Playing with heavy hearts, the St. John the Baptist football team rallied around senior offensive lineman Vinny Macchio and his family to win their first CHSFL Class A league championship since 2004 Saturday over St. Peter's, 29-6.
Macchio's father passed away Friday night after losing a lengthy battle with liver cancer.
"For Vinny, and his younger brother who plays on JV, this was an outlet for them," said Cougars head coach Keith Schweers. "All the kids in our program knew they were here to escape what was going on. We knew the inevitable was coming but we rallied around him."
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Star running back Derelle Hunter took home MVP honors after rushing for 214 yards on 25 carries and four touchdowns, including scoring runs of 58 and 35 yards.
"What matters most is winning that championship," said Hunter. "MVP, that's second. But it's still a really good feeling to finish the year."
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The MVP had his way with St. Peter's (4-6) the entire afternoon, enabling the defense to pin their ears back and apply pressure to Eagles' quarterback Dan Low.
"We knew that these guys were going to want to throw, and we put the kids in different positions and really got them excited," said Schweers. "These kids knew that on the snap of the ball, they wanted to get pressure on him right away."
After starting on the Eagles' 31-yard line thanks to a short punt, Hunter capped off the Cougars' opening drive with an 8-yard touchdown run.
Following a personal foul penalty that set St. John's back inside Eagles' territory, Hunter struck again. After breaking a tackle behind the line of scrimmage, he found a seam to the left and took it 35 yards for his second score of the game. Quarterback Greg Egan found Dillon Pugh in the corner of the end zone to make it 14-0 with 4:38 remaining in the first half.
"With Derelle, third and long, if the other 10 guys do their job, which our kids have been doing, it becomes 4th-and-short or a first down awful quick," said Schweers.
St. Peter's was having trouble promoting any offense, gaining just 40 yards in the first half. After punting with just over three minutes to go, Hunter found the endzone for the third time, his most impressive run of the day.
On a designed run to the left, Hunter waited a second, cut back to his right and found daylight. No Eagle was able to catch him and 58 yards later, the Cougars led 20-0.
"When I bounced to the left the outside linebacker did a good job," said Hunter. "He came over and shifted with me so then I had to make a move and cut back to the right. And I saw an opening there."
The teams traded punts to open the second half before the Cougars put together their most dominant drive of the afternoon. Hunter ended a 13-play, 67-yard drive with his fourth touchdown of the day, coming from 21 yards out on fourth down.
"We have no problem no matter where we were, with this group, we could be third and long and we're gonna shoot for a first down," said Schweers. "So we set a play to try and get it."
Connor Lewis capped off the Cougars' scoring with a 27-yard field goal shortly after to extend the lead to 29-0.
Low and the Eagles finally answered with a 1-yard touchdown run with just under 40 seconds to play, but St. John's and their fans had already begun celebrating their first title in six years.
For the Macchios, it couldn't have come at a better time.
"It's going to be hitting him soon," said Schweers. "He's got to go take care of his family, but to be able to have that release and enjoy it like this, not only the end of the season, but a championship and to be a big part of that championship.
