Leading off today: The combined drama of every intersectional high school football game on Saturday was no match for what the Bills-Ravens contest offered on Sunday night, but that doesn't mean the 2025 batch of Week 1 showcase games was a failure.
As Mike Dougherty of LoHud.com wrote, "Let's do this again sometime."
Dougherty was in Albany for the Tunnel to Towers Heroes Bowl showcase, the gem of which was supposed to be Iona Prep vs. Somers. That turned out to be a mismatch (more on that below), but the buildup to that game and some other non-traditional matchups definitely pumped some added juice into the start of the season.
Part of the excitement came from two defending state champions going head-to-head, but it's undeniable that the public vs. private aspect helped take it to the next level the entire offseason.
"I'd absolutely encourage it," Somers coach Anthony DeMatteo said. "Having a challenging Week 0 game places a tremendous amount of importance on the offseason and the summer. It raises the intensity because there is something important to prepare for. ... I felt a responsibility to take this game. Every other state does the public vs. private thing and I felt we were the best public school team in the state the last couple of years. It was our turn to try to take a shot at them."
Iona Prep overpowers Somers
We're still a week away from posting the first New York State Sportswriters Association football rankings of the new season, but there's not much doubt that Iona Prep will be the No. 1 team among large schools on Sept. 17.
Iona Prep, the reigning CHSFL titlist, hung a 37-7 loss on Somers, the three-time defending NYSPHSAA Class A champion at Christian Brothers Academy in Albany.
The Gaels opened the onslaught on their second offensive snap as Crew Davis caught a perfectly thrown 45-yard pass from Julian Guzman (256 yards) to start the scoring. Joe Wolf caught the next three TD passes to make it a 28-0 margin in the first half.
Defensively, junior Josh Simmons, making his first start on that side of the ball, finished with two sacks, a pick six, and a tackle in the end zone for a safety.
"The first game you don't always know who's " Iona Prep coach Joe Spagnolo said. "There are so many unknowns. There are so many kids playing their first varsity game. We just really focused on us. The boys did a good job staying off social media and just focusing on the game."
Week 1 scoreboard
We're still hunting down a handful of results (news travels slowly out of the PSAL), but here's the link to the
Week 1 football scores.
Milestone alert
The Plainedge football team and Mother Nature made a short day of coach
Rob Shaver's 200th victory. The Red Devils opened a 40-0 halftime lead at North Shore in a game called at halftime due to lightning and heavy rain in Glen Head.
Shaver is 200-86-1 in 30 seasons. His teams have won six Section 8 titles and two Long Island Championships.
WINNINGEST NEW YORK FOOTBALL COACHES
Former St. Joe's standout killed in crash
Former St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute athlete Noah Snyder was one of two Marquette University lacrosse players who died in a two-vehicle crash Friday in Milwaukee, Wis.
The university said Snyder, 20, of Getzville, and Scott Michaud, 19, were pronounced dead at the crash scene less than a mile from campus. Four teammates in their vehicle were injured. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported the 41-year-old driver of the other vehicle faces charges steming from the wreck.
Snyder's biography on the university's sports website notes that he set a single-game scoring record of nine goals while playing for St. Joe's. He transferred to Westtown School, a Quaker college prep school in West Chester, Pa., after his sophomore year.
Remembering a lost teammate
The Post-Star's Pete Tobey captured a touching moment Friday night as the Granville-Whitehall football team honored the memory of John Francis Hoague-Rivette before the game. Cancer took Hoague-Rivette's life at the age of 11 in 2019, and he was remembered as a young man who would have been a senior and a leader on this season's team.
Granville-Whitehall wore special gray jerseys, with Hoague-Rivette's initials on each shoulder.
"It's the ribbon color for Brain Cancer Awareness Month in May," said senior lineman Patrick Egan. "So every year in May at the school, we'll all wear gray in honor of John. We say, 'Go Gray in May,' so we all have shirts and stuff like that, we sell merch and stuff with his initials. It was just such a big part of our lives."
The seniors presented John's mother, Carrie Rivette Downs, with a jersey, a helmet and a bouquet of flowers before the game.
Extra points
• Kevin Gallagher, who had said in the spring he intended to retire from his wrestling and football head coaching jobs at Minisink Valley has changed his mind and was back on the sideline Friday for the 48-24 win over Suffern.
