Irish roll in opener

By Bernie Puchalski - September 30, 2021

For the foreseeable future, whenever a high school quarterback in Niagara is able to beat teams with his arm and legs, comparisons will be made to former A.N. Myer great Tre Ford.

No one is saying Notre Dame quarterback Marshall McCray will be able to match Ford’s accomplishments but the Grade 11 quarterback sure looked good helping the Fighting Irish open the Niagara Catholic Athletic Association senior season with a 37-21 road victory over the Saint Paul Patriots. The 17-year-old Welland resident smiled when asked if he models his game after Ford.

“He’s actually my cousin,” the Grade 12 student said. “I have been watching ever since I was little and growing up and I am trying to be better than him.

“He set the bar high.”

The six-foot 180-pounder has been playing quarterback since he was seven years old, including stints in minor football, the Saint Paul junior team and with the Niagara Spears junior varsity squad.

He admitted it was odd playing against Saint Paul.

“It is a little unusual because I have been playing with them all my life but it was a great experience to play against them too. I had a lot of fun.”

For McCray and every player on the team, it felt awesome just to be playing football again.

“It feels great to be back out there after not playing for two years,” he said. “We got the nerves out of the way at the beginning and then we started rolling.”

During the pandemic, McCray and his friends trained almost every day on the field and working out.

“I feeI have gotten a lot better at throwing and I do a lot already with my legs. I can still get better at throwing and this team with its receiving corps, I think we can do great things.”

He is looking for one thing in particular this season.

“We want to go all the way and win a championship.”

Notre Dame head coach Tim Bisci liked what he saw Thursday from McCray.

“He is learning a new offence but he did very well,” he said. “We did a few different things and ran a read option with him and he’s picked it up.”

There was a lot of repetition prior to the game but it showed Thursday.

“He made some really good reads,” Bisci said.

Bisci wasn’t overly happy with how his team showed.

“We executed at times and we were stupid at times,” he said. “We have to be smarter with our discipline obviously but the kids got to play for the first time in two years. I am sure you have heard it 100 times already but the guys are just excited to be back out playing.

He sees better times ahead.

“We’ve got some work to do but we have really good athletes and the guys really played well when they had the opportunity.”

Rick Oreskovich was OK with his team’s performance Thursday.

“We competed. Our kids fought and they did their best,” he said. “They are definitely a better team than us at this point in time. They have football experience, they are physical, they run the football very well and they have a great offensive line.”

Oreskovich knows the season is just beginning.

“We are going to learn and hopefully we can improve every game. It will take some time.”

The Blessed Trinity Thunder opened the NCAA senior season Thursday with a 21-6 road victory over the Denis Morris Reds.

“We are proud of the way the boys came out to play,” coach Mark Antonelli said. “It is so nice to be able to play football again and we were able to get all 51 players in the game today.

Contributing to the BT win were: David Robinson with a 45-yard TD pass to Jayden Gurzi-Mcdonald; Tyler Crawford with a fumble recovery for a TD; Eljay Thompson with a two-yard rushing major; Romero Nicolazzo with three converts; Tyler Crawford and Dylan Cruickshanks with picks; and, Wyatt Bezuyen with a fumble recovery.

Alex Meffe scored the lone major for Denis Morris on a one-yard run.

“It was an amazing day to be playing football,” DM coach Andy Cecchini said. “We had a few mistakes that hurt us but overall I was really happy with how the boys played. It was great for the kids to be out playing again.”

STATS PACK

Fighting Irish 37 Patriots 21

BPSN Player of the Game: Notre Dame quarterback Marshall McCray with a 52-yard TD pass, a 14-yard TD run and a two-point convert on a run.

For the Notre Dame Fighting Irish: McCray, TD and two-point convert; Tal Ibriham, five- and 21-yard TD runs; Jake Tessier, 52-yard TD catch and two-point convert on run; Dayshawn Johnson, seven-yard TD run and interception; Ezra Sylvester, sack; Konner little, convert block.

For the Saint Paul Patriots: Staijha Williams, seven-yard TD run; Elijah Pappin, seven-yard TD run; Javier Lewis, six-yard TD run and two-point convert on run; Ardien Szopinski-Ross, sack; Joshua Upper, interception.

Game stats: First downs: Notre Dame 14, Saint Paul 12. Net offence: Notre Dame 328, Saint Paul 188. Turnovers: Notre Dame 2, Saint Paul 2. Penalties: Notre Dame 8 for 90 yards, Saint Paul 3 for 5 yards.

Up next: Senior NCAA games scheduled for next Thursday at 3 p.m. include Saint Paul at Blessed Trinity and Denis Morris at Saint Francis.