Bears ready to defend

BY SCOTT HADDOW

After hoisting the 2006 city championship and losing a large amount of players to graduation, few gave the St. Benedict Bears senior boys' football team any hope this year of winning anything.

When the curtain lifted on the 2007 season, the Bears came roaring out of the den and mauled teams en route to another perfect regular season, going 5-0.

Just like wounded, starving bears in the wild, they gave no quarter to their opponents in their quest to be the best.

They continued their rampage in the playoffs by defeating the Notre-Dame Alouettes 63-42 in a semifinal match.
The win puts the Bears back in the city championship and a chance to defend their title against their most bitter rival, the Lo-Ellen Park Knights, a team they beat last year for the city crown.

The Bears are ready and stacked with fearsome talents such as rushers Joey Martellacci and Dylan Green, quarterback David Cocchiarella and defensive powerhouses such as linebacker Mitchell Portelance and captain Steven Murray.

"It means a lot to the players to be back in the championship game," head coach Frank Rocca said. "It's tremendous and says a lot about the program here. We're a single A school...we have officially under 600 kids attending and we compete quite well against the bigger schools."

When St. Benedict first entered the high school league, they were kicked around and stomped on. In the last two season, the boys in blue have dramatically altered people's perception of the team. Hearing people talk about how they would stumble this year got the team fired up.

"We didn't want people to see us as doormats for other teams," wide receiver Jordan Hynes said. Every time we played, we never gave up and never let up on anything we did...and we had a good season. We knew it was going to be a big challenge to get back to the final this year and we were up for that challenge."

The seniors are geared up for the ultimate grudge match.

"We have a lot of guys who will graduate...so we will be playing hard and leaving everything out on the field," running back Green said. "There's no way we want to leave high school football on a losing note. We had a lot of guys step up and take over from the seniors last year. They knew what had to be done and how to do it."

There's no sand being kicked in the faces of the St. Benedict players now after achieving the rare feat of making back-to-back city finals.

"It's great for our school and the athletic program," middle linebacker Portelance said. "We're getting more respect now around the league. It's going to make younger students want to come to our school. It makes us proud to know we've helped the school."

The Bears are a resilient bunch, forged to withstand great pressure and execute under harsh conditions. They're a battle-hardened group.

"Character really defines this team as a whole," Rocca said. "When our guys fell down, they picked themselves right back up and kept going. We've been down in games this season...but we made the big plays when needed to win games. It's a sign of a good football team, when they can bounce back from adversity."

St. Benedict and Lo-Ellen have no love lost between them. Their disdain for one another equals a potential classic match up.

 "I'm sure they're motivated from the loss last year to us...and this season," Rocca said.  "It's going to be an absolute circus on Friday night. We will have our guys focused and avoiding distractions. It will be a zoo...I expect thousands of people at the game. It's exciting for Sudbury football."

The Bears want to win the city trophy and take it back to their den for another year.

"We're going for the win...I can't stress enough how hard everyone is working towards it," Hynes said. "We have a huge rivalry with Lo-Ellen and spirits are up...way up. It's going to be a great game."