With its latest victory, the Bishop O’Connell Knights are assured of not having a losing regular-season record in football for the first time since going 5-5 in the 2021 high-school campaign.
The win was a 23-0 shutout over the visiting St. John’s Catholic Prep Vikings in non-conference action Oct. 24 in Arlington. The triumph gave O’Connell a 5-3 overall mark with two games remaining. The worst the Knights can finish is 5-5, like five seasons ago.
The Knights finished 2-9 last season.
“We feel good about being 5-3, coming from where we were last year,” O’Connell coach Todd Sabatino told ARLnow. “To progress everywhere like we have is good and changes the culture. We want to be a smash-mouth team like this.”
The shutout was O’Connell’s third this season.
The Knights’ defense twice stopped the Vikings from scoring when they reached the red zone, had another fourth-down stop and amassed four turnovers, including two interceptions, one in the end zone, by safety Kian Kaboli-Monfared. Santi Villanueva also had an interception and Alex Podsiadly a fumble recovery.
The team has 11 interceptions this season — four by Kaboli-Monfared — and has caused 21 turnovers overall.
On offense, O’Connell gained 289 total yards in a balanced attack.
Runningback Nick Morris ran for 148 yards, including an 82-yard fourth-quarter touchdown run, and caught one pass for 39 yards. Quarterback Ryan Turpin was 9 of 16 passing for 136 yards and threw scoring passes. of 38 yards to Anthony Baynes and 26 to Kaboli-Monfared, both in the second quarter. Jack Wall booted three extra points.
James Fatzinger had four catches for O’Connell and Jake Sikra two. Pierce Hall rushed for 10 yards.
The Knights’ other two points came on a safety.
The game was scoreless after the first quarter, then O’Connell led 16-0 at halftime.
The Oct. 24 win was O’Connell’s second in three games, with a 34-7 road victory over the Bishop Ireton Cardinals the first on Oct. 10 in conference play. The Knights fell behind 7-0, then scored the game’s final 34 points.
Against Ireton, Turpin threw for 265 yards and five touchdowns. The Knights gained 380 total yards, as Morris rushed for 55 and Fatzinger had five catches for 72 yards and a TD. Jon Tyler had two touchdown receptions, Sikra had one for 80 yards and Douglas Kelly had the other TD catch.
Eight different players caught passes for O’Connell. Wall booted five extra points.
On defense for the Knights, Villanueva and Scott Shaw each had 11 total tackles, Noah Jordan made nine total tackles and Kaboli-Monfared, Jayden Campbell and Jack Weber seven each. Owen Wolfe had two tackles for losses, with Kaboli-Monfared and Villanueva each having interceptions and D.J. Vann a fumble recovery.
“We don’t like the slow starts, but it was nice to see our offense and passing game clicking like it was,” Sabatino said. “We spread the wealth around very well. It was a conference win and a good win for us.”
The victory was O’Connell’s third straight over Ireton.
In an Oct. 16 conference road loss to St. Mary’s Ryken, Morris had five catches for 139 yards and two touchdowns, Fatzinger had four catches for 21 and Kaboli-Monfared one for 85 and a touchdown. Connor Morrison had two catches for 35 yards. Turpin completed 14 passes for 305 yards and three TDs and Hall rushed for 47 yards.
On defense, Shaw totaled 12 tackles and Jordan nine.
The last time O’Connell had a winning regular-season record was in 2008, when the Knights finished 6-4. That also was the last time the Knights recorded three shutouts in a season.
In other Bishop O’Connell sports news:
Cross country: It was deja vu all over again when the Knights’ boys cross-country team repeated as the Arlington County meet champions.
The Knights won the 2026 crown with the same point total of 28 as last fall, and were led again by brothers who were repeat first- and second-place individual finishers.
The 5,000-meter meet was run on a course at Arlington’s Bluemont Park.
Jayse Brefczynski, a senior, won for the second year in a row (17:15.8), just a fraction ahead of his sophomore brother Landon Brefczynski (17:15.9).
The brothers got the lead early and ran together the rest of the way, well ahead of the other finishers.
Also for the O’Connell boys, junior Peter Fleenor was seventh, junior Kyle Jayme eighth, junior Ryan Street 10th, senior Dom Best 13th and senior Ian Bradley 20th.
“The team ran well and is starting to come together at the right time. We are optimistic about that,” O’Connell coach Jim Connor said.
Added Landon Brefczynski: “It’s a big deal to us to win this meet. We were hoping to do this again.”
Jayse Brefczynski said the O’Connell runners were more concerned about where they placed in the meet other than their times.
For the fourth-place O’Connell girls at the county meet, sophomore Isabel McEvoy was the Knights’ top finisher in 11th.
At an Oct. 17 Virginia Showcase meet on the Pole Green Park course in Mechanicsville, Landon Brefczynski won the boys Elite 5,000-meter race, with the O’Connell team finishing 17th.
On Oct. 24, the O’Connell boys placed fourth and the girls sixth at the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference championship meet at Kenilworth Park in D.C.
Leading the boys was Landon Brefczynski in second place in 16:10 with his brother Jayse 21st in 17:13. For the girls, McEvoy was 23rd in 21:42.
Field hockey: The Knights have continued their emergence of recent seasons this fall as again a top conference and state power in girls field hockey.
The high-school team completed regular-season play with an 11-5-1 overall record and an undefeated 6-0 mark in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference, earning a first-round bye and the top seed in the league’s postseason tournament.
The team was ranked fifth in the latest Division I private-school state rankings entering the playoffs.
A year ago, O’Connell won the conference tournament.
All five of O’Connell’s losses this fall have been by close scores, two in overtime, against teams ranked highly in various polls, including the Division I state rankings.
“Our losses are to top teams and we are right there knocking on the door,” O’Connell coach Megan Sullivan said.
Entering the postseason, junior Lena Sullivan is O’Connell’s top scorer with 26 goals and 11 assists. Cumulatively, she has scored 62 goals and has 29 assists in her career. She holds team records for most all-time career goals (62) and goals in one season with 26.
Lena Sullivan has scored in all but one match this season, with an average of 1.5 goals per game. Junior Ysens Mason has 15 goals and seven assists.
Junior Lizzie Guy is a top defensive standout.
“She controls our back field and is truly outstanding,” Megan Sullivan said about Guy.
O’Connell senior goalie Sophia Lianos has more than 125 saves this fall.
As a team, O’Connell has scored a regular-season best 63. “That’s remarkable considering the tough teams we’ve played,” Megan Sullivan said.
Volleyball: With impressive records of 34-3 overall, including 32 shutouts, and a 12-0 league mark, the perennial power Knights will be the top seed in postseason conference and state girls volleyball tournaments. The team is ranked first in the Division I private-school state poll.
The Knights enter the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference tournament with a 12-0 league mark, having shut out 11 of those opponents, and with an eight-match winning streak.
O’Connell won its first 25 matches this season.
Soccer: The Knights girls and boys high-school soccer teams each will be seeded fourth in the upcoming Washington Catholic Athletic Conference tournaments.
Both teams completed regular-season play with 5-2-2 conference records. Overall, the girls stand 9-3-2 and the boys 8-3-4.
The boys were ranked second in the most recent Division I private-school state poll. There is not a division girls state ranking during the fall season, just the spring.
