By: Sean Moylan
Bobby Cardone stood behind a short chain link fence and watched the Florence football players warm-up on a field affectionately known as "The Pit."
"I think Anthony is going to get a punt today. They put this new play in," said Cardone.
Anthony Cardone got to the punter twice that day by sneaking in from the side.
That was roughly two years ago, but things haven’t changed all that much. And this past Friday at the birthplace of football, Rutgers University, "The Little Dynamo" made his father prouder than ever when he raced in from the right side and combined with sophomore sensation Chris Salaga to tackle David Brearley’s punter on two separate bad first-quarter snaps. The tackles resulted in losses of 17 and 22 yards. But more importantly, both led directly to touchdowns which gave the Flashes a huge 13-0 advantage midway through the opening quarter. Florence would eventually milk that great lead to a tremendous 19-6 victory.
"I was trying to come hard and I wasn’t going to leave anything on the field. So every play I went all out," explained Cardone, who came in practically untouched. "After the first time I got in there I knew the second one was mine."
"We always have two guys coming from the outside," added Florence special team’s guru Steve Ordog, who was pleased with both Cardone and Salaga’s great effort.
Three plays into the second quarter Cardone torpedoed Jake Floyd to cause a fumble (which was recovered by Abree Jones) and stopped a David Brearley drive. Then on a third-and-11 play, Cardone ran for 8 yards to set up a Joe Spahn 5-yard run on fourth down. That first down enabled the Flashes to run out the first half clock. In a game largely dictated by field position and clock management like Friday’s contest was, Cardone’s run was a critical one.
Cardone came out in the third quarter like a juggernaut and when all was said and done he had nine assists and five solo tackles to his credit. He had the best defensive stats in the game.
When asked why he was so dominating, Cardone remarked, "I couldn’t tell you. I just have really good vision and when I saw the ball carrier I just went full speed right at him to take him down."
Nevertheless, David Brearley had a fourth-quarter interception that nearly led to Florence losing its lead.
"I saw their guy sprinting down the sideline and no one was near him. But we got lucky with a penalty on the play. Then I came on the field and I told the guys ‘You got to stop them here and get yourselves together. And we can do it right now.’"
Florence did get itself together and Spahn would eventually score his third touchdown of the contest to put the game way. But it was the leadership of Florence’s three starting seniors (Gary Carugno comes off the bench) which would be the difference.
"Me, Joe (Spahn) and Anthony (Cardone) we took it on our shoulders and just rolled with it, said Jones. "We had to step it up and lead by example and that’s what we did."
Ironically, Spahn, Jones and Cardone were hampered by serious injuries the entire season and Cardone may have had the worst injury of them all.
"I had a tear next to my ankle. Technically it was a grade 2 or grade 3. They thought I was going to miss four or five games. I missed the New Egypt game and then came right back. I had two braces and I had it taped up," remarked Cardone with a smile.
You root for Cardone because he is so likeable. You root for him because he’s the little guy making it in a big man’s game. You want to compare him with Notre Dame’s Rudy, but you can’t because Cardone was never a "one play player," whether it be in football or baseball. He’s more like Doug Flutie always coming up with the big play despite the odds being stacked against him.
"Anthony… he always plays really big. There’s no doubt about it," said Florence coach Joe Frappolli.
Following Florence’s 19-6 victory over David Brearley, a happy Cardone stood on the field with his teammates screaming "three-peat" over and over again. Holding up the Group 1 championship trophy in his outstretched hands, "The Little Dynamo" appeared to be 10 feet tall.

