By Larry Moko
The Bishop Ryan Celtics defence faced a formidable challenge in the championship game of the St. Thomas More Invitational boys' touch football tournament.
The Celtics had to figure out a way to stop elusive Cathedral Gaels quarterback Isaiah Petryk-Orr.
As a nine-year veteran organizer of the tournament, the host school's Joe Burke commented about Petryk-Orr after Monday's semifinal action.
"He's one of the best athletes I've seen at this tournament," Burke said of Petryk-Orr. "He's lights out. He's awesome."
Six Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic high school teams took part in this year's two-day competition. Semifinals saw Cathedral defeat the St. John Henry Newman Cardinals, 48-30, and Bishop Ryan edge the St. Thomas More Knights, 31-29.
In the final, Bishop Ryan then eked out a 24-23 decision over Cathedral thanks in part to some effective strategy. Bishop Ryan opted to send two rushers on every snap to hurry and contain Petryk-Orr.
"They were good at sending two," Petryk-Orr said. "Other teams did that at times but Bishop Ryan consistently did it. They were the best at it."
Touch football is 7-on-7. In addition to getting six points for a touchdown and either two or one point for the conversion, points also rewarded the defence. Three points were given for each interception and two points were earned whenever the defence forced a turnover on downs.
Cathedral and Bishop Ryan both finished with two losses overall at the tournament.
"The Cathedral quarterback is by far the most athletic player I've seen," Celtics coach Jim Davies said. "By putting on the (double) rush we knew the opportunity was going to be there to get our hands on the ball. And we did that."
The Celtics intercepted three passes in the second half -- by Nico Difilippo, Lucas Underhill and Carmen Centurami.
"We made a bunch of mistakes and I threw a lot of picks (four)," Petryk-Orr said. "But that's how football goes sometimes. They played better than us."
Petryk-Orr was a running back when he played at both the high school level for the Cathedral senior tackle team and for the Burlington Stampeders U-18 reps. His talent and speed also earned him a spot with Team Ontario.
Next fall, Petryk-Orr plans to attend prep school at St. Paul's in New Hampshire. His goal? To land an NCAA Division I football scholarship.
"He's not even a quarterback," Cathedral touch coach Pierpaolo Bianco said. "He's a running back. I put him at quarterback because he's the best athlete we have.
"Isaiah is probably the best athlete in the Catholic league. He's a special kid. He works extremely hard and has elite speed. He also has a great demeanor for the game."
A 16-year-old Grade 11 student, Petryk-Orr said it was his last game for Cathedral.
Other players on the Celtics roster included Kyler Bailey-Johnson, Andrew Centurami, Milo Domanski, Jacob Grajales, Lucas Horvat, Adriano Infurnari, Ben Kingston, Daelin Janveau, Sebastian Lucia, Andrew Mikho, Noah Moniz, Marcus Muraca, D'Anthony Neves, Ayomide Odutuyo, Jack Redmond, Christian Spinosa, Ali Sher Syed, Daniel Tice and Jesse Vaccarella.
Redmond was the quarterback.
According to Davies, overall team composure was a reason for BR's success.
"We stayed together in key situations," he said. "We played for one another."
Photos by R.F. (Bob) Butrym, RFB Sport Photography
More photos on HWCDSB Athletics Facebook page
