The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Schiano is flourishing as Perry’s starting QB
Junior follows All-Ohioan Brewster with 13 touchdown passes through five weeks
The potential hole in the Perry football team’s offense was noticeable when All-Ohio quarterback Kolston Brewster graduated this past spring.
Sure, the Pirates were going to return a big, talented and experienced offensive line, and virtually the entire skillset from a team that went 12-1 in 2017 was returning, but the absence of Brewster loomed large.
On the outside looking in, the 2018 Pirates looked like a 1968 Ford Mustang — the ultimate muscle car with all the frills — with no one to drive it.
Fortunately for the Pirates, that certainly hasn’t been the case.
Since tossing the keys to Drew Schiano, the Pirates’s offense hasn’t down-shifted one bit.
Through five games behind the wheel, the first-year starter has very much been up to the task of driving the vaunted Perry offensive machine.
Heading into a Week 6 game against visiting Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary on Sept. 28, Schiano has thrown for 1,202 yards and 13 touchdowns for the 4-1 Pirates.
Projected over a 13-game season — the standard used last year when Brewster threw for 3,069 yards and 37 touchdowns in 13 games — Schiano is on pace to throw for 3,125 yards and 34 touchdowns.
It’s safe to say the Pirates’ new driver is pretty good.
“It’s so much fun with this team,” Schiano said. “I have a great line in front of me, and the playmakers around me are ridiculous.
“I wish I didn’t have as many picks,” he continued, lamenting the five interceptions he’s thrown. “But I’m pretty pleased with how things are going.”
There is no doubt Perry has skill. With Jake Reid (22 catches, 367 yards), Anthony Rosati (21-295) and Jacob Allen (17-310), the Pirates have plenty of options in the aerial attack.
All-Ohioan Jaylen Anderson is back from a fourgame absence after knee surgery, as well.
“That helps a lot,” Schiano said. “I can get the ball to anyone. I’ve got so many playmakers around me.”
His ability to bring it all together has been key to the Pirates’ success.
Many didn’t see this type of productivity coming from Schiano. But coach Matt Rosati did.
That’s because he saw Schiano’s progress from youth flag football up through the junior varsity ranks. Rosati still chuckles to himself at the 55-2 record Schiano’s flag football team ran up over a four-year span
before moving to the junior high level.
“Drew is a special athlete, a competitor, a winner,” Rosati said. “People around here knew.”
And now everyone else does, too, after seeing Perry average 37 points per game with Schiano taking the snaps.
In a 38-6 win over rival Madison, he completed 16 of 17 passes for 275 yards and two touchdowns.
He threw for 254 yards and a touchdown against CVC rival Chagrin Falls.
Even in the team’s only loss, a 49-43 overtime thriller at Chardon, Schiano threw for 300 yards and four scores.
“He knows how to win,” Rosati said. “He’s been doing this a long time. Nothing surprises Drew. He’s seen it all.”
Coming into the season, the only varsity snaps he took were in mop-up time last year. Granted, that limited duty, in which he threw four touchdown passes, helped him learn the speed of the varsity game, but the overall varsity experience wasn’t there. And neither was the size. While there were never any questions over Schiano’s talent, there were concerns about his stature.
A year ago a this time, Schiano was a 5-foot-7, 115-pound sophomore.
“The only real issue was that he was 115 pounds,” Rosati said. “In the spring, we were wondering if he would be big enough to play teams like St. VincentSt. Mary. Would he be big enough to hold up?
“But the rest there was no questions. He’s been throwing to these guys his entire
life.”
Fortunately, Schiano hit a growth spurt of sorts. He is listed at 5-10, 150 in Perry’s program.
“Yeah,” Schiano said, “But I’m more like 140.” But it’s not 115. “The growth spurt has helped,” Schiano said with a grin.
Throughout the summer, Schiano and the Pirates went to a myriad of 7-on-7 competitions, from Tennessee to Toledo to Notre Dame.
With the mini-growth spurt and the summer workouts, Schiano is a different and better quarterback than he was last year at this time.
“I’m faster now, and that helps me get away from pressure so I can make plays downfield,” he said. “I also worked on my sliding this year. Last year I didn’t slide and took a lot of hits. Mom doesn’t like it when I get tackled.”
Schiano has genes on his side, too. His father, Mark, was the starting quarterback at Kirtland during his playing days.
“He had a great running back (Craig Svendson) who ran the ball 30 or 40 times a game,” Schiano said of his father, who is an assistant coach at Perry, “so he didn’t throw as much as I do.”
As good as the first five games have been, Schiano — a self-proclaimed perfectionist — said the only game that matters is the next one.
That’s hours away, with Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary coming to Perry for a Sept. 28 showdown.
“It’s a really good team,” Schiano said. “This will be a true test for us. I’m looking forward to it — we all are.”