St. Ed’s varsity football season ended in the opening round of the SSAC playoffs this past Friday night when the Pirates traveled to Fort Myers and fell to Canterbury, 40-26. It was the third straight year the trip across state ended in defeat to the same SSAC team, the last two in the playoffs.
Nevertheless, several positives stood out for this Pirate squad from the outset of training camp in August. Of primary importance was progress on an issue dogging the football program in recent years, one that at times seriously questioned its very sustainability.
“We were up in numbers this year, we started the season with 29 players,” head coach Bill Motta explained. “We had four guys go out with injuries and were basically down to 25. That’s still a plus for us because we had been under 20 for the past few years.
“We had some athletes and first-year seniors come out. Even though they didn’t have football experience, they provided the physical maturity that we lacked sometimes with a younger group. All in all there was a bit of excitement with the number of new guys coming out and trying football for the first time.
“The younger guys took some lumps last year, they were a year older and their experience showed through. We eliminated some mistakes, but we still made more than I like.”
This all translated into a final 2019 record of 6-4 (counting the preseason classic with one playoff game remaining) and represented a nice comeback from 2-9 last year and 3-7 the year before. Further, Motta was discouraged to see his team drop two games he felt they could have won.
“Mentally we just did not embrace the opportunities we had against Legacy Charter and First Academy,” he said. “They were unquestionably very good teams and we needed to play well to win. But we made too many mistakes and those teams wanted it more than we did.
“Then Berean Christian came in and they were business as usual. Everyone understood that home field advantage in the playoffs was at stake in that game. They were ferocious and knocked us around a little bit (48-26), but it’s always nice to be playing for something this time of year. We still had a chance to compete for a championship.”
Motta began with three quarterbacks, but lost junior Brennan Wolfe to injury. He rotated senior Mike Mangieri and freshman Camren Perez as signal callers and essentially relied on a pair of ball carriers in a spread formation. He brought in Rich Schofield as defensive coordinator, with his son, Zeke, coaching the secondary. The grand scheme was to see what worked, almost on a play-to-play basis.
“Mike Mangieri has been our starting QB for three years,” Motta said. “He ran the offense and knew where everybody was supposed to be. He is a very good leader, showed a lot of maturity, and was our dominant QB getting all of the starts. I gave him the opportunity to get into a rhythm to see how things were going. If that didn’t work we tried to get the chemistry going with our other QB, Camren Perez. He possesses a nice skill set and throws a really nice ball.
“We used a one-back system. About half of our plays featured a run-pass option. That’s the in-vogue offense right now and we wanted a nice balance between the run and pass. Junior Ian Horvit was the guy getting the ball out of backfield. He was very productive and we needed him to be a threat the other team honored. Senior Ty Redmon also got a lot of reps at the halfback spot and he was very good, too. He was primarily our slot receiver, so he was able run some sweeps and get a lot of touches and throws.”
Highlights on defense and special teams may have occurred in an unlikely 3-0 victory in the regular-season finale across the state against Four Corners Charter School. Out of necessity, Motta needs two-way players and that hard-fought triumph typified the approach he emphasizes continuously.
“We address all three phases of the game: offense, defense and special teams. This is the first year I haven’t done defense. I let Rich Schofield put his own spin on things and saw the guys rallying to the ball. We had some pretty good players on defense and it was an encouraging thing to watch.
“Zeke is unquestionable a guy with way more football experience than most people, including me, and he can bring a lot to the table. He has been given a platform because of his ability and success (Notre Dame and Atlanta Falcons).
“He coached our safeties and corners. That’s his expertise although we do draw upon his experience in all areas. He had great chemistry with the boys and they really liked him. I’m proud of the way he embraced this.”
