An offense, in many ways, is somewhat like a
fortress. If every last brick holds sturdy, the place itself will remain
impenetrable and stalwart. Along the same lines, if every player carries through
with his job, then the offense will be incapable of doing anything else than
scoring touchdowns quickly and furiously. However, this weekend alone was clear
evidence that such a task is one that falls miles away from "easy".
Boston College High School played perhaps its
weakest opponent of the young season this past Friday. And although we gained
the most offensive yards of any game so far this year, committed no turnovers,
and accounted for numerous first downs, we still managed to score a measly six
points to lose another game, 13-6. Each drive progressed in the same way, with
success both by foot and by air. After amassing a few first downs with very
little hesitation it appeared as if a brick wall appeared in front of us. One
missed block, one poor route, one wrong offensive line call, one wrong step in
the backfield, one bad pass, one bad hole selection, etc; before long it was
time to punt.
In the first half, we did manage to
score once on a 59-yard trap run by Division II recruit senior Ryan Cooney (WR/S
6'2" 185 lbs). This play was preceded by an interception in the endzone by
senior cornerback Mariano Beecher (5'9" 175 lbs), which was ran back about 50 yards. The
extra point was sliced slightly left and the lead was 6-0. The defense bent but
refused to break as we stopped the opposition on the goal line to end the half.
As usual, the defense played in typical fashion for the whole game, allowing
minimal yards aside from a 40-yard option keep by the quarterback and a 50-yard trap by a
running back. It was doubtful that that many yards were gathered by the opponent in the
rest of the game.
Time and time again, our defense forced
them to punt and left the scoring to our offense. Each drive looked promising
from the start, until that barrier hit us. 1st and 10 would become 2nd and 20 after a blitz and a sack. It seemed as if the offense would
then lose all confidence, as the next two plays would look nothing short
of horrendous. So we punted and again left our defense to save us. The
punting was superb all night long by Cooney, who left them in poor field
position each and every drive.
Before long it was the fourth quarter and punting no longer appeared as an
option. On our final drive of the game, where we trailed 13-6, we had the ball
just inside opponent territory with 1st and 10. A cornerback blitz from the edge was not picked up and
we lost 10 yards. 2nd and 20 featured a quick pass gain for six yards
or so. The next down, 3rd and 14, showed an off-balance throw by our quarterback well short of his intended option,
the tight end. On 4th and 14, the quarterback found no open receivers and tried to
run until he was pulled down after gaining only five yards.
Playing well for us was senior tight
end Joe Sheehan, who had two clutch leaping catches to keep drives alive. Also,
the team MVP was perhaps senior weakside defensive tackle James McCann, who had
a sack and seven tackles. I finished the game with three tackles, one for a
loss, and fairly good play at offensive tackle in my first game moved down from
tight end.
Like Boston College High School, Stanford also
struggled in the second half of their game to move the ball against a more
experienced USC defense, although their reasons were much, much different from ours. Ball movement and control wins ball games, but when a team has no
such ability to do this, the odds are truly against them. We get ready for
another battle next week in our home opener against top 10 ranked Marshfield,
who seems to be our best opponent yet.
This game will be kicked off with the jersey number
65 being retired at BC High. This was the jersey of Steve Trapilo, a BC High
graduate, a Boston College star, and then a New Orleans Saints starter for many
years. Trapilo was our offensive line coach up until this year when he passed
away in the spring due to a heart attack. Donating the weight room and days upon
days of volunteer work as coach, Trapilo is greatly missed today by the whole
Boston College High School. Maybe this ceremony will give us a reason to win -
maybe now we will have enough heart to play like a team.
Chris Marinelli is a 6'7" offensive tackle recruit in the 2005 class who
verbally committed to Stanford in July. He is writing a weekly series this
fall to deliver Cardinal fans insight into the triumphs and travails of his
senior season at Boston College High School.
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