A soccer player who began kicking footballs before the season “just to see if I could do it,” Strati wound up becoming the Raiders’ starting placekicker. On Saturday afternoon at Northeast High School, his right foot delivered a 3-0 win over Lansdale Catholic and secured Ryan’s second straight Catholic League Blue Division title — while the Crusaders continue to wait for their first.

Not a bad story to tell about your first-ever field goal attempt after having made 25 career extra points.

“Looking back at this experience, it means a lot to me as I started something new and did not really expect to come this far and make game-deciding kicks,” said Strati, who was carried across the field on a teammate’s shoulder after the epic moment. “I never really watched football before, but what led me to try out for the team was when I saw some videos of football kickers online, and to me I felt like I could do that, too. It looked pretty straightforward — train and focus on one thing only.

“I didn’t really think of it until I went to lift for fun with my football friends, and they introduced me to football and explained to me positions. After a while of thinking, I decided to give it a shot. That’s when I started lifting more with the team, showing up for practices, talking with the coaches. The helmets looked really cool, and I like trying new things.”

“I usually struggle with nerves a lot,” Strati admitted. “It’s hard to block everything out. I just wanted to get everything over with as fast as possible. Even though I was getting iced, I remained calm and took deep breaths and kept my head down. I didn’t look at anything else. I was envisioning making the goal every time and kept doing air kicks.

“In my mind, I was talking with myself and telling myself that I trained every single day that led up to this moment, although I was not expecting this at today’s game.”

Two-way lineman Stan Montgomery, a Syracuse commit, gave his sideline a scare when a teammate was tackled into his knee.

“I thought it was fine until I got up and couldn’t stand on it for a second, so yeah, I was concerned about me coming back in,” said Montgomery, whose late fourth-quarter sack precipitated Strati’s heroics. “Fortunately I was able to push through.

“Going into the game I knew how important this was to myself and the team, so that just makes me go a little more harder and physical, doing whatever it takes to get the win and take the plaque home.”

Montgomery wasn’t alone in that mindset.

“We wanted to send the seniors off having a great season since we all built a great bond together,” said junior multiple-position Chase Lowe. “Our team goal was to go back-to-back. Winning the championship personally meant a lot to me also since I still have one more year left. Knowing how much work and effort we put in during practices this year made it even more special.”

And while seniors made the big play, the moment belonged to the younger guys.