By Michael Bielecki
Vero Beach – St. Edward’s opens the season against Coral Springs Christian Academy at home on Friday. The Crusaders, 1-9 a year ago, have a new coach and bring 11 seniors to challenge an improved Pirates football team.
The Pirates thumped an out-manned Palmer-Trinity team in preseason action last week 43-0, and look to do the same thing to Coral Springs. “That team we played Saturday graduated 19 seniors, and for a small school that’s a big hit to take,” said St. Edward’s Coach Brad Fojtik. “They came up here and beat up on us pretty good last year with their stud quarterback, spread offense and two good receivers. It was nice to give some of that back to them this year.”
Last week’s scrimmage against the Falcons in Miami had a 3 p.m. start time, and Fojtik saw this as an advantage for his team. “This time of year, it’s just so hot. In the fourth quarter, that heat was really working on both clubs and our conditioning was just better. The kids are grasping that all hard work and conditioning is paying off.
Running the ball effectively was the key to last week’s win, as the Pirates got 209 yards from running back Collin Kite, and 70 yards from Cameron Budde.”Kite had a really good spring, and he showed off his hard work last week,” said Fojtik. “Cameron is one of the best blockers on the team, and running him at fullback lets us be two-dimensional with our running game.”
The Crusaders only managed six point in their spring game, but Fojtik knows that having a summer to work on a new offense with a new coach can yield improvement. With the Pirates hanging a shutout on the Falcons last week, though, it’s fair to expect another stellar performance from the defense.
