They haven’t won any of the games, but Bishop O’Connell’s high-school football schedule the last three seasons has included the addition of a trio of nearby opponents.
The Knights have played the Flint Hill Huskies and Potomac School Panthers for the first time ever in private-school contests, and resumed an all-Arlington rivalry with the public-school Washington-Liberty Generals.
Until they met in their 2025 season openers, O’Connell and W-L had not played for more than 40 years.
Playing those opponents makes sense, as each is in close proximity to O’Connell. Potomac School in McLean is less than four miles to the west, W-L about the same distance to the east, and Flint Hill is located in relatively close-in Oakton.
Third-year O’Connell head coach Todd Sabatino was significantly involved in adding those opponents to the Knights’ schedule. He said the games make for natural rivalries and provide good competition for the Knights.
O’Connell lost to Potomac School by scores of 28-14 this year and 9-6 in 2024. In its recent 55-22 loss to Washington-Liberty, the Knights trailed just 27-22 in the third quarter. Five turnovers helped the Generals pad the score.
Flint Hill defeated O’Connell in an initial meeting between the two in 2023, and could meet again in the future.
O’Connell’s most recent game against its new opponents was a 28-14 loss to visiting Potomac School on Oct. 4. The Knights had leads of 7-0 in the first quarter and 14-13 at halftime, but didn’t score again and fell to 1-5.
Potomac School’s two second-half touchdowns were the result of a fumbled O’Connell punt that set up a TD, then a punt return for a score. Another costly second-half O’Connell mistake was a turnover coming on a fumble into the end zone at the Panthers’ one-yard line.
Penalties also proved costly for O’Connell.
“We just can’t afford to have mistakes like that,” Sabatino said. “We were leading and could have won this game.”
The Knights were significantly shorthanded at running back because of injuries to multiple players. The one running back who did play and was productive was junior Nick Morris. He ran for 176 yards on 21 carries, including an 11-yard touchdown run.
“Nick was about the only one we had, and Nick ran hard,” Sabatino said.
O’Connell quarterback Ryan Turpin completed his first nine passes and finished 10 of 16 for 96 yards and a touchdown pass of nine yards to Jacob Geisler. Mitch Czernia kicked two extra points.
Zander Schied caught three passes and Geisler, Xavier Reid and James Fatzinger caught two each.
On defense, Jayden Campbell made nine tackles (four for losses) and recovered a fumble. Kaiden Alt also had nine tackles and Eli Moran made seven. Ariston Kroeger caused a fumble and had a tackle for a loss, as did Fatzinger, Kai Molter and Tyler McManus.
Morris had four tackles.
Another nearby opponent O’Connell has scheduled in recent years are the St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes Saints of Alexandria. The Knights have defeated the Saints in the majority of those initial meetings, winning 38-12 this season.
Next up for O’Connell is its opening Washington Catholic Athletic Conference contest of 2025 against the visiting Bishop Ireton Cardinals (1-4) at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 10. O’Connell defeated Ireton last season.
NOTE: In O’Connell’s previous game, Kian Kaboli had two interceptions.
