Due to Thanksgiving festivities, I decided to merge these posts, the Thanksgiving Day games, and the State Championship. I saw no need to rush them out, and since the CHSAA title game isn’t technically a CHSFL playoff game, I didn’t see the need to make a prediction for the game. I don’t really know much about the MMHSAA or Canisius HS, so the prediction was going to just be a gut feeling. Anyways, onto the results:

Thanksgiving Day

What a miscalculation on my end. I did have a feeling that the Thanksgiving day games would be a tad different this year, if for no other reason other than the horrific weather. I was not prepared for the wind, and the downpour (my shoes are still drying out).

Anyways, here are the results of the Turkey Bowl games, and my thoughts and musings on them. 

Cardinal Hayes 22-Mount Saint Michael 0; The first of two shutouts Thursday, anyone who thought Mount was going to win this game is kidding themselves. The Mount is a AA-2 team, playing a AAA championship contender. There was a very small chance for an upset, and the score shows. Mount was down 14-0 at the half, and the weather really seemed to affect Hayes as much as Mount. Cardinal Hayes cruised to a comfortable victory.

This is the 11th straight victory for Cardinal Hayes over the Mount, who previously had dominated. As always, football can be awfully cyclical, but this game seems to swing hard one way for years and years on end. Started in 1943, this game was actually close, with Mount holding a small lead 18-16-5. Mount then won the next 28 games, and 32 of the next 33 games, putting the series total at 47-17-5. Now, it’s been all Cardinal Hayes. How long will it be before Mount wins one against Cardinal Hayes? Mount has a new coach, who is a Mount graduate from the heyday of Mount Football in the mid-2000s, but Cardinal Hayes’ program just seems to reload every year.

Xavier 28-Fordham Prep 0; This was a surprise for me. These are two teams in the same division (AA-1) and are programs that have historically been pretty close. Sure, Fordham Prep has had the advantage recently, but most of those games have been close. It wasn’t long ago that Xavier seemed to dominate Fordham– from 2006-2015, Xavier won the game 7 out of 10 times. This year’s game was not competitive at all. Fordham Prep did not seem to want to be there in the whipping wind and the relentless rain out in Brooklyn, while Xavier seemed to revel in it. 

You have to wonder where Fordham Prep’s program goes from here. A good season, with a chance to make a run at the AA-1 title, to dropping a close game against Sea, and losing in embarrassing fashion to their rival. Their current coach is 32-33 since he took over before the 2018 season after the previous coach was unceremoniously fired. On the flipside, the new coach for Xavier in his first year, did what the previous one could not do 6 out of the last 7 meetings, beat Fordham Prep. 

CHSAA Championship 

Iona Prep 42-Canisius HS 26; After a very competitive first half (Iona Prep led 21-20 at the half), the Gaels took over, scoring 21 straight points to take a 42-20 lead late into the 4th quarter. Iona Prep asserted themselves well, throwing the ball well, and had a dominant rushing attack. They just seemed too much for the Monsignor Martin league champion. 

Iona Prep wins their second State Championship in the past four years, and more importantly, the CHSFL has asserted itself as the best league in the state. I just don’t see many teams in New York that can compete with the Gaels. They have also set themselves up for success, many of the contributors are underclassmen, and they have a strong JV and Freshman team. I know it is too early to tell, but I would not be surprised if Iona repeated as CHSFL and NYS Champion. 

And there you have it! The season has ended. Peak this for the year’s records, season results, and final standings.  We saw a little bit of everything this year– my thoughts below:

AAA

1. Iona got the monkey off its back and won the whole thing this year, and have put themselves in a good position to repeat next season. With 2 Championships in the last 4 years, we could be looking at an Iona Prep dynasty over the next few years. 
2. St. Anthony’s returned to the title game, off the back of their phenom QB who scored (passing+rushing) over 50 touchdowns this year. How will the Friars reload?
3. Cardinal Hayes loses their phenom QB and big time linemen. Though their JV team won their championship, Cardinal Hayes has a lot of replacing players to do. 
4. Chaminade surprised everyone after a poor campaign in 2023, by making it all the way to the semis, and winning 8 games. 
5. Farrell had a competitive season, but results seemed to peter out as the year went on. They have work to do to reload and prepare for 2025. 
6. Kellenberg has to be asking themselves how they can do better on the AAA level. They are 6-15 over the past two seasons, with all their wins coming against lower division teams. 
7. Stepinac’s season collapsed. Will they reload? Or is this a premonition for things to come for the Crusaders? Iona seems to continue to get better and better.

