Friday, September 3, 2010

Here we go !

By Rich Thomaselli

HVSR

   You know, statistics are just …. well, they’re like birthdays in a way. You know how people say “It’s just a number” when asked how old they are?

   That’s become my stock answer when people ask me how I made out with the Fearless Forecast picks last year. Do the final numbers really matter? I mean, is it really an issue that my picks were barely .500 for 2009 football season?

   Darn it, of course it matters ! It’s .750 or bust this year, baby !

   Welcome to Year II of our Hudson Valley Sports Report Football Fridays. Only Section Nine opens this weekend for high schools so it’s a bit of an abbreviated schedule, but the picks are up so let’s get right to breaking down the opening week of the season.

   ON DECK – Tonight’s slate features Roosevelt opening the season under new coach Brian Bellino with a home game against Goshen; Marlboro and new coach Rich Ward open the season at O’Neill; Saugerties is at Valley Central, Highland hosts Monticello, northern Dutchess neighbors Red Hook and Pine Plains square off, Wallkill plays host to Washingtonville, New Paltz gets Sullivan West, Onteora goes to Fallsburg, and Spackenkill visits Millbrook.

   At the college level, Marist opens the season tonight with a home game against Sacred Heart.

   On Saturday, Ellenville hosts Tri-Valley while Rondout Valley visits Liberty.

   And Army begins the 2010 season on the road at Eastern Michigan on Saturday night.

   GAME OF THE WEEK – The matchup between Spackenkill and Millbrook tonight might not be a league game any longer, but there are still ties there.

   Both teams consider the other a natural Dutchess County rival, and Millbrook coach Sean Keenan has been impressed with what new Spartans coach Clinton DeSouza has done with the program.

   “We’re expecting a tough game,” Keenan said. “We saw Spackenkill at the (Mid-Hudson Football) Camp this summer and we exchanged films. Clinton is doing a great job.”

   MOST INTRIGUING MATCHUP – Rondout Valley at Liberty. The Ganders will be playing their first game since the end of the 2008 season. The program was disbanded last year when a low turnout of players forced school officials to suspend football for a year to regroup. In the interim, the school fired longtime coach Jim Malak – who would have been going for his 100th career win in his next game – and hired former Rondout player George Iacobaccio.

    KEEP AN EYE ON … Marlboro at O’Neill. Ask the Class B coaches and they all say that Marlboro, blessed with terrific returning players at the skill positions and a plethora of senior experience, is one of the league favorites. Well, the Iron Dukes get a chance to show it off on the road in the first game under coach Ward.

   ON THE SPOT – Highland. The Huskies were undefeated last year until a stunning upset loss to James I. O’Neill in the Section Nine, Class B championship game. This year, Highland enters the season having lost 19 off 22 starters from last year’s team. So it will be interesting to see if the Huskies can get off to a good start at home against Monticello, a school that hasn’t had a varsity football team in nearly 70 years until re-starting the program and building toward having a varsity squad this year.

   THE OLD COLLEGE TRY – Marist (see preview below) tied a school record last year with a 7-4 mark in its first year in the Pioneer Football League. So much is expected of the Red Foxes this year, and tonight’s game against Sacred Heart will be a good measuring stick.

   As for Army, well, the Black Knights went to Ypsilanti, Mich., last year and beat Eastern Michigan. With many of their top players back, there’s no reason they can’t do it again.

Game experience sets Millbrook apart

Like grandfather, like father, like son for Keenans

By Rich Thomaselli

HVSR

   MILLBROOK – He isn’t the first kid ever to play a sport coached by his father, and he certainly won’t be the last.

   So when Millbrook High School football star Peter Keenan is asked what it’s like to play for his father, Sean, he says with a laugh, “Well …. it’s pretty interesting, that’s for sure.”

   There’s a pedigree in action here among the Keenan family. Peter plays for Sean, who played for his father, also named Peter. Now Peter the elder is assisting Sean on the Millbrook coaching staff, making it a double whammy for Peter the younger.

   “I take stuff from both my grandfather and my father,” Peter said with a laugh, “but it’s really beneficial. They both just know so much about football. I just try to grasp as much information as I can.”

   Sean Keenan was a standout lineman at Our Lady of Lourdes High School and at Marist College. He admittedly walks a fine line with his son, a talented running back, in part because he coaches him and in part

   “Yeah, it’s hard sometimes,” Sean said. “He’s being recruited by Brown and Rhode Island, and I have a real problem with the process of getting on the phone and talking about my son. It’s not the way I was raised, you know? It’s ‘we’, not ‘me.’ But he also shouldn’t be penalized because he’s my son.”

   He isn’t. If anything, Peter earns it on the field.

   Said Sean: “I’m probably harder on him than anybody else on our team.”

   Said Peter, in a separate interview: “He’s harder on me than anybody else on the team.”

   Both Keenans said there are ups and downs in the father-son coaching dynamic, but both said they wouldn’t trade it for the world.

   “I truly enjoy it,” Sean said, “and having my father coach with us again and having the three of us on the same team is unbelievable.”

   “I know I wouldn’t be half the player I am now if it wasn’t for my dad,” Peter said.

Blazers set for big season

By Rich Thomaselli

HVSR

   MILLBROOK – Last year was catch-as-catch-can for the Millbrook High School football team.

   Oh, the Blazers were good again, finishing at 5-4 on the season with losses to Ellenville and Sullivan West, the two teams that played for the Section Nine, Class C championship.

   But they were also decimated by numerous injuries throughout the course of the season.

   How bad was it? Coach Sean Keenan started five different players at quarterback in nine games.

   “That many kids playing QB, we just didn’t have a chance to get into a rhythm on offense and throw the ball last year,” he said. “This year we’ll try to throw more. We’re still a running team, but we’ll try to throw more.”

