NYPost.com PSAL football beat writer Zach Braziller breaks down the Cup division championship game between No. 3 McKee/Staten Island Tech and No. 4 Petrides, set for 10 a.m. Sunday at Midwood Athletic Complex.
No. 3 McKee/Staten Island Tech Seagulls
Head coach: Anthony Cialdella
Record: 9-2
Player to watch: RB Manny Johnson
No. 4 Petrides Phoenix
Head coach: David Olah
Record: 9-2
Player to watch: RB Joe Henry
Outlook: This game could be played on a random park with nothing on the line and both sides would show up early breathing fire. Throw in a packed house in Brooklyn with a championship at stake and you’ve got fireworks bound to go off between these newfound rivals.
The two sides are not fond of each other and would like nothing more than to have bragging rights in the form of a city championship. Petrides won the first two meetings, but MSIT got revenge this year, pulling out a 20-14 overtime decision Nov. 7. The Seagulls wouldn’t have made the playoffs without that victory, which Manny Johnson made possible with 160 yards rushing and two touchdowns.
Neither team is very cryptic about what it wants to do: run, run and run some more. Joe Henry does most of the damage for the Phoenix, in just its third year with a varsity program, as he has run for 1,743 yards and 23 touchdowns. He came up big in Petrides’ 22-15 semifinal victory over top-seeded Lafayette, running for three touchdowns and 194 yards.
Led by linebacker John Althoff, the Phoenix’s defense is solid, too. It produced two shutouts during the regular season and held the opposition to single digits on two other occasions.
Winners of five straight, MSIT relies on a series of backs in Johnson, Ibrahim Kargbo and Ray Woolford, who have combined for 25 touchdowns during the year and over 2,000 yards. Johnson is also a threat in the defensive backfield, as his four interceptions would suggest, and Ivan Cooper (six sacks) is quite adept at getting to the quarterback. The Seagulls did a fine job on Henry in the first meeting, holding him to 150 yards on 45 carries without a touchdown, and that obviously bares watching on Sunday.