The Varsity Football Saints defeated the St. Michael’s College Kerry Blues 38-22 this afternoon in front of a large and energetic crowd at SMC’s homecoming. Today’s performance came as the culmination of a solid week of practice and reinforced our potential to be a great team in 2014. Defensively, the Saints were once again led by linebacker Fraser Sopik. Sopik flew all over the field and made several big plays in the Kerry Blues’ offensive backfield. In addition to Sopik, linebackers Nick Grossi and Walter Karabin were also outstanding. Furthermore, cornerback Krisztian Fockter had a key 1st quarter interception, while defensive end Mac Lewis, halfback Cal Walker, and big defensive tackle Gregor MacKellar also contributed huge plays on the defensive side of the ball. Unfortunately, 1st quarter knee injuries to linebacker Angelis Prattas and defensive Donald Kwok put a damper on an otherwise solid day for the defence. Offensively, the Saints were led by several exceptional individual performances. In addition to the 38 point outburst, the Saints also fumbled twice in the Kerry Blues end zone at the end of long, dominating drives, leaving 14 points off-the-board. Finishing drives will be a major point of emphasis at practice this week. Running back Jonathan Femi-Cole was electrifying throughout the afternoon. Midway through the 2nd quarter, big # 28 took over the game and gashed the Kerry Blues’ defence on several occasions. The Kerry Blues defence is loaded with big, talented, physical athletes, but as is usually the case, Femi-Cole was too much to handle and totaled 200 yards on the ground with 1 touchdown. Quarterback Ben Schmidt was once again outstanding, throwing for 350 yards and 2 touchdowns. Schmidt has demonstrated an ability to make consistently smart reads and his accuracy has been tremendous. Slot-back Ryan Keays led the receiving core with several big plays, including a long touchdown run and a long touchdown reception. The real story of the receiving corps today however was the emergence of Will ‘The Thrill’ Merkel as a legitimate playmaker. Merkel had several explosive receptions throughout the day, including an 80 yard touchdown grab. He has been a star at practice for the past two weeks, and his hard work is starting to pay dividends in games. Next up for the Saints is a home game next Saturday against the TCS Bears.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 23:26:14 +0000