O’Neill varsity football coach Adam DiBenedetto is nothing but calm and realistic. Coming off his team’s 20-0 win over Dover on October 15, he said: “It was a nice team effort – our most complete game of the season – but now we are on to Highland next Saturday. The stakes are the #1 seed in Class C playoffs.”

O’Neill went into the game against Dover ranked #1 in the division, Dover was ranked #2.

“I think our guys knew what was at stake and were ready to play,” DiBenedetto said. “They had the taste of losing to them last year, 32-0, fresh in their minds and wanted to avenge that loss. But while we may have won by a decent margin, they did not make it easy for us.

Our guys had to work for everything they got in the game. Our defense allowed them to get onto our side of the field on some drives but our guys stepped up when we needed to.”

For the first time this season, the Raiders gained a majority of their yards through the air.

AJ Mackey threw eight passes, completing four of them, gaining 148 yards through the air. DiBenedetto said some of those explosive plays loosened up Dover’s defense.

The first pass was to Keegan Arbogast in the second quarter, he ran for a 56-yard touchdown. Trey Murphy led the way on the ground, carrying the ball 19 times, gaining 117 yards including a 55-yard run at the start of the third quarter.

Ames Jannetta caught one pass and took it for 61 yards that set up Murphy’s second touchdown of the day, which was scored on an 11-yard run.

Defensively, Jake Bione got an interception on a pass that was deflected by Arbogast. Georgios Fatsis forced and recovered a fumble. RJ Harrison also forced a fumble in the game.

A week before, with their 35-14 win over Spackenkill, the Raiders not only secured a spot in the Class C playoffs but also knocked Spackenkill from those same playoffs. Not too bad for a Friday night’s work!

It was homecoming at Spackenkill, and the Raiders first away game of the season after injuries forced a September road forfeit to Burke Catholic. The Raiders entered the game with an official record of 3-2, although that was a little deceiving. The only game they actually lost was to Beacon. The same goes for wins – Poughkeepsie forfeited to the Raiders, meaning they had two earned wins.

DiBenedetto called the start of that game “a bit of a rough” but said pretty quickly his Raiders “woke up and played a great game” against Spackenkill.

For instance, in the opening drive on offense, the Raiders had three penalties and got sacked for a safety, spotting Spackenkill two points right off the bat.

“But after that, our offense put in five touchdowns from four different people,” the coach said. “Trey, the workhorse, had 234 yards on 20 carries and two touchdowns - both on the ground - his highest yard total of the season.”

Murphy also converted a 2-point attempt. One of his rushes was two yards (in the first quarter), but the most impressive one, DiBenedetto said, was 89 yards in the early third quarter.

The Raiders spread their scoring out through the game, with six, eight, seven and 14 points in each quarter, respectively. Spackenkill had two and six points in the first and second quarters, and closed the game with six points in the fourth.
DiBenedetto continued his praise.

“AJ played a great game at quarterback despite just throwing the ball four times in the entire game. He completed three of those passes, first to Keegan for a 19-yard gain. His second one was on a deep strike to Ames for a 53-yard touchdown. His last pass completion (also a touchdown) was on a short pass to Zachary Parks who ran for a 79-yard touchdown early 4th quarter. This one came after AJ noticed something in the defense and thought that play would work, and pretty clearly, it did! AJ also scored our last touchdown of the game on a 1-yard QB sneak.”

The coach is proud of his defense too, noting that O’Neill forced five turnovers against Spackenkill, while not committing a single turnover.

“When the turnover margin is 5 to 0, you should be able to win the game,” he said. Four of those turnovers were interceptions, with Parks securing two of them. “One was on an acrobatic catch he deflected and impressively managed to catch himself, and another on a jump ball where he just simply out jumped the receiver for the ball.”

The Raiders play at Highland at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24. Both teams enter the game with a 5-2 record.