Better-balanced Saucon Valley ready for start of 2020 season
Sometimes, high school football teams lack talent, experience or depth. Those factors limit a program’s success.
All teams experience that. Sometimes, however, it is a personality thing among teenagers or between coaches and players.
Such was the case last season at Saucon Valley, which lost four of its last five games to finish 6-5 in head coach Brad Trembler’s first season.
“We had a lot of adversity,” junior quarterback/ defensive back Dante Mahaffey said. “We had a lot of
issues with our team last year, in the coaching room, with the players.”
Delays and restrictions this summer because of the COVID-19 pandemic could have made matters worse for the Panthers. It did not.
“These juniors have been playing together forever,” Trembler said. “They feed off each other, get along really well. That escalates throughout the program.”
The Panthers were not going to be state champions last season. They had talent, but much of it was young and inexperienced.
Everyone associated with the program in 2020 expects them to be better because they have more talent, more seasoning and better chemistry.
It starts with the offensive weapons. Mahaffey returns at quarterback. He passed for 473 yards and six touchdowns and ran for 453 yards and 12 scores in 2019. He has plenty of help, beginning with fellow junior Damian Garcia, who rushed for 1,046 yards and six TDs in 2019.
“The sky is the limit for Damian,” Trembler said “It just comes down to what Damian wants his limit to be. He’s a very talented, natural athlete. He’s our best athlete, fast, gliding. Once he gets a step, it’s over. We’re going to lean on him to play on both sides of the ball and expect a lot out of him.”
Sophomore Alex Magnotta, junior Ty Csencsits and freshman Constantine Donahue are among those on the edge who give Trembler and Mahaffey options that will keep opposing defenses from focusing on the Panthers running game.
“Donahue was at every morning workout in the summer,” Mahaffey said. “He gets a bunch of reps with the first-team offense at wide receiver. He’s fast, knows the game of football and is willing to work.”
Saucon Valley again will be relying on only a handful of seniors, perhaps none more important than four-year starting lineman David Osman. But there appears to be no ego or attitude issues with so many underclassmen in significant roles.
Osman has the challenge of leading a group of younger, inexperienced linemen to allow Mahaffey and Co. to show off their skills.
“We’re a family,” Osman said. “We all come here to achieve one goal. The kids show up, work hard. That’s all we can do.”
Sophomores Owen Frederick and Bret Sheasley are among those who should fill in around Osman up front offensively. Another sophomore, Ty Pfizenmayer, again will anchor Saucon Valley’s defense. He led the team with 81 tackles as a freshman middle linebacker.
“The first time I saw him in the lockerroom,” Trembler said, “I said that he’ll play somewhere for us on Fridays. I didn’t think it was going to be middle linebacker.
“On Day 1, we threw him out there and he never gave us a reason to take him off.”
Mahaffey (26 tackles, 3 INTs, 1 fumble recovery, 1 blocked kick), Garcia (37 tackles, 1 INT, 1 fumble recovery) and Osman (46 tackles, 1 sack) are among the other defensive returnees.
Saucon Valley is scrimmaging Bethlehem Catholic at 7 p.m. Friday, then opens its six-game regular season Sept. 26, at Pen
Argyl.
Saucon Valley is one of the few area schools that offers either five days in school or five days of virtual learning. Most of the Panthers opted for in-class learning.
Like the process in place to be able to practice and play football, school life is different.
“You can only walk one [direction] in hallways,” Mahaffey said. “You can only have a certain number of kids in the bathroom at a time. But in-school learning, I feel much better. I’m happy to be back in school.