The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Pirates looking strong
The Perry football team doesn’t open its season for a few weeks yet, but that didn’t stop Coach Matt Rosati from challenging his team on Aug. 11.
With Division VI state finalist Kirtland, Division II playoff qualifier North and Division I Cleveland Heights coming in for a morning scrimmage, Rosati asked for a physical performance. That’s exactly what he got. Led by a hard-hitting defensive effort that stopped Kirtland on an impressive goal-line stand, the Pirates showed they might be up to the challenging of equalling — or bettering — the pace they set the past two years when they went 13-1 and 12-1, respectively.
“We had been going through the motions a little bit, and we needed something to geek us up a little bit,” Rosati said.
“Bringing Kirtland, North and Cleveland Heights in, they were ready to play today. That was a good sign.
“We rotated a lot of guys in on defense today and they all hit. We’re happy with our defensive effort today.”
Perry gave up a 17-yard play to Kirtland on the first play from scrimmage, but only allowed 22 yards on the Hornets’ next nine plays, getting a stop on the halfyard line on Kirtland’s last play in a series of 10 offensive snaps.
The Pirates gave up a touchdown pass from Corey Smith to Thomas Walker against North, but shut down the run effectively.
It as an effort Rosati will take.
“We talked about picking up our defensive intensity today, and we did,” he said. “I wanted to see us play hard, which we did.”
Offensively, there were some question marks heading into the season with the graduation of All-Ohio quarterback Kolston Brewster and All-Ohio fullback/tight
end Tyler Horvath.
Sophomore QB Drew Schiano was sharp, hitting All-Ohioan Jacob Allen on a nifty fade for a touchdown against Kirtland. And then senior Cameron Rogers showed his strength at fullback with hard running and a touchdown against North.
“Cam is very physical,” Rosati said. “He’s an All-Ohio safety. With him and Jaylen (Anderson), we think we
have two pretty good backs.”
Said Rogers of his punishing running style, “I kind of take pride in that. I just like running people over I guess. I’m not that fast, so it’s kind of the easy way out — lower your shoulder and hit someone.”
North gave up a touchdown to Kirtland on a Jake Neibecker run, but otherwise played even with the Hornets.
Coach Shawn Dodd’s
team has to replace 17 departed seniors, many of whom were two-way starters. So the four-way scrimmage was the latest in the Rangers’ talent-evaluation mode.
“More than half of our positions were still open, coming in today,” Dodd said. “We were able to lock a few guys in today in my mind. But we’ll look at the film and see.”
Brett Payne, one of the handful of returners, was strong running the ball. Smith and Jimmy Arnold are among the options at quarterback.
“Brett is one of the best around,” Dodd said of his feature back. “He’s our leader. He’s a hard-nosed kid who has great vision. He runs behind his pads better than anyone I’ve had in a while.”
Dodd, whose team is buoyed by 24 sophomores, said that up to seven 10thgraders could start this season. But optimism is still high a year after North went 6-5 and qualified for the playoffs last season.
“We think we can be right there in the WRC race,” Dodd said, “and it’d be nice to get into the playoffs again.”