As soon as the Fontbonne girls soccer players finished shaking hands with their counterparts from Kearney, the chant started.
“Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate? Kearney, Kearney! Yeah, Kearney!” the Bonnies cried after their 4-0 win Monday at the Verrazano Narrows Complex.
It’s a practice Fontbonne follows after every game – even against its heated rival. The Tigers beat the Bonnies, 3-0, in last year’s CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens championship game and the two all-girls schools have a history of fierce battles in almost every sport.
Fontbonne and Kearney are annually at the top of the CHSAA Brooklyn standings in girls soccer, volleyball and softball. Kearney has dominated in volleyball for more than a decade and Fontbonne has been stronger in softball and girls soccer. But the Tigers have been gaining in those sports and, in some cases, overtaking, too.
The rivalry has geographic implications as well. The schools are separated by less than five miles and getting one from to the other is just a 10-minute trip. Kearney unseated the Bonnies as Brooklyn division softball champions last season, winning its first title since 2004.
Most of the players have known each other since before high school. In this case, Fontbonne coach Victor Popovsky coached a handful of the Kearney players, along with his own current players, in youth soccer with the Brooklyn Celtics. After the game Monday, he and Tigers coach Charlie Candela embraced.
“It’s pretty big,” Kearney girls volleyball coach Kristen Wulff said of the rivalry. “Our two schools are the most competitive in the division. My girls definitely get psyched for the game. They have to play their ‘A’ game against Fontbonne. It’s also fun because they know the girls on the other team. It’s a friendly rivalry in that way.”
But still a rivalry. Close to 100 people, made up primarily of parents, family and friends, wrapped around the field at the Verrazano Narrows Complex. For most of the game – at least until Fontbonne put it away with a 64th-minute goal by Katie Henderson – the crowd was loud and vibrant.
“The rivalry is always like this,” Popovsky said.
Added Candela: “When we play each other, it’s always an exciting game.”
Fontbonne got the better of Kearney on Monday and that’s the way it has been for most of the last five years. The Bonnies won the last four CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens titles before the Tigers upset them in the 2008 final. Fontbonne beat Kearney both times last regular season.
The two teams will meet again Oct. 28. The Bonnies will carry bragging rights – and some revenge – until then. Afterward? Who knows. That’s the beauty of the rivalry.
“We want to win every game,” Fontbonne star junior striker Colleen Ryan said. “But especially against Kearney.”