EPC South notebook,
Liberty will lean on faster-paced offense as it runs no-huddle attack in EPC South
Liberty’s skill-position players pushed the pace in Saturday’s scrimmage against Delaware Valley.
The Hurricanes offensive linemen still need time to adjust to life in football’s fast lane.
“As an offensive lineman, when you haven’t done that, that’s a rude awakening,” Liberty coach and former offensive lineman John Truby said with a chuckle while taking a break from practice Tuesday.
“It’s like, ‘Oh man, I’ve got to line up again eight seconds later ready to go.’ They did OK, [but] it wasn’t as fast as I think we can be.”
Liberty will look to hit another gear Friday when it hosts Pleasant Valley to open the 2019 high school football season (7 p.m. at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium).
Like many Week 1 games, the Liberty-Pleasant Valley matchup will feature changes aplenty from 2018.
Pleasant Valley will play its first game under coach Blaec Saeger, who spent time as an assistant at East Stroudsburg North and Bethlehem Catholic. The Bears will test Liberty’s defensive discipline with their tripleoption offense.
Truby is most eager to see how his revamped offense runs. Liberty added Matt Shultz as its offensive coordinator. With the coaching change came new terminology and a return to a no-huddle attack.
Senior quarterback Dallas Holmes will be the point man for Liberty’s offense. To play with pace, the Hurricanes must connect on more throws than they did while averaging 111.3 passing yards and completing 50.8% of their passes last season.
“It’s quicker throws,” Holmes said. “Everything is a lot faster.
“Usually I’m more of a down-the-field passer, but in this offense there’s a lot of screens, a lot of motioning to get the ball out of your hands to the athletes. I have a good grasp of it.”
Holmes said he and a core of receivers led by Rondell McNeil, Jason Estrella and Kyle Jimenez would often group chat this summer and set up times to work on routes and timing. Carrying summer progress into the season, when teams will scheme to stop the Hurricanes, is another matter.
Truby said Liberty’s passing struggles the past two years were a combination of too many off-target throws and catchable passes that were dropped.
The scrimmage suggested improvement is coming in both areas.
“What I’ve seen so far is Dallas has been way more accurate and is taking what the defense is giving him,” Truby said. “Our wide receivers are catching and making plays. Even Kendrick Wesley has been just a big factor in our pass game too.”
No matter how much speed Liberty has on the perimeter, it can only play as fast as its linemen set up. The Hurricanes will start the season relying on center Zach Thomas, guards Austin Leibensperger and Zaire Mitchell, and tackles Lance Priestas, Messiah Johnson and Donovan Thomas.
Truby can’t wait to see how his new offense performs in its first game that counts.
“I’m pretty happy with what I saw Saturday offensively,” Truby said. “I was really happy with my ones. They really did a nice job moving the football and we were able to run the football against a pretty good physical front.
“I’m very happy overall with the physicality of the kids. There’s a lot of stuff to clean up, sure, but what I saw overall was good growth from the summer to that point.”
Falzone’s frustrating week
Tom Falzone has endured one of the most frustrating weeks of his coaching career as he prepares Nazareth for its opener against Pocono Mountain East.
Nazareth had no game film to study after Pocono Mountain East, led by former Nazareth coach Rob Melosky, canceled its scrimmage against Muhlenberg. Pocono Mountain East coaches instead attended Nazareth’s scrimmage Saturday.
While Nazareth practiced Tuesday, a neighbor near the school approached the team and said a car was parked nearby with someone videotaping practice. Falzone said the car sped off when he went to check.
“When you don’t get a film to prepare from, not even a single film, and obviously you’re preparing for a team who is running some new offensive sets we’ve never seen and they have a new defensive coordinator, it’s probably the most difficult week I can remember in preparation for a team,” Falzone said. “You’re trying to get ready for everything.
It makes it so much tougher going into that first week. I don’t ever remember a time where a team doesn’t have one film to break down.”
Scouring the South
Sophomore Jared Richardson emerged from a three-way preseason camp battle to win Bethlehem Catholic’s starting quarterback spot. He replaces Zamar Brake, who graduated after one year as the Golden Hawks’ starter.
Parkland senior Tanner Lewis and Easton sophomore Cole Transue also won preseason quarterback competitions.
Freedom (No. 6 in Class 6A) and Bethlehem Catholic (No. 4 in Class 4A) both earned spots in Pennlive’s preseason state football rankings.
Parkland is a Class 6A honorable-mention team.