It’s been a busy couple days for Cardinal Gibbons wide receiver Troy Stellato.
The standout junior has received major college offers recently, including from Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Ohio State. He showed why those prominent teams want him on their side, scoring two long touchdowns in Cardinal Gibbons’ 33-0 win over American Heritage-Delray on Friday night in Delray Beach.
“You get offered by Alabama, Ohio State, Florida, all these schools, I kind of feel like I need to step up my game a little more because I need to live up to (these offers),” Stellato said. “But when I step on the field, I don’t worry about offers. I’m just going to give my 110 percent every play and do what I do out there.”
The Chiefs were already up by two touchdowns when Stellato first got on the board.
Gibbons struck first on a 14-yard touchdown run by sophomore quarterback Brody Palhegyi, but the Chiefs struggled to move the ball for much of the rest of the first half. They got their second touchdown on a 95-yard interception return by senior Majon Wright.
“It was huge,” Cardinal Gibbons coach Matt DuBuc said. “We’ve been waiting for that for a long time. He’s such a superior athlete, he should be making plays like that every week, every game.”
The Stallions (2-2) nearly got the momentum back after Wright’s touchdown, as it appeared Heritage scored on the ensuing kickoff. But the referees called the touchdown back because the returner called a fair catch before muffing the catching and returning it.
Gibbons’ defense helped the Chiefs (4-1) get on the board again late in the first half. The Stallions started a drive with good field position and drive to the Gibbons’ 25-yard line. A fourth-down sack by Jack O’Keeffe gave Gibbons the ball again.
“They just play hard,” DuBuc said. “It’s been like that all season. (Miami) Northwestern had a hard time moving the ball on us, defensively. We gave them points on special teams and offense.”
Palhegyi tossed one first-down pass to get the ball to the 50 before finding Stellato on a short pass. Stellato blew past several defenders en route to the end zone, giving the Chiefs a three-score lead going into halftime.
“We saw a lot of empty spaces, a lot of mismatches,” Palhegyi said.
Pahlhegyi picked up his second touchdown pass of the game on a 27-yarder to Davon Kiser, which put the game out of reach for the Stallions early in the fourth quarter.
Stellato added his second score of the night in the fourth quarter, taking a 46-yard pass to the end zone to give Gibbons a 33-0 lead. Stellato finished the game with 109 receiving yards on three receptions. Palhegyi was was 7 of 12 for 172 passing yards.
“It’s too easy, it makes it way too easy on me to have an athlete like that,” Palhegyi said. “I throw a 5-yard pass and it turns into 50 yards. It’s incredible having him on my side of the ball.”
