to them too much. What gets you down is you think you have more talent, you think you have good players and you think you called good plays... but it's not holding onto the football and not getting the first downs when you need them." Gene DeVito caught four passes for 39 yards from quarterback Anas Koummal while Vinny Cortese, Mario Pirolozzi, Pat Cullen, Alain Joseph and Santiago Steele played well on the defensive line for the Crusaders. They limited the Cadets to 31 yards rushing on 22 carries until Paul Secondi busted through for a 72-yard touchdown run for St. Joseph's final TD with 5:49 left in the game. "We stopped the run and we tackled well, but they busted two long passing plays and that sort of was the dagger in our hearts," Fox said. "I think we'll be a tough team to run on this year." A precursor of the game occurred on the first play when DeVito was stripped of the ball on the kickoff return. Fortunately for the Crusaders, A.J. Nelson pounced on the loose ball. Two plays later Trinity mishandled the center snap and St. Joseph's Rick Piccirillo recovered the fumble at Trinity's 43-yard line. Bartlett's 2-yard TD run culminated the 10-play drive that was kept alive when Ryan Carino made a nice, sprawling 12-yard reception on a fourth-and-8 from Trinity's 20. Carino had three receptions for 43 yards at that point. The Crusaders' best play early in the game occurred on one of their own fumbles. Nelson was popped on the ensuing kickoff and the ball popped into the arms of Pirolozzi, who advanced it 36 yards. Five plays later the Crusaders had a second-and-goal on the St. Joseph 6. But then came a loss of three yards via another mishandled snap and an incompletion on fourth down. Midway through the second quarter Shane Rooney stripped Nelson of the ball and Chris Satti recovered for the Cadets. Three plays later, on fourth-and-8 from Trinity's 36, Chervansky broke three tackles while scrambling for nine yards. On the next play Bartlett got wide open down the middle for his 27-yard TD reception. Trinity had a first-and-goal from the 8 in the waning minutes of the first half but managed just 7 yards on four running plays. On fourth-and-goal from the 2, the Crusaders tried to send Eric Stephens up the middle but Nick Foote, Dave Hashemi and Carino combined to stack him up a yard short. Bartlett made a great one-handed nab when he reached behind himself to haul in a pass down the middle en route to his 73-yard touchdown catch. "I was running down the field, the ball was a little to the outside so I just tried to turn around and catch the ball," Bartlett said. "I turned back and I couldn't reach it with two hands. Some things just fall into place." Everything seemed to fall into place for the Cadets. The Crusaders, meanwhile, will try to rectify things and move on. "We have to learn from this," Fox said. "The whole story of high school football is you go from a range of emotions in six days. On Saturday you can either have the best feeling on the planet or the worst feeling on the planet, and whatever it is you still have to get over that and get ready on Monday to prepare for the next game."
 Big senior defensive tackle Vladimir Joseph swims by an offensive lineman in a 28-20 home victory over Fairfield Ludlowe on October 29, 2005. (CrusaderNation.net / Dana Maul)
 Junior defensive tackle Santiago "Teggy" Steele wraps up a Darien
rusher as his
 Junior center Cory Johnson prepares to snap the ball to fellow classmate
 The Crusader offensive line pushes Bassick around in the mud. The
Crusaders
 Senior wideout Rob Hawthorn races downfield to block as junior fullback
Eric Stephens
 2005 All-FCIAC East Offense Row 1, Left to Right: Eric Wells, Bassick; Willie Epps, McMahon;
Pete Raymond,
 2005 All-FCIAC East Defense Row 1, Left to Right: Joe Luchesi, Danbury; Greg Sabo, Danbury; James
Taylor, Danbury;
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