Croton-Harmon Superstar Grad Takes Next Step

Recent Croton-Harmon graduate Matt Tralli had a career to remember on the football field while playing for the Tigers.

Tralli was a player that comes once in a generation, if a school is lucky. As a senior, he was first-team All-State, All-Journal News, All-Section and All-League.

He was also named Player of the Year by the North County News, Croton Senior Male Athlete of the Year and was selected to play in the Upstate-Downstate Football Classic in the Carrier Down at Syracuse University.

A running back for the Tigers, he earned the above honors with a monster senior campaign by rushing for 1,194 yards on 128 carries. He averaged an eye-popping 9.33 yards a carry in addition to 10 rushing touchdowns.

He also stood out catching the ball, as he caught 20 passes, seven for touchdowns. He had 340 receiving yards, averaging 17 yards per catch.

That’s in addition to his stellar play on the other side of the field as a defensive back, where the 5-foot-10, 180-pound Tralli was able to shutdown receivers quite taller than him.

Now he is taking the next step as last week he started practicing with the football squad at Marist College in Poughkeepsie. There he will be making a position change as he will be playing wide receiver instead of running back for the Red Foxes.

Marist, which finished 3-8 a year ago, opens the season at 7 p.m. Sept. 3 at Sacred Heart in Fairfield, Conn. The Red Foxes home opener is 1 p.m. Sept. 24 against Georgetown, which is the school’s homecoming game.

In his short time of practicing with Marist, Tralli can already tell there is a big difference between playing high-school football and college football.

“It is a big adjustment because college-level receivers have to know everything,” Tralli said. “It’s a lot different than a high-school receiver. There are a lot more plays and routes and all different things you have to know.”

The adjustment is even a big one for someone who played wide receiver in high-school, his brother Joe Tralli. He was a fourth-team all-state receiver his senior year and third-team all-state receiver his junior campaign for the Tigers.

The older Tralli, by a year, spent last season playing at Hudson Valley Community College and is now in his first year at Marist as well.

“In college, the wide receiver position is more concepts, it’s not just one on one with your corner, it’s reading the whole defense,” Joe Tralli said.

What has made the first week of practice easier for the Tralli brothers is that they have had each other and another Croton-Harmon graduate and childhood friend Nick Mainiero, who is a junior safety for the Red Foxes, to lean on.

Mainiero started seven games last year for Marist, registering a team high four interceptions and was fifth on the squad in tackles with 47, including 18 solo ones.

“Being able to play with Nick and my brother along with some other friends that play for Marist, has definitely made the transition from high-school to college easier than it otherwise would have been,” Matt Tralli said. “I wanted to go somewhere where I knew some people, I didn’t want to go somewhere where I was going to have to start completely over.”

Joe Tralli feels the same way about being able to enjoy being around his brother and Mainiero.

“It’s a great feeling, going back to our roots,” Joe Tralli said. “Being on Beekman Avenue, living on the same street our whole lives. It’s nice to be back together, on the same team, playing the sport that we love.”