Brothers’ defense stands tall
BALLSTONSPA, N. Y. » A common refrain on defense is to, “not give an inch.”
The Christian Brothers Academy defense came about as close to doing that as possible Friday night.
CBA routed Ballston Spa 21- 3 in a Class AA matchup, but held the home team to zero combined yards.
That kind of shutout helped fuel the Brothers’ offense and was appreciated by any head coach Joe Burke, who calls the offensive plays.
“We’re kind of struggling a little bit offensively, we had some exchange issues, but if our defense can play the way they played today all year long, I think we’ll find a way to get that offense going,” Burke said. “Credit to our defense, our kids played really, really tough.”
In the first half CBA held Ballston Spa to just 33 yards of offense, including the Scottie’s opening drive of 41 yards. Fromthere they locked it down, stuffing the line of scrimmage and limiting their opponent to drives of just seven, minussix, minus- nine and then zero yards to close out the first half.
“Our defense started slow, we gave up a couple of big plays off the bat, but we hung in there and we became stronger towards the end,” CBA nose guard Michael Raimo said. “That’s really what shut down the BSpa offense. They played really well, but we were just a little tougher than them and we got it done tonight.”
Admittedly with Ballston Spa tight end Jake Cook going down on the second series with an apparent left ankle injury, the Scotties playbook was condensed.
“It’s one of those things where a lot of things involve our tight end,” Ballston Spa coach Ray Toohey said. “We became a little limited there, they play great defense, they run a 5- 0 front, a 5- 2 and as a result of that certain things in our playbook were kind of out.
“We had a real good scheme, but that scheme was pretty dependent on being able to get the edge. They had that 50 look and we couldn’t quite get the edge, we also had a little trouble pass protecting.”
Those adjustments and the loss of Cook gave CBA a different look than they saw one film all week.
“I don’t think they ran any option today, which they ran like heck against Albany,” Burke said. “Our guys kind of did their thing and I think our seniors defensively stepped up.”
Raimo led the charge from within the trenches pressuring Scottie sophomore quarterback Keegan Zoller who threw three interceptions and was sacked or tackled behind the line of scrimmage on broken pass plays six times for negative 33 yards on the night.
“If they do a dive fake, I tackle the dive fake,” Raimo said. “If there is no fake, I just have to get to the ball and tackle the guy with the brown thing.”
Rebounding from a disappointing week one loss 31- 0 loss to Shaker was a key for the CBA defensive unit.
“It means a lot to us, we struggled last week against Shaker, we put that behind us this week moving on and for us to stop them it felt good,” Raimo said. “For us to not them score a touchdown, just a field goal is huge for us and it gives us confidence.”
CBA senior running back Mike Temple called it a “long six days” between the Shaker loss and Ballston Spa win. He was responsible for a pair of touchdowns in the win, a 25- yard option pass to LukeMcMahon and a 50- yard touchdown run with the defense in his rear view mirror.
“I’mhappy for the guys, it was a long six days, believe me whether you lose by one or lose by 31, it’s tough to get back and going,” Burke said. “I thought our kids prepared well. “Whatever we gave them they studied it and they did a great job with it. The stuff that was new, that wasn’t on film, we got tricked a little bit and then we got back into it and made some adjustments.”