Fly Like An Eagle: Bishop Shanahan Captures District 1 4A Title

Tagged under: District 1, Gameday Hub, News, pfn, Playoffs

Willie McGonigle | November 8, 2025

ROYERSFORD: During his career at Bishop Shanahan, Senior QB Anthony Aquila has accomplished just about everything. Last season, he led the Eagles to a Chest-Mont championship. One team that has been a thorn in the side of Aquilia and his Eagles teammates has been Pope John Paul II. In 2023 and 2024, the Golden Panthers routed the Eagles, then in September, the Eagles lost to the Golden Panthers by 7 points in a game that saw the Eagles turn the ball over four times. On Friday, Aquila and his Eagles got the PJP thorn out of their side and gained revenge for their previous meetings, going on the road, routing the Golden Panthers 42-21 to capture the District 1 4A Championship.

“This is honestly a relief. We all know that the team is great; they whipped us a couple of times. We knew we had to get back at them; we knew this was our time. Revenge is great to be honest.” Aquila said of the feeling of finally getting the victory over the Golden Panthers.

In their September meeting, the Eagles the very same field they played on Friday, with a bad feeling in their mouth dropping a 28-21 game that saw them turn the ball over four times. On Friday night, the Eagles’ defense, which entered play having forced 24 turnovers of their own on the season, flipped the script on the Golden Panthers and forced five turnovers.

The first turnover happened on the second play of the game, when Brandon Deangelo took a pop pass from TJ Dozier and raced 41 yards before being caught by Owen McGrory, who forced and recovered the Deangelo fumble. Despite not being able to capitalize on the turnover, the feeling wasn’t lost on Aquila, who said. “That flipped the momentum drastically, and I mean, he honestly changed the trajectory of the game.”

On the Golden Panthers’ second drive, they were once again bitten by the turnover bug when Aiden Civitella intercepted Dozier and returned it deep into Golden Panthers’ territory, setting up the game’s first score- an eight-yard touchdown run by Aquila.

After forcing the Golden Panthers to punt on their third possession of the game, the Eagles needed just two plays to tack on to their lead when Civitella took a jet sweep and raced down the PJP sideline for a 70-yard touchdown.

23 seconds later, the Golden Panthers cut the Eagles’ lead in half when Deangelo got loose and raced 50 yards for a touchdown, cutting the lead down to 14-7 after the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Eagles’ defense forced Dozier to throw two more interceptions, one apiece to Danny Keenan and Aquila. Aquila added an 8-yard touchdown in the second quarter to give the Eagles a 21-7 advantage. Aquila’s interception came on the final play of the quarter, with the Golden Panthers putting together a drive.

Riding the momentum of Aquila’s interception, the Eagles came out of the half and wasted little time adding on their lead when on the third play Aquila busted through the Golden Panthers’ defense and raced 81 yards for the score.

On their ensuing drive, the Golden Panthers showed they weren’t going to go down without a fight, driving deep down into Eagles territory and having a penalty wipe out a potential touchdown. Then on third and fourth down, Kennan and Jason Guerin made back-to-back tremendous plays in the endzone, knocking the ball away from PJP receivers and forcing a turnover on downs.

Following the turnover-on downs, the Eagles put together a 10-play,84-yard drive that was capped by Nate Bracken’s two-yard touchdown run.

It was Bracken who got the Eagles’ fifth turnover of the night when he intercepted Dozier. When asked about the Eagles’ Defensive effort, Bracken said,” Everyone was doing their part, there’s no weakest link in the chain, everyone did their part to the best of their ability.”

Following Bracken’s interception, Aquila capped the Eagles’ scoring with a 67-yard touchdown run that put mercy in effect with 9;01 left in the contest. Aquila finished the game with 25 carries for 281 yards. As a team, the Eagles offense put up 455 yards of total offense. Afterwards, he gave credit to his offensive line, saying, “We live and die with them.”

When asked about Aquila Eagles head coach, Paul Meyers said, “It seems like I have the same conversation every week. He’s a gamer, and I said it before, he’s got to be the best player in the Chest-Mont.”

Kassidy Jackson 65-yard kickoff return for a touchdown following Aquila’s final score and a 1 yard touchdown pass from Dozier to Zahid Edwards Boone with 31 seconds left brought the score up 42-21 with 31 seconds left.

The Eagles will enjoy the win for the night, but they now turn their sights to the State Playoffs. The Eagles begin their state journey next Friday when they will battle the District 2 champion North Pocono.

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