Position: CB Sec. The answer is Henry Belin.”Demonstrating a poise and skill set that is well beyond his youthfulness, the 6’3, 200-pound sophomore has flourished in his first season running the show in the Bronx…No longer is he a “game manager”; he has ascended to full-fledged “gun slinger and field general” status per the praising words of the Hayes’ staff.Throwing at least one touchdown pass in eight of his nine starts this season, the 10Asserting himself as a “Friar slayer” in 2019, of the 17 total touchdowns that Belin has posted in his rookie campaign on varsity, five (nearly 30%) have come in just two outings versus their rivals from South Huntington…When the two storied programs banged heads on September 21Getting Hayes off to a fast start, Belin would set the tone for the kind of afternoon it was destined to be for the hosts, when on their opening drive of the contest, he preserved a drive by throwing a 30-yard strike on 3Next up for the gentlemen from Hayes is a semifinal date with the undefeated top seed from New Rochelle, Iona Prep, on November 9The first and only student-athlete from a losing team to be named to the POTW list in 2019, even if the Kingsmen fell slightly short (33-20) against Kennedy Catholic last Friday night, it in no way negates or detracts from the absolutely staggering, career night for the 5’9, 181-pound 12Suiting up for the last time in front of the home crowd, neither McDuffie nor any of the Naz faithful will soon forget the magic they witnessed on Senior Night at Tilden HS.The self-proclaimed “Just a kid from Brooklyn trying to make it,” certainly MADE quite a few dazzling plays and turned more than a few heads in the last regular season game of his two-year scholastic career.Taking the hand-off a season-high 15 times, the three-sport athlete (baseball and track) completely shattered his previous personal best (120 yards in week #2 versus St. Joe’s by Sea), finishing the evening with exactly 200 yards on the ground. “A game like this is kind of like basketball where you see a field, you see opportunities and you see gaps. Never was this more evident than week #4 when his universal blocking skillset enabled the two-time defending league and state titlists to rack up 449 yards (236 passing, 213 rushing) and score six touchdowns (four via the air, two on the ground)…In both cases, their output represented an increase from their averages (211/206 split) heading into the contest.Defensively, Tartaglia was a member of an ensemble cast that did a marvelous job containing a King offense comprised of major NCAA DI prospects…Allowing just 195 yards of total offense to an opponent that came in putting up 455.4, the AS defensive line pressured CTK signal caller, Noah Bodden, into a sub-.500 completion percentage (14-for-29), limiting him to 169 yards tossing and inducing two interceptions…The run defense was even better, holding King (155/game thru week #5) to just 26 yards…The Mohegan Lake resident [Tartaglia] registered a pair of assisted stops as a part of this collective beatdown.There will be no resting on laurels for Mike O’Donnell’s crew, as next up for Stepinac will be a rematch of the 2018 title game versus Cardinal Hayes…Up to this point, Hayes has been scoring 36.3 points per game and accumulating 483.5 yards of production. It was the fifth 200+ yard running game of the year (8The Mavericks trailing 6-0 after surrendering a touchdown to the Vikings on the initial drive of the game, Lacks quickly issued a response and evened the contest when on 3Moore now safely in front by a score of 20-6 early in the 4Lacks continued to tack on bonus yardage in the waning moments of the title game, capping his tenure with 5,468…His 2019 total of 1,998 yards (8.6 average) rushing was best among all Catholic ball-carriers (all divisions) this season.Equally involved and dominant in disrupting the passing game (Tucker threw for a season-low 87 yards and was intercepted two times) and stuffing the ground attack (the Vikings mustered just 104 yards rushing after averaging 235.2), the 5’10, 212-pound senior linebacker was unblockable in his pursuit of any and all SJS ball carriers, recording five of his seven total stops behind the line of scrimmage…Applying so much pressure to Tucker from the outside that he might as well have been his conjoined twin, Padilla logged his third consecutive two sacks performance…To boot, he even had a forced fumble [that Sea was fortunate enough to dive on].Reflecting upon his body of work as a whole in his swan song campaign, there is no doubt that Padilla is worthy of serious consideration for league Defensive Player of the Year merit…Having amassed 140 total tackles (2If not for Padilla’s outstanding showing in the AA-2 finals, Emerging with what may have been the greatest individual single-game effort of the 2019 Catholic football season, the 5’10, 170-pound field general out of Yorktown Heights left “everything and then some” on the field in