Stepinac: " … we're going to go all out Sunday."<\/a><\/p>\nWith a two-week layoff, and after such an emotionally charged win over rival Iona Prep for the league title, Stepinac could view Sunday's Catholic state championship as a bit anti-climactic. Not so, said senior Malcolm Major.<\/p>\n
The Stepinac running back believes his team's season will be remembered differently with one more win.<\/p>\n
"We're not satisfied with 12-0," Major said. "We have one more game. Thirteen-and-oh is a lot better than 12-1, so we have to finish what we started and remain undefeated."<\/p>\n
******<\/p>\n
His Crusaders arguably enter the game with a deeper roster, a fact made even more stark by Canisius playing without two-way starters Brad Zaffram, a two-time all-state linebacker, and two-way lineman James Thomas, who are both suspended.<\/p>\n
Still, Canisius has plenty working it its favor. Canisius, also named the Crusaders, beat both last year's (Aquinas) and this year's (Jamestown) Class AA state champions and finished 3-0 against opponents from football-rich Ohio. They are ranked No. 34 nationally by USA Today.<\/p>\n
The Buffalo-area school also boasts the state's top recruit, senior TJ Wheatley, who has offers from Alabama and Oregon, among others. At 6-foot-6 and 265 pounds, he is an imposing presence at defensive end.<\/p>\n
"He's a really impressive player," Major said. "He gets after it and he is a specimen. He's probably going to be the biggest player we've faced in my high school career, but I'm not going to let that get to me."<\/p>\n
For Stepinac, the fear will be that Wheatley and his defense will, in fact, contain its bevy of playmakers. The run-first, defensive-minded team should be well rested after playing just twice in a 36-day span. Canisius actually had a full week off during the recent Buffalo snowstorm that dropped as much as 6 feet on players' homes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From Lohud: Catholic state championship preview: Stepinac vs. Canisius "At full strength, I'd have to favor Canisius, but Stepinac definitely has a chance." Well, we'll see about that. Ex-Giant Tyrone Wheatley's son plays for Canisius, and is the #1 college prospect in the state. And here: Stepinac: " … we're going to go all out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8260,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2384\/revisions\/8260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}