St. Anthony and Iona Prep squared off in some playoff action on Saturday, but St. Anthony's had to settle for second. They came up short against the Iona Prep Gaels, falling 43-22. For those keeping track at home, that's the biggest loss the Friars have suffered since September 13th.
Several Friars players turned in solid performances despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Xavier Bala, who rushed for 149 yards and a touchdown. The dominant performance gave Bala a new career-high in rushing yards. The team also got some help courtesy of Gary Merrill, who rushed for 67 yards and a touchdown.
Even though they lost, St. Anthony's was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 216 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 174 rushing yards in 12 consecutive matchups.
St. Anthony's didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Kevin Moore and Anthony Kenner.
Crew Davis continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines for Iona Prep, rushing for 222 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 10.6 yards per carry, and also picking up 62 receiving yards. Davis' rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his third straight game with at least 101 rushing yards. Iona Prep also got a significant boost from Julian Guzman, who ran away from the competition to the tune of 86 yards.
The defeat snapped St. Anthony's winning streak at six games and leaves them with a 9-4 record. As for Iona Prep, the win was the ninth in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 10-2.
St. Anthony's does not have any more games scheduled as of now. As for Iona Prep, they are taking a road trip to challenge Canisius at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday. Both teams are headed into the matchup with plenty of momentum (Canisius has won four straight at home, while Iona Prep won four straight on the road), something that'll have to change.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
