Unbeaten Lourdes Takes Control and Defeats the Panthers
For Pleasantville, Saturday afternoon’s game at Parkway Field was a lot different, with an electrifying atmosphere the Panthers hadn’t experienced the past couple of years. It presented the chance for coach Tony Becerra and his Panthers to play the sort of big-stakes game that had been missing the past two rebuilding seasons.
“We talked about it and the kids relished the opportunity and embraced the challenge and you know they were all in,” said Becerra. “They were all in because they worked for it and they got it. They got the opportunity.”
The opportunity was to knock off undefeated Our Lady of Lourdes, a feat the Panthers fought valiantly for but ultimately couldn’t accomplish, losing to the Warriors 21-6 to fall to 4-2 this season. Minor breakdowns led to major trouble for Pleasantville, with Lourdes showing its potency in every facet of the game, a reason the 6-0 team from Dutchess County is atop the leader board in Class B football.
The Warriors paced themselves past the Panthers with an offensive-, defensive- and special-teams touchdown that accounted for all of their scoring. The big plays by Lourdes provided just enough punch for the Warriors to pick up a win and capture the league championship.
“Considering the fact they scored off a fumble and a punt return, I think it just shows that we can definitely keep up with them,” Panther senior Nick Pedlow said.
The first six points for Lourdes came in the second quarter. Starting at their own 20-yard line, the Warriors’ ground-and-pound game kept moving the chains. Marching right down the field with a large dose of star running back Bryce Gioia, the Warriors’ offense went 80 yards on 15 plays, eating up more than eight minutes of clock and culminating with a 1-yard touchdown run from Danny Gastin to go ahead 6-0.
Following an interception by junior Gregory Drillock late in the second quarter when the Warriors tried an option pass, the Pleasantville offense set up shop at its own five-yard line. But disaster struck when fullback Barrett Rosenbaum had the ball ripped out of his hands by Nick Wynne, who trotted into the end zone from 10 yards out. A two-point conversion increased the Warrior lead to 14-0.
Lourdes completed its scoring for the day when Chris Keenan returned a punt on a reverse handoff from a teammate. He scampered to a 50-yard touchdown down the left sideline that enabled Lourdes to build a 21-0 advantage with a little more than nine minutes left in the third quarter.
“Against a team like this, you can’t afford a breakdown,” Becerra said. “A team of this caliber will take full advantage of any mistakes.”
Trailing by three touchdowns, the Panthers did have one impressive drive midway through the third quarter. It took them just five plays to get into the end zone. Quarterback Anthony Godino zipped a pass for eight yards to midfield. Then Pedlow broke free for a long run down the sideline, with a Lourdes personal foul moving the ball all the way to the Warrior 13-yard line. After Godino and Nick Greto each ran once to move the ball to the 1-yard line, Pedlow danced in for a touchdown to cut the deficit to 21-6.
Pedlow led the Panther runners with 39 yards on 10 carries. Godino completed five of his 13 passes for 54 yards, 41 of them coming on one completion to Patrick Bathon after Lourdes had called a timeout with just seconds left before halftime.
“Just correct the little things that we weren’t doing in the first half,” Becerra said of the Panther third-quarter drive. “We didn’t do anything different. We just needed to clean up the little things.”
The Panthers’ two losses have come against the teams they’ve measured themselves against all season: Croton Harmon in the first week and now Lourdes this past weekend.
Still, Lourdes head coach Brian Walsh took notice of what a threat Pleasantville has become. Walsh called the Panthers “the best coached” team his Warriors squad has faced all year.
“It was a close score and they’re a good football team,” Walsh said. “Well-coached, good football team.”
Pedlow knows, too, that even after losses to two top teams, Pleasantville is capable of returning the favor if either of them stands in the way, going so far as saying he had “no doubt” the Panthers could beat Lourdes if they get another chance.
That chance could come in the next few weeks as the postseason arrives. According to Becerra, his team would like nothing more than the opportunity for a rematch.
“Our kids are confident,” he said, “that whoever we get, we’re going to again embrace the challenge and relish the opportunity.”
