By Anthony Bosco
For nearly half a century, Vince O’Connor has been patrolling the sidelines as head coach of the St. Francis Prep varsity football team – usually on the winning side.
Over the past five years, O’connor’s teams have slipped slowly, but steadily out of ‘AAA’ playoff contention.
But on Sunday the venerable coach was back in the coveted championship game, taking on the vaunted St. Anthony’s Friars at Hofstra University before a crowd of thousands.
It seems a lifetime ago that the Terriers were in the title game, although it was only 1995 when they lost to St. Anthony’s 29-0. It certainly is a lot longer since they last captured the crown — in 1990 with a 20-6 win over the Chaminade Flyers . But as has been the case since he first took over the reins of the St. Francis football dynasty, you can never count out O’Connor or a team he coaches.
Every year it seems like the same formula, the same plays.
“The belly series,” as longtime friend and rival Tom Pugh calls it, a power run-oriented offensive attack mixed in with short, crisp passes designed to catch the opponent off guard. It is basic, fundamental football and nobody does it better than O’Connor.
The Brooklyn resident, who spends his spare time these day doting on his granddaughter, is the third winningest coach in New York Sate high school football history with 281 wins, behind only Bethpage’s Howie Bogts and Johnny Barnes of Buffalo Canisius, both of whom are still within reach of O’Connor.
That anyone can possibly have more wins than O’Connor, whose portrait could be found in the dictionary next to the words longevity, perseverance and success, is a testament to them. A look at O’Connor’s career tells the tale in hard facts.
O’Connor won his first league title in 1955, before Elvis, the Beatles, NASA and when the school, now located in Fresh Meadows on Francis Lewis Boulevard, was still located in Brooklyn.
Titles followed in 1957 and 1959 before a five-year hiatus an championships again in 1964, 1966 and 1968. O’Connor guided the Terriers to back-to-back crowns in 1972 and 1973 and another win in 1976. It was the 1980s and early 90s, however, that may prove to be the best run for O’Connor and Co.
In 1983 and 1985, St. Francis prep won both the Catholic High School Football League championship and the Metro Bowl, a now-defunct game which pitted the CHSFL champ and the public-league winner for city bragging rights.
Three years latter in 1988, O’Connor and his players went on a three-year run, winning the crown in each season, bringing his total number of crowns to a league-best 14. But that’s where the dominance came to an end.
The Terriers lost in the finals in 1991 and 1992 and did not make it back to the big game until 1995, when they lost to the Friars.
Of course, his players have no long-term contracts and a coach, no matter how methodical and calculating, is only as good as his players. And over the past several seasons, the Terriers have been average, at best.
Following the team’s run to the title game in 1995, every year has been a struggle to return to form. There were highlights to be sure, but it hasn’t quite been the same since.
A 7-3 campaign in 1996 was the team’s best record during the stretch, followed by 4-5 in 1997 and 6-4 in 1998. The following season in 1999 offered some small condolence, when the Terriers defeated a unbeaten Spellman club in the ‘AA” finals, 10-0, despite finishing with a 4-6 record.
Last year the club lost in the ‘AA” finals to Iona Prep, 17-7.
Perhaps the biggest difference since the team’s dominant days of the 1980s and early 90s were the results of the annual game between the Terriers and cross town rival Holy Cross Knights. The two school usually play competitive, hard-fought games, regardless of talent, but three seasons ago the Knights snapped a losing streak that spanned more than a decade to their nemesis and blanked the Terriers 36-0.
Cross won the next two meetings, including this year’s match-up, 20-14, in the first game of the season for both teams that was technically a non-league affair.
That Prep played so well against Cross was a sign for me that the team may well be headed in the right direction again. And the wins started coming, eventually.
Behind offensive stars Peter Mazzurco, Chris Zambrano and Brian Forman, Prep lost to Iona Prep and topped Stepinac, followed by a sound drubbing at the hands of St. Anthony’s to put the team’s overall record at 1-3 at the midway point of the season.
The Terriers then rolled off four straight wins over Cardinal Hayes, Monsignor Farrell, Xaverian and Fordham Prep to close out the regular season 5-3.
Tough playoff victories over Farrell and Iona followed, setting up a finals showdown against St. Anthony’s Sunday. The Friars had dominated Prep earlier in the season, 32-7, but, as any one around the league can tell you, one of the hardest things to do is beat an O’Connor-coached team twice.
The Terriers were competitive, but in the end it was St. Anthony’s that left the field victorious with a 28-14 win.
In his long career, O’Connor has been on the losing end his fair share of times. But by the looks of things, the Terriers might be on their way back. If not all the way this year, maybe next. One thing is for sure, you can’t keep O’Connor down.
Reach Sports Editor Anthony Bosco by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 130.
