LPI Game Recap: De La Salle vs St. Francis
Here is my condensed game recap for The Daily Herald.
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De La Salle
Now in his 3rd year coaching at De La Salle, head coach Mike Boehm has already tied his amount of wins from the previous 2 seasons combined (5). The Meteor defense started off very well putting a lot of pressure on St. Francis QB Patch England and the Spartan triple option attack. It seemed like De La Salle senior DL Ebrima Njie was in or around nearly every tackle early on. He added a scoop and score to give De La Salle a 6-0 lead early. The entire Meteor DL played well constantly getting into the St. Francis backfield. Sophomore Wynston Russell played well this game stepping up to stop the run and in coverage. Junior Joe Bonds also had a good game at LB. All in all, this defense played very well as a cohesive unit and didn’t allow any big plays. Senior Anthony Woods came up big on special teams putting on a few moves to return a punt 65 yards for a TD.
As for the offense, junior Nick Boehm did a good job giving his QB time to throw and opening running lanes for his RBs. Senior Devin Michicich led the team in carries with 11 attempts for 48 yards and 2 TDs while adding 1 catch for 20 yards and a TD. Junior Ryan Mosley is the speed guy for this Meteor offense racking up 10 carriers for 36 yards. It was not the best day at the office for junior QB Dorian Woods as he completed only 4 of his 13 pass attempts for 82 yards, but did have 2 TD passes. It seemed like he was just barely missing his receivers on most of his passes this game. Standing at 6’3″ 220 lbs, Woods is very athletic and is tough to bring down. He also ran for 48 yards on 11 attempts this game. While this wasn’t is best game, I still like the potential in this kid and he is surely one to keep an eye on. Senior Eric Rooks was limited most of this game, but came up big on his sole catch reeling in a 32 yard TD to put De La Salle up 39-6. Fellow senior Ryan James was also limited to one catch for 21 yards. While Woods did attempt 9 passes in the first half, I really would have liked to have seen De La Salle take more shots to Rooks and James downfield in the first half as the St. Francis CBs were at least 6 inches shorter than the Meteor WRs. However, after halftime, the Meteors had the game in hand and were content to run the clock out.
I caught up with junior Joe Bonds after the game to get his thoughts on how the game went.
“We came out sloppy in the first half, but we talked (at halftime), we figured it out and we played a lot better in the second half”.
St. Francis
It was a tough day at the office for the 0-5 Spartans. For most of the game, their offensive line could not contain the tough De La Salle front as the Meteors were constantly blowing up runs in the backfield and putting pressure on QB Patch England. England, filling in for injured starter John Brundage, did all he could this game finishing with a line of 6 completions on 14 attempts for 54 yards, a touchdown and an interception. As a backup, England had the difficult task of efficiently running both a triple option and spread offense. I believe that he did an admirable job running the system, but again, he and the rest of the Spartans did not have much room for error against the very tough De La Salle front. England did hook up with WR Sidney Moore on a nice 20 yard touchdown for his lone TD pass of the day. Sophomore Joe Lang really stood out to me this game. Standing at 5’5″ 145 lbs, he is not very big, but is very fast and shifty. On 2 separate kickoffs, he was a tackle away from running each back for a touchdown. He’ll get one sooner or later. Sophomore Michael Cascella led the Spartans on the ground with 7 carriers for 10 yards. Cascella is another smaller kid at 5’7″ 165 lbs that showed good acceleration. Cascella’s issue this game was that he tried to make big plays out of nothing and rather than take a no gain he took multiple losses of 5+ yards. He’s only a sophomore, and as a matter of fact, this entire team is very young. I would really like to see guys like Lang and Cascella hit the weight room hard in the next few years and grow into their body to become college prospects. I would also really like to see first year head coach Joe Lepsche continue to instill his system into his young team and get them to the playoffs in a year or 2.
Looking at the scoreboard it would be easy to assume the St. Francis defense had a bad day, but that is far from the truth. The Spartan offense committed 4 turnovers, 3 of which either set the Meteors up the in Spartans redzone or were ran in for a Meteor TD. Seniors Greg Bogdanski and Shane Walker were the leaders of this defense and made plays for the Spartans when they needed them most. Joe Lang also did a good job on the outside at CB limiting big Meteor receivers Rooks and James to only 2 catches. Junior Sam Sidari also played well at LB and RB for the Spartans this game. Like the offense, this defense is very young and like I said previously, would really like to see them buy into coach Lepsche’s system and make a playoff berth in a year or 2.