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<\/p>\nSTATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 It doesn\u2019t matter the sport, but any time Island and Catholic school rivals Monsignor Farrell and St. Peter\u2019s square off on a field or court, it\u2019s a big deal.<\/p>\n
Not quite as big as Monday night\u2019s varsity semifinal pitting the two schools against each other, but the Lions and Eagles will face-off for the Borough President Vito Fossella SIHSL Freshman Tournament title on Tuesday after both schools registered semifinal wins on Sunday at McKee\/Staten Island Tech\u2019s New Dorp gym.<\/p>\n
The rivals will square off for all the marbles on Tuesday at MSIT (5 p.m.). <\/p>\n
The top-seeded Eagles advanced via an easy 67-37 win over CHSAA foe St. Joseph by-the-Sea, while No. 2 Farrell got past Moore Catholic 51-47.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1\/98<\/p>\n
2026 SIHSL Freshmen Tournament: St. Peters vs. St. Joseph Sea and Moore vs. Farrell<\/p>\n
St. Peter\u2019s 67, Sea 37<\/p>\n
It was a rout from the opening-tip as the Eagles held a comfortable 35-7 halftime edge in cruising to victory, its third in three tries over the Vikings in 2025-26.<\/p>\n
The New Brighton school (16-8 overall) was cooking from deep as they hit on a whopping 11 threes in the contest.<\/p>\n
Leading the way was Jake Smith (five triples), who totaled a game-high 17 markers for coach Jake DeForest\u2019s team. Frank DiMatteo (three treys) netted 16 and Leo Cabrerra and Kiyan Edwards contributed 11 and 10 points, respectively for STP.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just a super resilient team; our defensive intensity was stifling,\u201d said DeForest, who has led STP to a pair of title game appearances in his two seasons as head coach, winning it all a year ago. \u201cOur guys have done a great job of buying into what we are selling and our assistant coaches have been great; I give them all the credit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel like we are playing our best basketball at the most important time of the year,\u201d quipped DeForest. \u201cIt\u2019s been a great season so far and we\u2019re looking forward to the championship game and the rest of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alex Esposito and Dom Trombetta teamed for 17 for the Vikings.<\/p>\n
Farrell 51, Moore 47<\/p>\n
The Lions (13-8) trailed 21-19 at the break and were down eight with 5:30 to go before a huge closing spurt changed the momentum of the game as the Oakwood school avoided the Mavs\u2019 upset bid.<\/p>\n
Jayden Daigneau (14 points, five boards) scored six unanswered points and the Lions\u2019 defense stiffened to cut the deficit to two with four minutes left in the contest.<\/p>\n
Following a Moore bucket, Gavin Silva\u2019s steal and assist on an Anthony Abreu layup got the Lions to within two at 44-42 and another Farrell stop and rebound by Xavier Sher (15 points, 13 rebounds) gave the winners possession with a chance to tie the game. <\/p>\n
Matt Abreu drained a huge three to give Farrell a 45-44 lead they would never relinquish. Kevin Foy (nine points, four boards, three steals) gave the Lions a three-point bulge and Anthony Abreu (eight points, six assists) calmly canned 4 of 4 from the line in the closing minutes to seal the deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoore and head coach Chris Cordes had a great game,\u201d said Lions mentor Richie Gomez. \u201cThey\u2019re always prepared especially since we played each other just a week ago in the regular-season finale.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe prepared knowing Moore was a very good opponent and we were physically and mentally ready to play,\u201d added Gomez. \u201cWe made several mistakes throughout the game, but we were mentally tough down the stretch and were able to close it out. Our defense was great, highlighted by the play of Joe Sheehan.\u201d<\/p>\n
DJ Santiago and Luca Fanelli led the Mavs with 16 and 15 points, respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 It doesn\u2019t matter the sport, but any time Island and Catholic school rivals Monsignor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-127248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}