Eric Keppeler '85
Sports Writer
When the majority of games on your football schedule are non-leaguers and frequently with different opponents from year to year, it can be difficult to get a firm handle on what kind of progress your program is making.
It doesn’t help that two of the regulars on the schedule – Monsignor Martin Athletic Association rivals St. Francis and Canisius – are consistently two of the top teams in the state
Against that backdrop, the St. Joe’s Marauders posted a more than respectable 5-4 season – with three of their four losses coming against St. Francis and Canisius, including a season-ending defeat at the hands of the Crusaders in the MMAA semifinals.
“In terms of wins and losses, we had the same record this year as last year,” coach Mike Corona said. “That gives us three winning seasons out of the last four, which is pretty good – especially since we started with nothing six years ago.”
The Marauders had eight players names All-Catholic, including six who will be back next year.
Juniors Lukas Bollman (line) and Owen Kicinski (670 rush yards, 10 TDs) and sophomore Camrhyn Chinn (255 receiving yards, 6 TDs) made the First Team on offense, while seniors David Amuka (74 tackles, two fumbles recoveries) and Stone Rozak (46 tackles, two fumble recoveries) and junior Damone Harden (27 tackles, INT) made the First Team on defense.
Junior Jayovanni Ostrander (370 receiving yards, 4 TDs) was a Second Team choice on offense and sophomore Dion Cheatham Jr. (40 tackles, three INT) made the Second Team on defense.
Also for the Marauders, juniors quarterbacks Brayden Manns (674 pass yards, 7 TDs) and Brendan Keil (505 passing yards, 6 TDs) continued to the attack, while junior lineman DarMaine Ubilies (55 tackles, 2 sacks) was also big on defense.
As a team, the Marauders scored 223 points on the season and gave up 186. They rushed for 970 yards and passed for 1,179.
Those numbers are all great, Corona said, but they’re not the most important ones.
“The metrics are really the same,” Corona said. “First, the number of seniors is important because that tells you how many guys felt like it’s worth doing all the things you ask them to do. The second metric we look at is how many of the kids go to college, and right now we’re on track for 100 percent of our kids going to college, which has been the same for the last six years. Then we look at how many kids play college football. We were leading Western New York last year with total college football players and I think we’re going to lead it again this year. I look at those pieces because they’re the most important part of this program.”
Corona said that the total number of kids in the program has risen every year, this year hitting 149 – which makes St. Joe’s the largest program downstate.
The Marauders will be graduating 15 seniors, but they’ll bring back 133 and then add another 55 freshmen.
“Almost everybody is coming back Corona said. “We’re graduating our two big linebackers [Amuka and Stone] and they’re going to be tough to replace. We’ve got some guys that played positional roles, but really all of the talent is young. Yeah, we’re trying to win a couple of games we haven’t won yet, but the bigger picture is that none of our kids are doing crazy stuff, they all go to class – those are the things that matter.”