September 18, 2006Monday Morning Review: Trinity 14 - St. Joseph's 6By Scotty
Smalls My first words before giving my analysis of the ball game: “Phew! We survived, Crusader fans, we survived.” If I was told the Friday before the game that our defense would spend roughly 70% of the time on the field Saturday, I’d follow up with the question: “How much did we lose by?” But, on a beautiful opening Saturday, the ever-hyped Crusaders did just enough to win the game against an experienced St. Joe’s squad, 14-6. Trinity Catholic, who recently has been known for its ground game, had to lean on its air attack for its two scores of the ballgame. Anas Koummal hit senior Tyler Collins and junior John O’Leary for a pair of long scoring plays and that was it for offense. For the remainder of the game, the Crusader fans got used to seeing its defense on the field. Right now, it's looking like it should have been the defense, not the team’s running game, that received all of the preseason hype. The D was not given a second to catch its breath and still, aside from one long third-down completion that led to the Cadets lone score of the day, showed us something special. Confidence - it appeared as though the Crusader running backs were carrying the ball as if they had none. Where was the swagger and downhill running we saw in the preseason? Where was the team that would beat you up with the north-south running of Eric Stephens and then dash by you with the speed and agility of A.J. Nelson? The team seemed shocked it was getting stuffed at the line on its first couple series and never regained its footing. If this team was hiding its ability to run the ball from the numerous FCIAC scouts that were watching, it did a great job. But this obviously was not the case. One coach said after the game that this was going to be a tough day to run the ball because of the familiarity that St. Joe’s has with the Wing-T (the offensive scheme that the Crusaders run). Well, it’s not just the Cadets who are familiar with this style of offense. Does this mean that the running game is going to have issues with other run-first teams? Time will tell, and Catholic does not have much of it as the Crusaders have a short week to see how the ground game does against the run-first team Darien this Friday afternoon at 3:00 PM. The Blue Wave, lead by the highly confident running game of Kevin Joy, who ran for four scores against Fairfield Ludlowe, comes to Alumni to avenge last year’s 20-14 loss. After speaking with offensive coordinators Joe Claps and George Triantafyllos following the game, there is no doubt that this offense is ready to be the unit on the field for 70 percent of the game. Claps made this point “With our backs being as competitive as they are, I know they will learn from the struggles and frustration they may have had in this game and turn it into motivation for our next game.” The Crusaders look to keep the defensive momentum going and somehow
transfer some of that defensive confidence into their running game,
to shut down Joy and the rest of the Blue Wave.
 Big senior defensive tackle Vladimir Joseph swims by an offensive lineman in a 28-20 home victory over Fairfield Ludlowe on October 29, 2005. (CrusaderNation.net / Dana Maul)
 Junior defensive tackle Santiago "Teggy" Steele wraps up a Darien
rusher as his
 Junior center Cory Johnson prepares to snap the ball to fellow classmate
 The Crusader offensive line pushes Bassick around in the mud. The
Crusaders
 Senior wideout Rob Hawthorn races downfield to block as junior fullback
Eric Stephens
 2005 All-FCIAC East Offense Row 1, Left to Right: Eric Wells, Bassick; Willie Epps, McMahon;
Pete Raymond,
 2005 All-FCIAC East Defense Row 1, Left to Right: Joe Luchesi, Danbury; Greg Sabo, Danbury; James
Taylor, Danbury;
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