It doesn’t happen very often, so when it does, it’s surprising, but nonetheless, obvious, to insiders.
When it comes to Perry football, it doesn’t get more inside than coach Matt Rosati, who was not pleased with the way his young squad played in a 28-21 Chagrin Valley Conference Chagrin Division loss at West Geauga on Friday night.
“This was very difficult for me to take,” Rosati said. “I did not feel that we played as hard as we needed to. West Geauga took the fight to us and we did not respond until the second half.
“That was disappointing.”
That having been said, no one could assign any of the blame to Evan Nichols.
One of 10 young men profiled in our “Little Giants” series in Kickoff ’12, the 6-foot-1, 205-pound senior linebacker had truly a monster game for the Pirates.
Also Perry’s starting left tackle on offense, Nichols had, get this, 22 tackles, including four for loss.
“Evan was the one thing that really stuck out for us,” Rosati said. “I have seen few performances like that in my coaching career.”
Now, though, Rosati will need another game like that from Nichols as the Pirates (2-3, 1-1) prepare to host winless Harvey (0-5, 0-2) on Friday night at Alumni Stadium.
First-year coach Michael Tucci’s Red Raiders have been outscored this season, 195-12, and are coming off a 43-6 loss to Wickliffe. Harvey’s six points last week were its first since a 24-6 loss at Chanel in its opener.
Rosati said Harvey, like his squad, has pretty much added green to its school colors being so youthful.
“Harvey is a very young team, like we are,” he said. “They have a very talented player in Alonzo Turner (5-9, 175, junior running back/linebacker).
“They have good team speed and are capable of making big plays at anytime. Defensively, they are very multiple and have struggled at times this year.”
Harvey does have a mammoth offensive line, featuring Reggie Browley (6-6, 310), Josh Rice (6-1, 270), Derrick McGarvey (6-2, 350), Chris Williams (6-4, 220) and David Shupp (6-2, 295) from left tackle to right tackle.
“Turner is the guy who we have to stop on both sides of the ball,” Rosati said. “They have a couple really big lineman that have great potential.”
A year ago, Perry scored its most points going back to at least 1939 when it registered a wild 70-35 shootout victory at Jack Britt Memorial Stadium. Perry leads the series, 5-2, in games played since 1939.
“We will need to control the tempo of the game,” Rosati said. “And create extra possessions by creating turnovers.”
The Pirates hope to have the services of top running back Mason Martin (6-foot, 185, junior) this week for the first time since the first half of the season-opening game, a 37-24 loss at Riverside, when he suffered a blow to the head. Junior wide receiver/defensive back Zach Carnovale is out for the season with a shoulder injury.
What Rosati is looking for, though, is a stronger performance in terms of effort, to be blunt. West G shut down Perry at the line of scrimmage last week.
“They simply played harder... they wanted to shut down the run game and they did,” he said. “They are a very well-coached group and flew to the ball.
“We did not adjust to their speed up front.”
Rosati was asked to evaluate his youthful squad at the halfway point of its season.
“Hard to say,” he said. “We were one snap away from beating Madison and really had a good chance of beating Riverside if we did not leave some points on the field in the first half.
“West Geauga, I had hoped that we would have played better. So being 2-3, I am disappointed, but happy with how our younger kids are stepping up.”
And there’s the rub — there is plenty of room for growth for the Pirates.
“We started three freshmen against West G last week and all three made a big play in the game for us,” he said. “So I am very pleased about that and excited to see some of our other younger kids step up.”
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