New-look Eagles getting attention

LOWER GWYNEDD — When Wissahickon High head football coach Jeff Cappa looked at game film of Norristown’s season-opening, losing-streakbreaking victory this week, he saw a different team.

And not only in the names inside the uniforms.

“They are a very motivated, hungry football team,” said Cappa, as he prepared his Trojans (1-0) to face the Eagles (1-0) Friday night (7, Wissahickon High School). “The kids are where they need to be, and they’re good players.

“Both the coaches and players deserve a lot of credit.”

By now, all local scholastic pigskin fans are familiar with the tale of the Eagles, who had dropped 18 consecutive games until last week’s resounding win over Upper Merion.

It’s been a good week to be a Norristown Eagles football player.

According to Eagles head coach Jason Powel, however, the joy has not yet funneled down to the school, which had other issues to keep them busy.

“The kids were excited when (the win) first happened,“Powel said, “but with school starting, they really haven’t had time to think about it, which is probably a good thing.

“The players got focused and right back into practicing again. So maybe they’re hearing what we’ve been telling them.”

According to Cappa, the team he saw on film this week was one that seemed to be enjoying themselves.

“Norristown is using more of a spread scheme,” the coach said, “and they’re making you defend the entire field.

“They’re not as predictable as they were, and their guys seemed to be happy just playing football.”

But while most of the scuttlebutt in the early going this year seems to be about the Norristown losing streak, the size of Plymouth Whitemarsh’s line and Upper Dublin’s trip to Florida, little has been men- tioned about Wissahickon.

But Powel has certainly noticed the Trojans.

“As I’ve told my staff, this is a team nobody really knows about,” Powel said. “But we’ve really been impressed with their offensive and defensive lines and how quickly they get off the ball. They get off the ball and get to the next level so quickly that, offensively, you have to worry about making plays and defensively, you have to make sure you’re aligned

wasn’t an indication of anybody on our roster. We really believed he was a dynamic football player. I’ve seen him first-hand whether it’s coming out of the backfield or as a receiver.”

The Eagles’ defense lacks shutdown qualities, yet remains opportunistic. The defense could find itself facing a lot of teams playing catchup starting with the Jacksonville Jaguars in the opener Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field.

Defensively the Jaguars have a solid front 7. The offense is a work in progress. It’s led by quarterbacks Chad Henne and Blake Bortles, the latter a rookie first-round pick. The Jags averaged 15.2 points in the preseason.

The Eagles averaged 32.7 points in the preseason. They’re favored by 10 1-2 points and the over-under is 52 points.

Preseason or not, those numbers are indicative of a blowout.

“Our thing is we don’t care what anyone expects,” Eagles veteran guard Evan Mathis said. “If we care about what everyone expects we wouldn’t have had 10 wins last year. We would have come out and had a year to regroup and grow. But we didn’t do that. We don’t care what anyone thinks. We’re the kind of team that stays focused on the task at hand and when we get into a game nothing else matters.”

Kelly’s confidence in his is interesting in that he called his first NFL season, one in which the Eagles finished 10-7 including the postseason “Just OK.” Kelly lost just 7 seven games as the head coach at Oregon. His overall record was 46-7 (.868).

In Year 2 of the program, Eagles players sound equally driven.

“I think he’s totally the same but there’s a little bit of difference in how the team is run,” Barwin said. “I think last year he kind of ran the team. He showed us how he wanted it run as the leader. And now he’s kind of, there are leaders in this locker room that know what he wants. He’s kind of handed some of that off to us as far as how the locker room goes and all that good stuff.”