NOV. 22
THANKSGIVING RIVALRY
Ryan 26, Washington 14
  On Thanksgiving, the Archbishop Ryan Raiders were involved in the Turkey Bowl against Washington High School.  Washington came into the game as the reigning PIAA District 12 champions.  It was also the 39th meeting between the two schools on the gridiron.
  One would think that this game would be heavily in favor of Washington, considering that they are the Pub champs, and that the Raiders weren’t having their best season.  I felt the same before I entered the stadium, but there was something in the air that day.  It just felt like the seniors from Ryan wouldn’t be denied on this particular day, which would happen to be the last game they would ever play in an Archbishop Ryan football uniform.
  Before the game, all seniors were honored on the field with their families being out there as their names were called. The cheerleaders did a little something special for the players as well. Each senior cheerleader had her own senior player and the cheerleaders gave the players a handmade sign and a gift to go along with it.
  Now, let’s get to the game.  The game saw Archbishop Ryan head coach Glen Galeone reach into his bag of tricks with an onside kick to start the game.  The kick, executed beautifully by Bill George, was recovered by special teams juggernaut Chris Kline. Unfortunately, the Raiders were unable to capitalize on it and the drive ended shortly.
  Washington promptly scored in two plays.  Ryan’s offense continued to struggle to score points and Washington put another touchdown on the board.
  After one quarter of play Washington had a seemingly commanding 14-0 lead.  But like I said before, something just wouldn’t let the Raiders lose on this day.  Rus Slawter connected with All-Catholic wide receiver Nick Ferdinand.  That brought the score to 14-7 and it stayed that way until half.
  The Ryan rushing attack was beginning to click toward the end of the half, and coach Galeone wasn’t done with his "trickeration" just yet.  The Raiders cam out and put up another touchdown on the board. This one was of the rushing variety to Chris Wilk. The team wasn’t done scoring there. 
  Still down 14-13 because of a missed extra point by George, Archbishop Ryan brought out another trick play.  They had Rus Slawter walk toward the sideline acting like he was upset with the play call.  During the confusion, running back Mark Golic took the snap
and threw a pass to Slawter down the sideline for a gain of 29 yards.  The play brought back memories of the Adam Sandler movie, The Longest Yard.  Golic finished off the drive with a 3 yard touchdown run with only 47 seconds left in the third quarter. 
  If you are like me, you probably thought that Ryan was done running trick plays.  You would be wrong.  In the very next drive for Ryan, Golic took another direct snap.  This time, he threw the ball back to Rus who threw an 18 yard pass to receiver Matt Vizza.  The
drive eventually stalled out, but the flash of the Ryan offense was still evident. 
  Ryan Scored again with 2:50 left in the game on a 12 yard run by running back Jimmy Weitzel.  That made the score 26-14 in favor of the Raiders.  I thought the game was basically in hand and nothing exciting would happen from here on out.  Again, I was wrong. 
Galeone decided to put in the senior players who didn’t get much time during the course of this season.
  The most notable was the entry of offensive lineman D.J. Rutherford at fullback.  When he entered the game, he got an ovation from the Ryan fans. But he wasn’t just in the game for show.  To the surprise of everyone in Ryan Nation, D.J. took a handoff from Slawter and ran the ball for two yards. The run evoked memories of William “The Refrigerator” Perry in the 1985 Super Bowl against the New England Patriots.
  D.J.’s run kind of summed up the entire game, anything could’ve and did happen, and when it was all said and done, the Raiders of Archbishop Ryan came out on top for the 28th time in the meetings between Ryan and Washington.  Most importantly, the seniors got to go out like champions and celebrate one last victory together.
  Game Ball: unfortunately this will be the last game ball that I get to give out.  The play of the game was D.J.’s run without a doubt, but the player of the game goes to Mark Golic.  Only a sophomore and he was the standout on Senior Day with 21 carries for 139 yards
and a touchdown.  He also was one for one through the air for 29 yards and had two tackles on defense.  With this kid in the backfield, Ryan football looks to be in good hands for the next few years to come.

OCT. 8
RYAN UPDATE
La Salle 16, Ryan 7
  With their first Catholic League game under their belt, the Ryan Raiders took their 0-1 record and faced
La Salle High School.  From the looks of things, Ryan picked up where they had left off the previous week
against Judge.
  Now, as unprofessional as it sounds, I arrived late to the game (never trust a woman if you need to be
somewhere on time.  Their hair or whatever is more important than whatever it is that you have to do.)
But when I got there, LaS alle was already up 6-0 in the second quarter.
  The Raiders did welcome me to the game with quite a warm reception.  Senior wide receiver Bill Keebler
made an outstanding one-handed diving catch for a first down.  It was quite honestly one of the best
catches I’ve seen on a high school field.
  I was also happy to see two of the three injured players from the Judge game back in uniform and ready
to play. Jimmy Weitzel and Chris Wilk returned to the lineup and were contributors in the game.  Wilk was
the bigger contributor of the two, catching the only touchdown scored by the Raiders on that Saturday
afternoon.  It was a 4-yard hookup between the aforementioned Wilk and quarterback Rus Slawter.
