Their final record may not indicate so, but the coaching staff for the Bishop O’Connell Knights football team believes the high-school squad made progress this fall compared to last season’s 3-7 mark.
O’Connell finished 2-9 in 2024 with a 1-3 record in the Metro Division of the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference to earn a playoff playoff berth. The Knights finished 0-4 in the division last fall, missing the playoffs.
O’Connell’s 2024 season ended Saturday (Nov. 15) with a 48-0 first-round playoff loss to the defending Metro Division champion St. Mary’s Ryken Knights.
“They are just big up front and that made the difference,” O’Connell coach Todd Sabatino told ARLnow.
O’Connell was without a number of injured players. “We were kind of out of bodies on defense,” Sabatino said.
The Knights also were hurt by multiple turnovers in the loss, trailing 14-0 at the end of the first quarter and 35-0 at halftime.
“We did have some success moving the ball, then we’d have a turnover,” Sabatino said.
Xavier Reid and Joe Williams caught passes for O’Connell and Chris Connolly was the leading rusher. On defense, Reid had an interception, his fifth this season.
On offense, O’Connell’s running game was improved this fall, according to Sabatino, and the Knights had a starting quarterback healthy and productive all season. Neither was the case a year ago.
“We were able to move the ball on offense in all of our games and we made a lot of progress with our audible running game,” Sabatino said.
The Knights used multiple quarterbacks last season because of injuries. Senior Graham Deaton started every game behind center this fall and enjoyed success in the passing game with multiple touchdown passes.
The Arlington private-school team’s one 2024 division victory was over Bishop Ireton.
O’Connell is finalizing its schedule for next season, which will have an opening game against Arlington public-school rival and host Washington-Liberty on a Thursday night.
The Knights also will play McLean private-school Potomac School, with that game at O’Connell. The teams met for the first time this fall, with Potomac School winning 9-6.
