St. Anthony's Football Recaptures Crown

Rich Reichert finally considers his St. Anthony’s team complete; the Firars have their crown back after a 35-0 shutout win over Chaminade in the CHSFL title game at Mitchel Field Saturday afternoon.

“I felt last year I kinda choked in this game, so I knew I had to come out here and make a statement,” Friars RB Jordan Gowins said referring to the 17-16 loss to the Flyers St. Anthony’s endured in 2012.

The sophomore made it with his feet, running 183 yards including a 47-yard TD.

The memories of the 2012 loss also haunted QB Greg Galligan.

“I saw it every once in a while,” he said. “I saw it on TV a couple times, I never watched the whole game fully, just kind of got over it. I’ve been waiting for this since then.”

The Flyers had held St. Anthony’s in the red zone twice in the first half, only allowing one touchdown, with a long run from senior RB Rob Speranza foiled at the goal line as the ball came out of his hands.

“We had two times in the red zone, didn’t score in the first half,” Reichert said. “I really thought we should have been 21-0 at the half. We didn’t stop ourselves, we stopped ourselves those first two possessions down here in the red zone.”

Any hope that the Flyers were still in the game evaporated in the first four minutes of the third quarter as Gowins and the other half of the dynamic RB duo, Naim Jones, scored three TDs.

“We just executed in the second half,” Galligan said.

It turned out to be the highest-scoring shutout in the history of the title game and the largest spread by which any team has won.

“Coach wanted this since day one, since August,” Jones said of Reichert’s desire to play not only in the title game again, but against the Flyers.

“It’s really nice to have it back,” Reichard said of the Michael Cunnion Trophy. “It was really tough last year.”