Football: Briarcliff Looks to Rebound From First Loss; P'ville Braces For Mainiero and Unbeaten Croton

Briarcliff (4-1) enters its next contest at 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15 at Kennedy Catholic looking to get back on track after suffering its first loss of the season, 19-14, against visiting Ardsley on its homecoming on Sunday.

Bears Coach John Consorti said his squad’s effort was there against the Panthers, but it just couldn’t execute when it had to down the stretch.

“Obviously the Ardsley game was a tough game but the guys fought hard,” Consorti said. “It wasn’t a pretty game but we had our opportunities. Unlike the first four games, we just couldn’t seem to make that play when we had to but you have to credit Ardsley for that, too. We were in position to pull it out but we just didn’t do enough in the end.”

A key for the Bears against Kennedy Catholic like he has been all year will be running back Colin Orr, who had two touchdowns, one rushing and one receiving, against Ardsley.

“He’s been our sparkplug the whole year,” Consorti said. “You know what you are getting from Colin. He’s come through pretty much the whole season. He did all he could do against Ardsley.”

Orr will have to stand out again like he has all season as well as getting of course help from his teammates if Briarcliff is going to thwart the Gaels’ upset bid.

That’s because Kennedy Catholic presents plenty of challenges, according to Consorti.

“Kennedy has some guys at the skill positions who are quick and will present a problem,” Consorti said. “They have some good athletes. Defensively, we have to do a better job stopping the run this week.”

Offensively, the Bears are going to have to get the ground game going to complement their passing attack.

“We are going to have to be able to run the ball a little better than we have,” Consorti said. “We did a better job last week but we are going to have to get more of a ground attack going this week.”

After facing an avalanche of obstacles in a 47-6 loss at Our Lady Lourdes in its previous game, Pleasantville (1-4) goes from the frying pan into the fire when it hosts defending Section 1 Class B champion Croton-Harmon (5-0), at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15.

“Last week was just the perfect storm of things that could go wrong, did go wrong,” Pleasantville coach Tony Becerra said. “The preparation of a short week, playing on a Thursday night, traveling an hour and a half to play on a school night after a full day of school, losing our tailback (Kyle O’Loughlin) and fullback (Nick Greto). Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.”

O’Loughlin injured himself in the first quarter against Lourdes while Greto suffered his injury the previous week against Westlake. Becerra said he was doubtful that either could play against Croton-Harmon but was hopeful that they will be available for the following week’s game at home at 7 p.m. Oct. 22 against Briarcliff.

Then if those two injuries weren’t enough, the Panthers will have to defend against one of the most lethal weapons in all of Section 1 in Tigers senior quarterback . Mainiero is deadly whether he running the ball or throwing it.

Mainiero's ability to be a dual threat is something Becerra is well aware of.

“The confidence he plays with says everything,” Becerra said. “His whole offensive line in front of him returned from last year so he plays with a ton of confidence.”

By playing with that confidence, Mainiero feels he can excel no matter where he is on the field.

“It doesn’t matter what the situation, even if he is backed up by down and distance, he feels he is going to make a play,” Becerra said. “He is the type of kid who is going to make plays, you just want to contain him as much as possible. You don’t shut down that type of kid, you just try to contain the damage.”