St. Anthony's rallies, but Iona Prep has answer
Xavier Bala of St. Anthony's avoids the tackle by Joshua Simmons of Iona Prep during a CHSFL Division AAA football game in South Huntington on Friday, October 3, 2025. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
St. Anthony’s had the momentum against defending state champion Iona Prep. A stretch of big plays had the Friars’ home crowd roaring. But the undefeated Gaels’ firepower proved too much as St. Anthony's fell, 50-36, on Friday night in a CHSFL AAA championship rematch.
The Friars trailed 35-15 in the third quarter after Iona scored 27 unanswered points. With 3:18 left, Xavier Bala scored his third touchdown of the game from 3 yards out. Anthony Sanchez recovered the onside kick, and Anthony Diieso connected with Kevin Moore for a 33-yard score. Suddenly, St. Anthony’s trailed 35-29 with 2:02 left in the third.
But Iona’s Eric Pirrello hauled in a one-handed catch for a 72-yard touchdown, and the Gaels pulled away.
“There were too many mistakes and we need to be more consistent,” St. Anthony’s coach Joe Minucci said. “In the first quarter, good things were happening, but it got away from us in the second with the mistakes.”
The Friars struck first on Bala’s 1-yard rushing score and a two-point conversion to take an 8-0 lead. He added another touchdown in the second quarter on fourth-and-3, sprinting outside and running over a defender for a 15-8 lead.
“We were blocking well and getting momentum,” Bala said. “Our quarterback had a great day, but we can’t go three-and-out and lose drives against a team like this.”
From there, Iona took control. Quarterback Julian Guzman threw three first-half touchdown passes to give the Gaels a 28-15 halftime lead. They extended it to 35-15 before the Friars rallied to cut the deficit to six.
The trio of Guzman, Joe Wolf and North Carolina commit Crew Davis was too much. Iona extended the lead to 50-29. Guzman finished with five touchdown passes, three to Wolf, while Davis rushed for two scores.
“I don’t think we’ve ever started a Friday night game at St. Anthony’s with the lead in my 22 years of coaching,” Iona coach Joe Spagnolo said. “We know it’s always a tough game and that’s a testament to what they do over there and that’s what makes our league great .”
Bala’s 94 rushing yards and three touchdowns led St. Anthony's (2-4). Diieso added 102 rushing yards and a score.
“We’ve seen improvement from Week 1 to now," Diieso said. "We just have to clean up the mistakes, and I think we can go a long way."
The Friars dropped their second straight game but look to rebound on homecoming against Cardinal Hayes next week.
“The offense did a great job. We got it back to a one-score game," Minucci said, "but unfortunately we couldn’t close it out.”
