Archbishop Stepinac and St. Anthony are an even 5-5 against one another since October of 2016, but not for long. The Archbishop Stepinac Crusaders will square off against the St. Anthony's Friars at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday.
Having struggled with ten losses in a row dating back to last season, Archbishop Stepinac finally turned things around against Moore Catholic on Sunday. They came out on top against the Mavericks by a score of 21-14.
The critical scores for Archbishop Stepinac came from Jesse Osbourne, Richie DeMarco, and Ian Thomas. Another player making a difference was Troy Baker Jr., who rushed for 101 yards on only eight carries.
Archbishop Stepinac was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 225 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since back in October of 2023.
On the defensive side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Archbishop Stepinac's defense and their six sacks. The heavy lifting was done by Ka'Mauri Guinyard and Adrian Sukalic, who racked up five sacks between them. Guinyard also set a new season high mark in total tackles with 15. Anthony Terilli was another major factor on D, picking up a sack and making 16 total tackles.
Meanwhile, St. Anthony's faced Cardinal Hayes in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Saturday. St. Anthony's walked away with a 42-34 victory over Cardinal Hayes. The win was nothing new for the Friars as they're now sitting on four straight.
It was another big night for Gary Merrill, who rushed for 188 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 8.2 yards per carry, and also threw for 140 yards and two touchdowns while completing 81.8% of his passes. His rushing production has been exceptional as that marked his eighth straight game with at least 116 rushing yards. Xavier Bala also helped out as he racked up 119 rushing yards.
St. Anthony's wouldn't let Cardinal Hayes keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force four fumbles. Anthony Kenner led the group effort, picking up two of those forced fumbles all by himself.
St. Anthony's is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven contests, which provided a nice bump to their 7-3 record this season. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 37.4 points per game. As for Archbishop Stepinac, their victory (their first of the season) made their record 1-9.
Archbishop Stepinac was dealt a bruising 35-6 defeat at the hands of St. Anthony's in their previous matchup back in September. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Merrill, who rushed for 124 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 7.8 yards per carry, and also threw for 178 yards and three touchdowns on only 16 passes. Now that Archbishop Stepinac knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
