Sachem Plays St. Anthony's for First Time in 13 Years

Monday's JV9-10 football scrimmage between Sachem North and St. Anthony's harnessed a bit of history. It marked the first time the football powers have faced each other since 1998.

Prior to that, Sachem consistently played the Catholic High School Football League opponent consistently dating back to the 1980s. They also saw scrimmages against St. John the Baptist and a non-league 18-14 loss against St. Francis in 1991.

That 1991 loss was one of only five games in Sachem's history against an opponent not located in Suffolk County. Three of the four were against Brockton High School in Massachusetts and the other was against Lawrence in the 1995 Division I Long Island championship.

In 1987 Sachem's JV squad scrimmaged St. Anthony's and St. John's to 0-0 ties. Current Sachem JV9 coach Ron Chirichella was on that team.

On Monday the freshman teams battled and Sachem took home a 2-1 advantage - it was a controlled scrimmage with no kicking. With a sea of black and gold uniforms dashing across the field on both sides, it made for an interesting match up.

"Our guys held their own," Chirichella said. "We're coming along and we're a work in progress. We have a lot of talent with our skills guys and we're working with our lines to get better."

Another blatant sign of the changed times was the limited roster Sachem has compared to the 80 Friars that saw action for St. Anthony's. That was how Sachem's sideline looked in the pre-split days, every year.

This year's group of JV9-10 players will play their games on Mondays against other schools who had their freshmen teams cut due to budget and county limitations. The team allows players who do not play on Saturday's JV game to play on Monday. Multiple schools across Section XI, who approved this, are doing the same thing. The district is not funding the coaches, they are volunteering.