Holy Cross falls a few inches short

St. Anthony's is the standard bearer for all high school football teams in New York City. They've won five consecutive CHSFL AAA city titles and haven't lost a league game since 1998. Each fall they send close to 10 players into the ranks of college football.
Over the last few years, Holy Cross hasn't been too shabby, either. The Knights won the CHSFL AA title two years ago, and last fall, their first in the CHSFL AAA, the league's top division, they went undefeated during the regular season, except for a hotly-contested home loss to the Friars. &#8220We've been training our program the last four years to get back to playing this level of football week after week,” Holy Cross Coach Tom Pugh said. &#8220And we've gotten where we are.”
Based on their latest challenge, Holy Cross is close to the top of the mountain. Just not there yet, after their valiant, although mistake-prone, effort left them a tad short in a 30-20 loss to St. Anthony's on the Friars' brand new $1 million football field in South Huntington, Long Island.
With seconds remaining in the draining defeat, Holy Cross running back Tonev Abraham took his helmet off, looking as emotionally spent and disappointed as his teammates. He had given his all, fighting and clawing to compete with the Long Island juggernaut.
&#8220Everyone talks about St. Anthony's, but we look at them as another team,” said Abraham, who finished with more than 100 yards of total offense. &#8220They bleed like us. They sweat just like us. I know the ability of our team.”
The Knights (1-1) showed enough promise throughout to believe the next meeting between the two teams could possibly net a different result. They jumped out first, receiving 50 yards rushing and a 3-yard score from senior tailback Kevin Williams, who finished with 114 yards on the ground before a low ankle sprain ended his evening early.
But then the Friars (2-0) took control, scoring 28 of the game's next 35 points. There was a fumble recovery, a few missed assignments in the Holy Cross secondary and a 63-yard scoring strike by junior quarterback Jim Brady to Brian Pomper.
But Maine transfer Dan Hussey (14-28, 2 TD, 2 INT), after a shaky start, led an impressive second quarter scoring drive, finding Abraham for a 12-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 28-20.
Unfortunately, the offense twice failed to score after driving past the Friars' 20-yard line in the second half. &#8220It's disappointing,” Pugh said. &#8220St. Anthony's is a great storied program but tonight if we didn't have those mistakes early in the game on pass defense, some nervous juniors … but that's what happens in a big game like this. … We made our mistakes.”