AA-1

1. St. Joseph by the Sea finally broke through, and won the AA-1 championship. The grit and tough play from the Vikings epitomized their mindset. Will they continue this play? The AA-1 is extremely competitive, and the champion seems to switch every year, so who knows.
2. St. Peter’s as well, finally made it to the championship after it eluded them all these years. Unfortunately, they fell short. And with their best players moving on, you have to wonder how the program will re-assert itself. 
3. Moore Catholic definitely took a step back. After making it to the title game three years in a row, the Mavericks fell in the semifinal round. I cannot imagine what the seniors feel like now, especially after their two fellow Catholic School rivals ended up competing in the championship. 
4. Fordham Prep’s program is stagnant. They were poised to make a run, but just didn’t. With a good JV team, and still a healthy program overall, the Prep should be fine moving forward, but you have to wonder how competitive they will be next season
5. Xavier has a new coach, who, while continuing to use their vaunted single wing attack, has to question how they could compete long term. The team ran up the score against weaker teams, but completely melted down when they got down a few scores. I just don’t know the ceiling for them. 
6. St. Francis Prep improved a lot this year, but can they sustain it? The Queens school is huge with over 2,000 students, and the Terriers used to dominate the CHSFL back in the day. Is this a program that is on track for a revival? Their JV won the JV AA championship, so they may be on their way. 
7. St. John the Baptist had a nightmare season, partially because they essentially played a AAA schedule, which broke them down. The Cougars still showed flashes of their old selves, but the rest of the AA-1 clearly caught up to them. 
8. Holy Trinity’s meltdown should be studied. Winning their divisions and clearly building a return the AAA, they lasted one year before being punted back down to the AA-1, where they responded by winning 1 game

AA-2

1. Xaverian HS won the AA-2 this year, but overall, can they make the jump to the AA-1? If there is any team with sustained success at the AA-2 level, it is Xaverian. I am not sure what the ambitions for the program is, but Xaverian used to be a top CHSFL team
2. Holy Cross has also been right there in the AA-2, but can’t seem to make that next step to make the jump. This is a proud program, and recent success may allow Holy Cross to rebuild their once dominant CHSFL program.
3. Mount Saint Michael, after winning the AA-2 in 2023, had a new coach, and seemed to be motivated to repeat as champions. Mount is a proud program that was in the AAA title game in recent memory (well recent memory for me). They ended the year losing six of their past seven games. This has to be disappointing for the Mount. 
4. Cardinal Spellman is another old program, but has spent the majority of my life in the lower division of the CHSFL. They are a smaller program, but an old school that is dedicated to having a competitive football program, at the appropriate level. The Pilots had moderate success in the late 2010s. They have not been too good the past two years, but I could see Spellman making a splash over the next few years, if they can build their program back.
5. Kennedy Catholic is a very new program. Positioned in Northern Westchester, it is just hard for Kennedy to build their football team to be much more than a AA-2 team. With Stepinac and Iona Prep being AAA teams, the Gaels, Somers edition, have a place in the AA-2, where they have been competitive in the late 2010s.  
6. Christ the King is one of the most streaky programs. I distinctly remember the Royals competing at the highest level, in the AAA, knocking off St. Anthony’s and Iona Prep in a season. The school could not maintain this success, and is now back in the basement of the CHSFL. They have not won a game in the last two seasons, and have no lower level team to build off of. 
7. St. Dominic used to be in the CHSFL until they disbanded their program. I got confirmation that they would be joining the CHSFL full time as the 22nd member after this season, in which I say, welcome back! Though as the sixth Long Island school to be in the CHSFL, I wonder how this will affect the balance of power long term. I wonder where they will be ranked in the preseason. 

This concludes my 2024 season take on the CHSFL– including thoughts, comments, and musings. I think that this year was much better than previous years when it came to competitive balance. Overall, very difficult to predict each game, with really 1 team being just so much better than the rest. I will continue to post throughout the offseason, on different topics, including:

• A way too early 2025 pre-season power rankings.
• a look at each region in the CHSFL (NYC, SI, LI, Westchester).
• A look back at CHSFL dynasts.
• Speculation of how the CHSFL matches up to the public school leagues, other private leagues, PSAL.
• Personal opinions on the current division and playoff structure of the CHSFL, and where the league goes from here.

I am excited for the next season, but will also enjoy some much deserved rest.