Dang if “Crusader Crazy” wasn’t right!

Friendship Collegiate Academy indeed entered a “world of hurt“up North over the weekend, suffering through a come-from-ahead loss on the road to Bergen Catholic.

Crusader C. instructed readers and the author of the last installment of “Friday Night Knights” that Bergen Catholic was a whole lot better than its 2-2 record, since its losses had both come to nationally ranked powerhouses.

The seasoning against top squads wasn’t the only advantage the Jerseyites enjoyed heading into the contest.

For starters, Friendship lost their starting quarterback in the first game of the season. Bergen’s QB, Jon Germano completed 24 of 37 passes for 348 yards and five touchdowns to help the Jersey Boys turn a third-quarter deficit into a 48-32 victory.

Then there’s the fact that Bergen Catholic players get to use an actual locker room—-complete with, get this: RUNNING WATER!—- while Friendship Collegiate’s kids make due with a storage bin. (Remember, the Knights went into the contest as the Nation’s Best Football Team That Uses a Storage Bin as a Locker Room.)

At least as damaging, the Bergen Catholic/Friendship tussle was part of an all-day slate of games at Fordham University played under the name “State Pride Challenge.”

State Pride? How insensitive! Surely the burden of having lived their whole lives denied statehood and even Congressional representation weighed down the Friendship kids come crunch time.

Let’s just say if Germano and his Bergen Catholics had come down to D.C. to play in the Control Board Pride Challenge, things might have ended a tad differently!

But, it ain’t like East or West Dillon didn’t come up short during the occasional sweeps week episode. So we’re not giving up on Friendship: Keep the dial right here as we follow the Knights all fall, or at least for as long as they make us look good for jumping on the Friendship bandwagon!