Crusaders Falter in Palmetto Finals

The tournament was held in Duncan, South Carolina and featured 20 teams from six different states, and BC was the lone representative from New Jersey and one of only two teams from the north (the other being Dover, Delaware).

This is the third time that BC has participated in this tournament, which features some of the best skill players from the South. BC surprised the rest of the tournament by going undefeated on the first day of the event, going (7-0) and winning their games rather easily.

On the second day of the tourney, with the last three games in pool play used to decide the playoff seeding, BC again swept through and finished as the only undefeated team (10-0) in the entire field.

This included a classic game between BC and host team and national power Byrnes High School (SC). The Crusaders beat Byrnes in pool play on a last second touchdown pass from Jon Germano to Justin Kulcsar, and BC's dramatic victory over a heavily favored Byrnes squad got everyone's attention at the entire event.

As the top seed in the playoffs BC rolled its way to the finals behind a stellar offense and a shutdown defense that looks completely different from the one that surrendered a lot of points last season. In the final the Crusaders once again matched up with Byrnes. BC led by eight late in the contest before Byrnes rallied to take the lead and held on to beat BC 23-21, despite some questionable no-calls on would-be pass interference plays that would have given BC the ball with a chance to win from deep inside Byrnes' end.

Jon Germano was named the entire tournament's co-MVP along with the Byrnes QB and Kyle Queiro was named the tournament's defensive MVP for his work as a shutdown corner back. Both BC and Byrnes are ranked in the preseason Top 20 in the country by MaxPreps, BC (#17) Byrnes (#13), and Byrnes is the defending state champion in South Carolina. BC did all this with only three practices under their belts and obviously without their top wide receiver in John Tsimis.

Video highlights of the event are available on the BC Athletics website.

The following was provided by Bergen Catholic Sports Information Director Dan Long.