Brandon Royal has waited. And waited. And waited. Sure, at times it was frustrating for the Cardinal O'Hara receiver, especially since this is his senior year. But Royal, it appears, will finally get his chance to prove what he could do on the field. It was just a matter of time and patience.

The 6-2, 165-pound Royal hauled in two passes for a career-best 93 yards, including a career-long 64-yard touchdown reception, helping O'Hara overcome feisty Monsignor Bonner, 28-6, in a Catholic League Red Division game, Sunday at Upper Darby High School.

O'Hara now moves to 3-5 overall and 2-3 in the Catholic Red, while Bonner still looks for its first victory this season, dropping to 0-8 overall, 0-5 in the league.

Royal played a big role -- finally. He had shown O'Hara coach Dan Algeo that he had breakaway speed. It was just a matter of catching the ball consistently. Algeo has no doubts now, after Royal pulled in a 64-yard strike for the first score of the game. Then, later in the fourth quarter, Royal made a nifty, over-the-shoulder catch to set up O'Hara's last touchdown, which sealed the victory.

"It was frustrating, not playing as much," Royal said. "This game was huge for me. I did speak to Coach Algeo about more playing time. I just needed a chance to play."

The 64-yard TD reception happened to be Royal's first varsity touchdown. What added a little more spice for Royal is that he attended Bonner his freshman year, before transferring into O'Hara his sophomore year.

John Dempsey, O'Hara's senior tailback/defensive back, also had a big game for the Lions. Dempsey had been hampered by injuries the early portion of this season, but exploded against his neighborhood rivals for his first 100-yard rushing game in 2006, gaining a season-high 142 yards on 19 carries, including touchdown runs of 69 and 7 yards.

The score said 28-6, but the game was much closer than that. O'Hara took a 7-0 lead into halftime and appeared to break the game open when Dempsey tore through the Bonner defense for a 69-yard touchdown run.

Bonner, however, answered back when the Friars' Mike Curran returned the ensuing kickoff for an 89-yard touchdown run that cut the O'Hara lead to 14-6.

That was all the scoring the Friars would do. Bonner picked up just 33 yards of offense in the second half. The Friars didn't get a first down in the second half until 5:19 was left to play, which by then, Bonner trailed 21-6.

Bonner crossed midfield once out of seven possessions in the second half, excluding the Curran touchdown return. O'Hara's defense stymied Friars offense into 109 yards of total offense for the game, while amassing 360 yards, 239 coming on the ground.

Hopefully with the emergence of Royal, O'Hara will now have a receiver capable of stretching the field as the Lions make their drive towards the Catholic League Red Division playoffs.

"This is Brandon's second shot and he really came through with a big game for us," Algeo said. "Hopefully, he's a late-season find. But he struggled early catching the ball consistently. Now he's shown he can, which I'm happy about, because Brandon works his tail off."