Dunn, St. Mary's flex muscle at east/west games

The St. Mary's Knights and Sir James Dunn Eagles made an early statement that both are eyeing a spot in the city championship. The Knights and Eagles both came away big winners at the annual high school football senior division John Croshuk Kickoff Classic at Rocky Dipietro Field on Friday night as the two teams combined with White Pines to form the east team and defeat the west trio of St. Basil, Bawating and Korah 52-14 in front of over 2,000 fans. The exhibition contest saw the teams play in three mini-games consisting of two 20 minute straight time halves. In the opening game, Nigel Milne, who recorded a game high of 87 rushing yards, scored a pair of touchdowns on runs of five and three yards to lead Sir James Dunn past the St. Basil Saints 17-0. Frank Weise kicked a convert while St. Basil surrendered four points on a pair of conceded safety touches by the punt team. Defending champion St. Mary's displayed a well balanced ground and air attack in a 28-0 win over the Bawating Braves in the second game. Quarterback Anthony Amadio hit receiver Kyle Dugas for touchdown passes of 15 and 20 yards while Kayvon Fatemazadeh from five yards and Chris Lebel from four yards scored rushing touchdowns. Andrew Posteraro kicked all four converts. Lebel rushed for 61 yards on 11 carries while Amadio completed five of seven passes for 135 yards. Matt Gauthier led Bawating with five tackles. In the final contest, Jon Day scored on touchdown runs of three and two yards to lead the Korah Colts past the White Pines Wolverines 14-7. Ryan Maunu scored on a 15 yard quarterback keeper for White Pines. Day rushed for 79 yards on nine carries to lead the Colts. Maunu led White Pines with 17 yards rushing while completing nine of 20 passes for 177 yards. Noah Rushon caught five Maunu passes for 104 yards while Matt Premo hauled in four passes for 73 yards. The regular season opens on Thursday with White Pines meeting St. Basil at 7:30 p.m. On Friday, Korah will tackle St. Mary's at 7:30 p.m while Bawating and Sir James Dunn will meet on Saturday at 1 p.m. All games are played at Rocky DiPietro Field.