New York Sports Fan Blog

By: Ryan O’Reilly

With three regular season games under their belt, the New Jersey Irish are undefeated and have outscored opponents 123-20 with two shutouts in the books.

An explosive first half led the New Jersey Irish to a 38-0 victory over the Long Island Tribe Saturday night in Wayne, as the defense once again held stout and showed an ability to make the big play. The scoring began with none other than star return man Rashid Darrisaw taking a punt 92 yards to the end zone to give the Irish a 7-0 lead before the offense even took the field. As the defense held the Tribe to negative yardage on the first four series, the offense finally clicked on all levels.

Led by quarterback John DiGiloramo’s 320 yards passing, coordinator Lou Mascola’s unit scored on four of its first five series. Kicker Phil Marfuggi nailed a 27 yard field goal on the first series before DiGiloramo showed why he could be considered one of the top quarterbacks in the league. First, he found Stacey Jackson on a 44 yard connection down the sideline to set up the Marfuggi field goal. Then on the next series he hit running back Lou Aboyoun for a 29 yard touchdown. The third Irish series and first play of the second quarter led to another six points and an early candidate for play of the year as DiGiloramo hit Stephen Machiorolla for a spectacular 54 yard touchdown pass and catch.

As DiGiloramo dropped back, Machiorolla ran a 15 yard hitch route but slipped on his turn. The quarterback had already released the ball and the defender jumped the route but only could tip the football. Machiorolla then caught the ball while sitting down and jumped up to scamper down the sidelines to give the Irish a 24-0 lead. DiGiloramo went on to rush for a two yard touchdown on fourth down at the end of the half to give the Irish a 31-0 lead.

Head coach Keith Correal said his quarterback looks to be poised for a big season. “The rust is off John’s arm for sure,” Correal said. “He’s hitting midseason form and I think he’s going to have a great season.” The second half saw the play get chippy as both teams were warned and a couple players ejected. The flow of the Irish play stuttered after this and the only points would come on a DiGiloramo 11 yard pass to Jackson. Jackson wowed with three catches for 102 yards and one touchdown. Aboyoun also provided a huge lift to the offense with seven receptions for 127 yards and a touchdown to go along with his 18 rushing yards. “Lou does three things extremely well,” Correal said. “He can run the ball and be maybe one of top running backs in the league. He can read your defense and sit in underneath zones and kill you, and then he can get vertical down the field like last night on his touchdown reception. It’s rare to find a guy that has the athletic ability and football IQ to be able to do all three things so well.”

Receiver Derek DePascale played on a bad knee but still managed to record four receptions for 32 yards. DePascale moved the chains on three of his four catches. It was the defense, however, that continued its dominance, making Correal a very happy coach with the way the players have meshed. “The defense plays well as an 11 man unit,” he said. “Sometimes you see teams with a lot of great players on their defense but they just have problems stopping people. We have not had that problem as I truly believe the defense is completely unselfish and just want to stop the opponent and get off the field.”

The Irish secondary was led by Darrisaw, cornerback Sean Griffin and safety Lamar Askew to record an interception each. Linebacker Russ Commune also had a pick to end the game. DaShawn Frazier continued his impressive play on the defensive line with four tackles, two of which were for loss. Troy Frazier and Taron McBride recorded just two tackles apiece, but their presence was felt often as they plugged the few holes the Tribe opened. The defense forced five turnovers with the four interceptions and a fumble recovery. Darrisaw’s interception was returned 85 yards for a touchdown but a questionable clipping penalty brought the touchdown back. Next week brings an extremely formidable challenge to the Irish with an away game against the New York City Falcons. Correal said if his team can play well next week, the season can go places a first year team usually does not go.

“The Falcons are 3-1 and also coming off an impressive shutout,” he said. “They have only lost to the (NY) Bandits this year and it was a close 12-6 game. If we can be as successful this week against them as we have been against our previous opponents, I think we will solidify ourselves as the team to beat in this league.”