ROYERSFORD — Bishop Shanahan senior offensive lineman Michael Cleary and his teammates remembered the loss to Pope John Paul II earlier this season.
Many of them recalled the defeat to the Golden Panthers last September as well. A handful like Aidan Civitella, Danny Keenan and Athony Aquila had even experienced a district title game loss to PJP as sophomores in 2023.
Cleary and his classmates made sure their careers didn’t end with the sour taste of another loss to the Golden Panthers on Friday night. No. 2 seed Bishop Shanahan rushed for 440 yards and six touchdowns in a 44-21 rout of No. 1 Pope John Paul II for the District 1-4A title.
Aquila, Shanahan’s senior quarterback, ran 25 times for 279 yards and three touchdowns to advance the Eagles to the state playoffs for the first time since 2021, where Shanahan will face District 2 champion North Pocono next week.
“Best feeling in the world. I love it,” Cleary said. “They’ve had our number and as coach said it was the best week of practice we’ve had all year. We knew we wanted this game and we accomplished that and I love it.”
Bishop Shanahan turned the ball over four times in a 28-21 loss to PJP in Royersford on Sept. 12. Back in the same location Friday night, the Eagles flipped the script, forcing five Golden Panthers turnovers, including four in the first half.
It started early when Brandon Deangelo took a pop pass 41 yards on PJP’s second offensive play before Shanahan’s Owen McGrory popped the ball from him.
“That was a helluva save,” Aquila said. “That flipped the momentum drastically, and I mean he honestly changed the trajectory of the game.”
Shanahan’s Aidan Civitella picked off a pass on the Golden Panthers next possession to set up the first score of the game — an eight yard touchdown run by Aquila that spotted the Eagles a 7-0 lead with 5:07 left in the first.
Civitella broke off a 70-yard touchdown run with 2:28 left in the first to put the Eagles up two scores before Deangelo answered shortly after to make it 14-7 with 2:05 in the first.
“We all knew we had to come out here, and we had to play smart football on the opposite side. We know that’s a helluva team,” Aquila said. “They’ll capitalize on any of our mistakes. We all knew we had to come out, take care of the ball and dominate on defense, and that’s what we did.”
After a quiet second quarter, Civitella sent the Eagles into half with a 21-7 left on an eight-yard score with 0:41 left in the half. Civitella, Danny Keenan and Aquila all picked off passes before the break, Aquila’s interception ending a promising PJP drive on the second to last play of the half.
The interception ended up being another momentum shifter as Aquila broke off an 81-yard touchdown run on Shanahn’s first drive of the second half to begin to put the game out of reach
“He’s the best player in the state,” Cleary said. “I’ll say that. He’s the most important player on our team. He’s the best player on our team, and he can make plays at safety, he can make plays in the backfield, and he can throw the ball. I can’t say anything else about him.”
PJP showed some fight on its first offensive possession after halftime, getting into the red zone. But after a touchdown pass was called back due to a penalty, Shanahan defensive backs Keenan and Jason Guerin defended passes in the end zone to turn the Golden Panthers over on downs.
Eagles running back Nate Bracken, who ran the ball 20 times for 76 yards, punched in a two-yard touchdown to cap a 10-play, 84-yard drive on the ensuing Shanahan possession. After Bracken picked off a pass for the Eagles’ fourth pick of the game, Aquila made it 42-7 with 9:01 left when he broke off a 67-yard touchdown for his third score of the night.
Eagles seniors Cleary, Michael Roth and Max Czarzasty, junior Ryan Denlinger and sophomore Lachlan Sherwin put together a dominant performance on the offensive line. Shanahan totaled 201 yards rushing on 31 carries in the first half then followed with 239 yards on 19 carries in the second half, throwing just seven times in the game and zero times in the second half.
“I told coach at the beginning of the game, ‘We’re running the ball down their throat all game,’ because in the first game of the year they dominated us a little bit on the defensive line and we said this time it’s gonna be us,” Cleary said. “And we did that..I told him at halftime the same thing, ‘Let’s run the ball. If we want to win this game. It’s gonna be on us.’ And we did that.”
Shanahan’s senior class, which goes about 25 members deep, already had a Ches-Mont championship amongst its list of accomplishments heading into Friday night.
Friday’s victory adds some district hardware and allows the Eagles to keep fighting for more.
“Our team, we all know we deserved it this year,” Aquila said. “We have 25 seniors. We wanted it more than anyone in the tri-state. We’re just a bunch of hungry kids who knew we had to win this game.”
Bishop Shanahan 14 7 7 14-42
Pope John Paul II 7 0 0 14-21
Individual Scoring
First Quarter
Anthony Aquila 8 run (Sal Debellis kick) 5:07
Aidan Civitella 70 run (Sal Debellis kick) 2:28
Brandon Deangelo 50 run (Cole Jordan kick) 2:05
Second Quarter
Aidan Civitella 8 run (Sal Debellis kick) 0:41
Third Quarter
Anthony Aquila 81 run (Sal Debellis kick) 10:09
Fourth Quarter
Nate Bracken 2 run (Sal Debellis kick) 11:40
Anthony Aquila 67 run (Sal Debellis kick) 9:01
Kassidy Jackson 65 kickoff return TD (Cole Jordan kick) 8:45
Zahaid Edwards-Boone 1 pass from TJ Dozier (Cole Jordan kick) 0:31
Team Statistics
…………………….BS………………PJP
1st downs………..19…………………14
rush-yds……….50-440……….21-143
comp-att-int….2-7-0…………..13-27-4
pass yds……….15………………150
total yds…………455……………….293
fumb-lost……..2-0………………1-1
pen-yds…………8-70…………..7-46
Individual Statistics
Rushing:
Bishop Shanahan: Anthony Aquila 25-279, 3 TDs; Aidan Civitella 5-85, 2 TDs; Nate Bracken 20-76, TD.
Pope John Paul II: Brandon Deangelo 1-50, TD; Kassidy Jackson 9-48; TJ Dozier 9-45; Dylan Skarbek 2-0.
Passing:
Bishop Shanahan: Anthony Aquila 2-7, 15 yards.
Pope John Paul II: TJ Dozier 13-27, 150 yards, 4 INT.
Receiving:
Bishop Shanahan: Aidan Civitella 1-10, Danny Keenan 1-5.
Pope John Paul II: Brandon Deangelo 4-64; Zahaid Edwards-Boone 5-33, TD; Dylan Skarbek 2-28; Kassidy Jackson 1-16; Joey DiGiacomo 1-9.
Interceptions: Aidan Civitella, Anthony Aquila, Danny Keenan, Nate Bracken.
Sacks: None.
Bishop Shanahan’s Nate Bracken attempts to break a tackle Friday against PJP. Bishop Shanahan’s Anthony Aquila runs for one of his 3 touchdowns Friday against PJP.
One Response
Great job go eagles