Delbarton delivered its most complete performance of the season on Saturday, October 25, powering past DePaul Catholic for an impressive 28–6 victory on Regan Field. The Green Wave made plays in all three phases — scoring through the air, on the ground and on special teams, while the defense forced turnovers and blocked an extra point in the dominant win.
Delbarton set the tone early. After a huge forced fumble by Chaz Cusimano deep in Delbarton territory, Gavin Gilardi found Matt Tafuri for a 40-yard touchdown to take a 7–0 lead late in the first quarter. Gilardi struck again in the second, connecting with Girard Yoo on a 21-yard scoring play to double the advantage to 14–0 after the Delbarton defense forced a Spartan punt.
The Green Wave defense kept the pressure on throughout the first half, consistently disrupting Washington commit Derek Zammit's rhythm and forcing him outside the pocket. With 3:10 left before halftime, Matt O'Leary jumped a route for a key interception, halting DePaul's best drive of the half.
On the ensuing possession, Delbarton's special teams delivered a dagger. Facing a fourth down with a minute and 49 seconds left, Tafuri took a fake punt around the edge and sprinted into the end zone for his second touchdown of the day — pushing the Green Wave ahead 21–0 at the break. "We saw that DePaul was overloading one side," says head coach Brian Bowers. "It was a good opportunity to take a shot and we were fortunate enough to hit it, and then it was all Matt Tafuri from there. He had honestly one of the best games I've seen on Regan Field in a long, long time."
Tafuri wasted little time adding to his highlight reel in the second half. On the opening drive of the third quarter, he burst through a huge lane and raced 64 yards untouched, extending the lead to 28–0 and putting the game firmly out of reach.
DePaul finally broke through with a fourth-quarter score, but Nick Stoll came up big with a blocked extra point to deny momentum.
The final stats reflected the balance and execution shown all afternoon:
• Gavin Gilardi: 96 passing yards, 2 TD
• Matt Tafuri: 174 rushing yards on 12 carries, 2 rushing TD, 1 receiving TD (51 receiving yards)
"There's only one way to gain experience — you have to suffer some, you have to go through some ups and downs, but you learn from it," Bowers added. "We were able to really kind of hit on all cylinders and it was very rewarding for everybody."
