St. Anthony's drops back-and-forth contest heading into CHSFL playoffs
KJ Duff #1, St. Anthony's wide receiver, tries to stay on his feet as the Archbishop Stepinac defense converges on him during a CHSFL game at Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. Credit: James Escher
With the No. 1 overall seed in the CHSFL AAA playoffs on the line, points were plentiful in White Plains on Friday night.
St. Anthony’s took an early two-touchdown lead, but Archbishop Stepinac was not fazed.
After falling in an early hole, the Crusaders scored on seven straight drives — excluding a quarterback kneel to end the first half — en route to an eventful 56-35 win over the Friars in the regular-season finale.
“Just together as a team, we’ve got to come together and play better on both sides of the ball,” said St. Anthony's KJ Duff, a senior wide receiver and Rutgers commit. “Offense was rolling early, we lost a little of that momentum. We just had to keep it up and keep the foot on the gas.”
St. Anthony’s finished the regular season with a 6-3 record and a 5-2 mark in CHSFL AAA play.
Duff’s connection with junior quarterback Gary Merrill keyed the Friars’ strong start. Merrill found Duff for a 5-yard score to open the scoring with 10:17 left in the first quarter. They connected again for a 14-yard touchdown to go up 14-0 with 4:36 left in the opening frame.
“Me and Gary, we were saying all game, ‘They couldn’t stop us, just keep going right back to it.’ That’s what we did and it worked pretty well," Duff said. "We just needed a couple stops on defense.”
After going three-and-out on its opening drive, Stepinac responded on the ensuing kickoff with Troy Worrell’s 87-yard touchdown return.
“Big momentum swing on their kick return, and we just couldn’t get it back to our sideline,” St. Anthony’s coach Joe Minucci said. “They beat us up pretty good on both sides of the ball, and you can’t win football games that way.”
Lorenzo Robinson’s 17-yard touchdown run and Worrell’s 48-yard touchdown reception from Will Currid gave Stepinac the lead about halfway through the second quarter.
A 44-yard touchdown run by Merrill evened the score at 21 with 4:15 until halftime, though Currid’s 29-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Osbourne gave Stepinac a 28-21 lead at the break.
Merrill had a strong showing , completing 20 of 29 passes for 272 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. He also had 15 carries for 115 yards and two touchdowns.
“Gary’s a great athlete,” Minucci said. “He’s a good QB, does a great job extending the plays. If we didn’t have him back there with his ability to do that, the game would be certainly a lot harder.”
Stepinac and St. Anthony’s traded touchdowns on the first four second-half drives, with a Merrill 2-yard touchdown run and a 62-yard touchdown pass from Merrill to Duff for the Friars. The latter touchdown was the third for Duff, who finished with 11 receptions for 173 yards and three touchdowns.
St. Anthony’s cut its deficit to 42-35 with 4:28 left in the third quarter, but it didn't score again. Stepinac went on an 11-play, 62-yard drive that extended into the final quarter before Robinson’s third touchdown made it 49-35 with 11:34 left.
With the regular season wrapped up, all four CHSFL AAA quarterfinal games will be played next Saturday.
“We’ve played with the top teams in the league all year,” Duff said. “We won most games, we came up short in this game, but bottom line we competed. So yeah, we definitely have high hopes going to the playoffs.”
Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
