The Lions return to The Den this Friday night after suffering their first loss of the season last week at Iona Prep, the No.1-ranked team in NY State.
"Obviously, we’re disappointed with the loss," said head coach Rocco Del Priore '05. "We’d love another shot at them, and it’s on us to earn that second game. We’ll learn from it and get better," he added.
Coach Del's team enters Friday night's game 4-1 overall and 1-1 in the CHSFL, putting the Lions at #4 in the league standings behind Iona, St. Anthony's, and Cardinal Hayes. The Farrell defense ranks #1 in the league, allowing the fewest points in the most games played.
The remaining 5 regular-season games are all against league opponents, with Xavier and Sea being 'AA' Division crossover games, but counting towards league power points.
To earn the important bye in the quarterfinal round of the CHSFL 'AAA' Playoffs, the Lions will need to win the remainder of their regular-season games. "It's going to be a tough road. There are no weeks off in the 'AAA' division, and our two crossover games are against two really difficult opponents," noted Del Priore. "We are taking one game at a time with our focus squarely on Stepinac."
Stepinac, 2-3 overall, 0-2 in the league, comes into The Den after last week's 34-23 loss against St. Joseph by-the-Sea. "Stepinac is a well-coached 'AAA' Division team with a strong running back and wide receiver that we’ll need to contain," said Coach Del Priore. The last meeting with the Crusaders was a 24-14 win at Stepinac in 2024. "We have to play with confidence on Friday, and we need our home crowd to make a difference," he added.
Tickets to the game are on sale now and are only available through the online ticketing platform.
The game will also be streamed live.
Kickoff is at 6:00 pm
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