  It wasn’t one of Slawter’s best games, but he did show signs of promise.  On a botched long snap for a
punt he made a veteran play by getting out of the tackle box and just throwing the ball away instead of
taking a sack or trying to make something happen and make a mistake.  That play shows signs of maturity
from the quarterback position.
  After Wilk’s touchdown, the Explorers from La Salle answered back with a touchdown drive of their own.
They scored with 17 seconds left to go in the first half.  After the kickoff, Weitzel took a handoff that
brought the half to an end.  The score was 13-7 in favor of the Explorers.
  The second half started with Ryan receiving the ball. Their offense seemed to just sputter out and gain
very little yardage.  This trend continued throughout the third quarter. 
  One scary moment was yet another Ryan player going down hurt.  This time it was safety Vince Cantagallo.
He lay motionless on the turf for a while, but a good sign came when he was able to walk off the field under
his own power.  The injury didn’t seem to be too serious.
  At the end of the third quarter the score was 16-7 La Salle.  It would stay that way until the end of the
game.  Ryan fell to 0-2 in the Catholic League with their next opponent being the powerhouse St. Joe’s
Prep.
  The high point of the game was Wilk’s touchdown, obviously.  But also, sophomore Mark Golic came up
with a huge hit on a seemingly open La Salle receiver. The jarring blow made the receiver drop the apparently
sure completion and sent the Ryan fans into a craze. He also gained 20 yards on only five rushes and 2
yards on one catch (keep in mind that my stats are from the second quarter on).  Also, defensive back
Brandon Green had six tackles in a solid performance on his part.
  I was completely unable to attend the St. Joe’s Prep game due to work complications (have to make money;
sorry I’m not able to bring the game report to my adoring fans), but the Raiders lost yet again, by a
score of 51-7.  That loss drops them to 0-3 in the Catholic League.
  Fortunately, it’s not all bad news on the football front.  I talked to linebacker/fullback Chris Kline
and he told me that the offense moved the ball very well, but they just weren’t able to cash in on the
opportunities.  So, maybe Ryan will be able to bounce back and get some wins if this was as positive a
showing as Kline is leading me to believe.

SEPT. 22
CATHOLIC RED
Judge 24, Ryan 0
        Just one week after an impressive win over Archbishop Wood, the Archbishop Ryan Raiders went on to play
their biggest rival, Father Judge, in their first game of the Catholic League season.
        The Raiders defense looked very good last week against Archbishop Wood, and they looked similarly
good in the first quarter against Judge.  The Judge offense took the ball and drove it down the field
where they were close to scoring, until Nick Ferdinand came up with a huge pass deflection in the end zone
that forced the Judge offense settle for a field goal.
        The first quarter was looking good for the Raiders. Father Judge has a 3-0 lead, but the Ryan fans were
behind their team and were trying as hard as they could to motivate their team.
        The second quarter was more of the same defensive struggle until Judge receiver Tom Ryan scored a
touchdown with just 1:11 left in the half.  That touchdown made the score 10-0 in favor of the Father
Judge Crusaders. 
        The halftime show performed by the Archbishop Ryan marching band was a nice break from the Ryan offense
that didn’t do much in the first two quarters.  They managed just 27 yards of offense and no first downs.
        Ryan came out in the second half without the services of running back Jimmy Weitzel and wide receiver Nick
Ferdinand.  Weitzel and Ferdinand were two huge losses for the Raider offense that was already struggling
against what looked to be a strong Crusader defense. Ferdinand came out on crutches and looked as if he had
an ankle injury, and Weitzel had some kind of hand injury as it was wrapped in an ace bandage.
        Another injury hit the Raiders hard, when linebacker Chris Wilk was laid out while he was chasing down a
Father Judge ball carrier.  Wilk was down on the field for a minute or two.  But he was able to get up and
walk off the field with some help from the trainer Brad.  Wilk had accumulated eight tackles before
getting injured in the third quarter.
        It is hard to come back from injuries to three key players such as Ferdinand, Weitzel, and Wilk, but the
game had to continue.  Vince Cantagallo stepped up in the absence of Ferdinand at the safety position.
Cantagallo had seven tackles on the game.  Chris Calhoun and Brandon Green also stepped up in
Ferdinand’s absence.
        Green had six tackles on defense, while also hauling in two passes from quarterback Rus Slawter for a total
of 17 yards.  Calhoun had one tackle to go along with one interception and one fumble recovery.
        Sophomore Mark Golic played well in Weitzel’s absence in the second half.  He ran the ball 9 times for 25
hard fought yards. 
        Despite all of the efforts of the Ryan players, it wasn’t enough.  Judge receiver Tom Ryan added two more
touchdowns to his total to bring it up to three on the day. 
        By the time the third quarter was over, the score was 24-0.  That 24-0 score would stand as the final as the
Father Judge Crusaders seemed content to run the clock out.  But, Ryan never stopped playing hard.  They
fought as hard as they could to put something on the scoreboard, to no avail. 
        When the crowd left and the stands were empty, Father Judge was the victor in this most heated of rivalries.
        Player of the Game:  As much as I’d like to give it to a Ryan player, I have to give it to Judge receiver Tom
Ryan.  How could I not?  He was the center of the Judge offense and scored all of Judge’s three touchdowns.