Sunday, Oct. 18, 2015: Aquinas dominates in showdown with No. 1 Canisius

   Leading off today: Earnest Edwards continued a stellar senior season Saturday as Class AA No. 3 Aquinas defeated No. 1 Canisius 42-14, snapping the Crusaders' 22-game football winning streak.

   Lining up at multiple positions during the contest, Edwards caught two touchdown passes, scored his third interception-return TD of the season on one of his two picks for the night and blocked a field-goal attempt while the game's outcome was still in doubt.

   The block set up the third of Taylor Riggins' three first-half rushing touchdowns and gave the Little Irish a 21-7 halftime lead. Edwards then scored Aquinas' final three TDs on the 82-yard interception return and two catches of throws by Jake Zembiec.

   Riggins carried 15 times for 144 yards. Zembiec was 11 of 17 passing for 199 yards. Defensive back Shemar Hayes intercepted three passes.

   "We came in here and ran into a team that just wanted to win more than we did tonight," Canisius coach Rich Robbins told the Democrat and Chronicle.

   Said Aquinas coach Chris Battaglia: "We played the way we are capable of playing, tonight. We played really good offensively, really good defensively, and even in the special teams we made some plays.

   "I've said this, as long as we keep No. 12 (Zembiec) on his feet, we will be pretty tough to beat. This was our night."

   Stepinac tops St. A's: Tyquell Fields threw for 130 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for another 81 yards and a score as second-ranked Archbishop Stepinac downed No. 11 St. Anthony's 49-32. Sophomore Trill Williams made two interceptions, returning one 15 yards for a score and a 28-9 lead in the second quarter, and Malik Crawford ran for 135 yards and a score.

   Fields' 11-yard completion to Kobe Miranda on a fourth-quarter fourth down kept alive a drive capped by a touchdown run by Antonio Giannico for a 35-25 lead. The 15-play, 62-yard drive restored the Crusaders' momentum.

   St. Anthony's actually outgained Stepinac 504-415 with the help of 305 yards through the air from QB Tom Walsh.

   "They've always been the class of our league, but we're in a different position now," Stepinac coach Mike O'Donnell said of At. Anthony's. "For years, we would come into this game and circle the wagons and hope that we came out alive. Not many teams won the week after they played St. Anthony's, but it's not exactly that way with us now."

   More large-school action: Sayville, ranked fourth in Class A, dominated Class AA No. 14 East Islip 49-17 as junior QB Jack Coan ran 25 times for 311 yards and two TDs.

   Coan was 10-for-15 for 137 yards and three TDs through the air. His TD passes to Jason Intermesoli and Ashton Bradley gave the Golden Flashes a 14-10 lead at the half.

   Coan ran for 56 of the 80 yards on Sayville's opening scoring drive of the second half. After an East Islip punt on the ensuing possession, Coan went 84-yards with a keeper for a TD and a 28-10 lead.

   "I told Jack in the offseason, if you don't improve your ability to run, No. 1 it's going to hurt you collegiately, more importantly it's going to hurt us as an offense, coach Rob Hoss told Newsday.

   Also in Class AA, Monsignor Farrell broke to a 26-0 halftime lead and went on to beat No. 21 St. Peter's 33-8.

   In Class A, No. 10 Shoreham-Wading River downed John Glenn 21-6 in a battle of unbeatens. Jon Constant's 47-yard TD run in the second quarter to ignite the offense and then scored on a 49-yard gallop late in the third quarter.

   No. 21 Christ the King handed No. 25 Xavier its first loss 21-15 as David Navas (10-for-15, 282 yards and three TDs) hit Alex Miranda with a 19-yard scoring pass with :10 to play.    The winning drive chewed up 92 yards in 10 plays.

   Section 5 unsettled: The Rochester area's Class A tournament shapes up as an eight-team slugfest in which even the two "long shots" with 3-4 records (Spencerport and Wilson) rank as tough outs and the fifth seed (Irondequoit at 4-3) might be playing the best football of the bunch entering late October.

   Week 7 results only confirmed it's going to be a demanding three games for the eventual survivor.

   Greece Athena defeated No. 8 Brockport 21-12 as Tavon Granison threw for 144 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 68 yards and two touchdowns.

   Irondequoit knocked off No. 16 Canandaigua 23-20 as Sean Mannion threw for 204 yards and ran for 46 plus a

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score. Chris DiCesare ran for 119 yards and two touchdowns.

   Class B: With No. 1 Schalmont, No. 6 Seaford and No. 7 Homer losing on Friday, it was already a tough weekend for ranked teams. On Saturday, it was the bottom half of the top 25's turn. Bronxville beat No. 18 Valhalla 27-8, Goshen downed No. 20 Spackenkill 48-7 and Susquehanna Valley defeated No. 21 Chenango Valley.

   Completing the Carnage, Sean Galla scored the last two touchdowns of the game for Vernon-Verona-Sherrill in a 33-31 win over No. 23 Mexico in a back-and-forth game.

   Class C romp: Jerome Brabham and Kinsey Williams scored twice apiece as No. 10 Utica Notre Dame beat No. 16 Holland Patent 42-6.

   Williams, a Holland Patent transfer, carried 18 times for 172 yards. The TDs came from 52 and 56 yards out.

   Class D: In a battle of unbeatens serving as a fundraiser to honor military servicemen and emergency workers, No. 2 Red Jacket edged No. 7 Clyde-Savannah 28-14 as Sean Sheets rambled for 288 yards.

   Tenth-ranked Whitehall slipped past No. 9 Cambridge 29-14 with the help of first-quarter TDs from Daryl Hillman and Jake Gregory and Hillman's 75-yard kickoff return for another score early in the second quarter.

   Week 7 scoreboard: The full set of New York scores this weekend has been posted. And you can see in the rundown of how ranked teams fared during a great 48 hours of head-to-head confrontations.

   Also noteworthy: Syracuse Nottingham's Jevon Jones passed for two TDs and ran for three more, including the game-winner in the fourth overtime, as the Bulldogs defeated Corcoran 40-34 to earn a spot in the Section 3 Class AA playoffs. Jones won the game on a 15-yard scramble.

   Andrew Murphy had a kickoff return for a score on the day's first play and caught four TD passes in the second quarter to lead Glens Falls over Hudson Falls 49-7. He finished with six catches for 165 yards.

   Moravia running back Jared Lyon carried 20 times for 347 yards to help beat Spencer-Van Etten 56-34. His 1,436 yards through seven games is a school single-season record.

   Hoosic Valley's Tom Madigan ran just seven times for 214 yards and four touchdowns in a 49-0 win vs. Granville. On the opening play from scrimmage, Madigan ran for 75 yards and a touchdown.

   Kenmore West rolled past Kenmore East 62-12 as Terrell Ford (16 carries, 209 yards) scored six touchdowns, one on an interception return, to break his own school record.    On Friday, Rob Tannenbaum went for 325 and five TDs on 23 carries in Arlington's 43-21 win over Roy C. Ketcham despite missing a chunk of second-half action with a leg injury.