   If the Blazers can develop that kind of balance, and maintain their status as having one of the best ground games in the Hudson Valley – oh, and stay away from injuries – they’ll make a lot of noise this year and could have a special season.

   For starters, they’ll be throwing opposing defenses off this year with three quarterbacks and three distinct looks – John Crane will be at quarterback in the power-I, Kyle Cuomo will be behind center in the double wing, and Peter Keenan, Sean’s son and one of the area’s best running backs, will take the snaps when Millbrook goes to a wildcat offense.

   “We’ve had success running the double wing so we’re trying to incorporate different things,” Keenan said. “Look, we’re still going to run the ball, run the ball, run the ball. But we’re trying to spread the field.”

   Defensively, the Blazers run a 50 for a majority of the game.

   “We have some big strong kids,” Keenan said. “We’re athletic.”

   The defense will be led by defensive tackle Josh Rose, noseguard/linebacker Stephen Vitale, defensive backs Jimmy Ross and Taylor Galano, and outside ‘backer Nicky D’Onofrio – all of whom have seen extensive time.

   “We have a lot of kids who have played a lot of football,” Keenan said. “We have four, five kids who have started almost every game since freshman year. We have kids who have played 27-28 games. That’s really going to be our strength – our experience.”

   Millbrook opens tonight with a non-conference game against Dutchess County rival Spackenkill. The league this year consists of the Blazers, Fallsburg, Tri-Valley and Pine Plains.

   “Obviously Pine Plains is our main rival besides Spackenkill. A lot of our kids played Pop Warner with the Spackenkill kids out here in northern Dutchess,” Keenan said. “We’re familiar with them. The Tri-Valley coach and I have a great relationship. Fallsburg is the unknown entity.”

Marist hoping for encore to 2009

By Philip Terrigno

HVSR

   POUGHKEEPSIE – For Tommy Reilly, the history of how other Marist starting quarterbacks have fared in their first start is no indicator of how he will perform tonight against the Sacred Heart Pioneers.

   In fact, there has been no detectable pattern, good or bad, of how new starters have done under center in their first game for the Red Foxes. The premier performances of 2003-2009 starting quarterbacks James Luft, Stephen McGrath and Chris Debowski have ranged from lackluster to excellent.

   Reilly is alone atop not only the depth chart at his position but as the player given the responsibility of commanding an offense that will play behind a brand new offensive line.

   The five players that protected Reilly last season during his two starts in place of an injured Debowski have graduated and offensive line coach Bill Roos places his hopes in four freshmen and one sophomore.

   “I’ve stressed them a lot. I’ve given them things that they never, ever saw in high school,” Roos said. “Now there’s all types of zone blitzes and different front in game. It’s a big adjustment for them.”

   Brandon Pizzuti, Pat Desaultels, Jack Meussner, Tim Lamezec and Phede Celestin are the five chosen building blocks upon which Marist seeks to lead a successful second campaign in the PFL.

   “I told these guys, there’s going to be times when you just fall on your face, that’s going to happen,” Roos said. “I just felt that these five guys right now have the best grasp of the system right now.”

   Luckily for the Marist, Reilly has an outstanding receiving core at his disposal and can make valuable use of his quick release on bubble screens and short check down passes. 

   “All of the receivers are juniors and fifth year seniors for the most part and ive been playing with them for three years,” Reilly said. “We have good chemistry and I’m confident. “

   Senior James LaMacchia, who totaled 1,075 receiving yards and five touchdowns a year ago returns to the unit alongside veterans Joe DeSimone, Chris Ortner and Kevin Fitzpatrick.

   “Our strength is in our skill kids, we have unbelievable skills kids,” Roos said. “If I was a defensive coach, I would not want [us] to get the ball into their hands. I would try to disrupt the [quarterback].”

   The 6’2’’, 245-pound freshman center Jack Meussner replaces former starter Neil Walsh, an undersized player that was valued for his field leadership and high football-IQ.

   “Jack is a vocal guy, he’s intelligent and he’s got a good football background,” Roos said. “I can see after a year, us going back to our system of putting [the responsibility of making protection calls] back on the center.”

   In its 2009 season opener, Marist drubbed the Pioneers 31-12 in front of 2,407 fans at Tenney Stadium and went on to finish the season 7-4 overall.

   “It’s going to be insane, everyone is talking about it in the dorms, it’s going to be a great atmosphere,” Desaultels said. “It’s what we’ve been working hard for over the last 25 days with two-a days.”

   Reilly, who was named the starting quarterback on Thursday, completed 37 of 55 pass attempts with one touchdown and two interceptions in limited time last season.

   The junior relies on a cool, collected manner to control the offense and posted a 123.9 efficiency rating in 2009.

   “Even though [the offensive linemen] are young, they have a lot of skill and a lot of talent,” Reilly said. “They looked really good coming out of camp. They picked up the offense really well.”

   The Red Foxes know that their offensive line will be perceived as a weakness by opposing defensive fronts, but Marist does not plan on backing down from its spread offense game plan.

   “We’re going to get the ball out a little quicker than usual, but we’ll still throw the ball downfield,” Reilly said. “As long as we can get the ball into the wide receivers hands, they are the most veteran group out there.”

   After the 2009 spring football game, it appeared that the Red Foxes offensive line would look much differently than it currently does since the coaching staff expected to have several upperclassmen competing for starting jobs.

   Suspensions, players leaving the program and eligibility issues have worn the position into the ground, but five new starters are primed to nourish the unit back to health.

   “If you’re not nervous for your first college game, there’s something wrong with you,” Meussner joked. “Once that first play is over, you have to think about the game. We’re going to be good tomorrow.”