catapulting (he literally dove) top-seeded Kennedy Catholic to their first team title in program history, 39-33 (OT) over the rival Pilots.A surefire candidate, if not the consensus front runner, to follow in his brother’s footsteps and win the “A” Offensive Player of the Year award at the Communion banquet next month, [Clayton] Proctor’s dual-threat capabilities were never in question, as evident by the fact that he was both the #1 passer (765 yards + 6 TD throws) and a top-3 rusher (665 yards and seven touchdowns) in the division…However, despite his mighty impressive track record, he managed to outdo even himself in ensuring that the hardware would be Somers bound.More than doubling his regular season average of 204.3 yards of total offensive production in the championship contest, Proctor was deadly with all of his limbs, rushing for a career-best 275 yards and four touchdowns on 36 carries (7.6/per), while simultaneously flinging the pigskin for an additional 145 yards and one score on 12-of-18 in the air…The 30 points that he PERSONALLY had a hand in generating was more than any of our other three championship-winning schools were able put up in their respective triumphs on November 16th.The Gaels trailing 7-0 late in the first quarter, Proctor recorded the first or his five scores when he connected with Approximately five minutes later, he let his legs do the talking on another equalizer, as he took the ball in on a 3-yard keeper to tie the score at 14-14.With 6:12 remaining in the game, Proctor gave the Gaels their first lead of the night when he again called his own number, this time from 7 yards away to put KC on top, 23-20.TD #3 on the ground/his fourth overall came with 3:09 still on the clock on a six-yard draw to make the score 30-20.After an absolutely mind-blowing sequence of events witnessed Spellman score two touchdowns and then Kennedy respond with a game-squaring field goal with :01 on the clock, the game went to overtime.Regaining possession after a clutch defensive stand by the KC defense yielded no points, Proctor fittingly had his hero moment, transforming a broken pass attempt into a 12-yard scramble, which ended with him diving at the pylon for the winning touchdown.A POTW selection in week #5 when he forced a fumble, intercepted a pass, and racked up 10 tackles in a 28-12 victory over Spellman, Bernal used the “A” finals to pick up where he left off in being a consistent menace to the Pilot offense.Suiting up for the last time on his home field, the “captain and heart of the line” as hailed by Head Coach, Dominick Tassone, made sure he went out in memorable fashion, setting a new career-high with 15 total stops, tying his personal-best of six tackles for a loss (originally set in an Oct. 11A young gentleman who most certainly has the respect of the rival Pilots, Bernal has been so good throughout his career when playing opposite them that it goes without saying that his graduation will likely bring a smile to the face of the Cardinal Spellman staff…According to MaxPreps, during his four years as a member of the KC varsity, he compiled the following stat line against Spellman: 51 tackles, 16 TFL, 5 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, and 1 INT.One of the hardest and busiest student-athletes on the field most weekends, he also serves as the linchpin of the OL as the starting center…For this reason, he shares in Proctor’s huge day!If you want to know what makes the postseason extra special, it is those moments when a senior, staring the end of his scholastic career dead in the eyes, goes out and puts forth a career-day so as to earn the right to wear his school colors a few more additional times.Described by Cardinals’ legendary Head Coach, CJ O’Neil, as a “Tremendous human being,” the 5’10, 185-pounder from the Bronx [Barnes] was nothing if not tremendous in propelling fourth-seeded Hayes to their second straight [third in the past four years] championship weekend berth behind an avenging 45-34 victory over previously unbeaten/top-seeded Iona Prep in the AAA semifinals on November 9Flying to the ball with passion and determination, the overall performance of Barnes proved to be the ultimate catalyst as to why the Cardinals were successful in turning around a previous 58-41 loss to the Gaels in the regular season finale.Living his life with the mentality of, “Humble enough to know that I’m not better than anybody, but wise enough to know I’m different from the rest,”, as expressed on his twitter page, from an individual standpoint, Barnes certainly was a difference-maker this past Saturday, collecting personal-bests on defense in the following categories: tackles (14), sacks (2), knockdowns (4), and pass break-ups (2).The remarkable efforts of the one also translated into the universal prosperity of the many, as together, the Cardinal Hayes “D” did an outstanding job in forcing IP junior signal caller, Darius Wilson, into a very modest afternoon in the air.