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STAMFORD, Conn. Trinity Catholic and King tuned up Wednesday for next week's opening day of the high school football season with a scrimmage at King. Both teams showed promise running 10-play series against the others defense. Trinity has a scrimmage Saturday against Rye Country Day before it opens the season for real on Saturday, Sept. 17, at Westhill.
"It was good to hit somebody else for a change,'' Trinity coach Pete Stokes said. "We went back to a straight 4-4 on defense to make everything simple. I liked what I saw out there."
Stokes is sorting out a battle for the starting quarterback job between juniors Danny O'Leary and Cody Zaro. Both showed promise, as did running backs Shaquan Howsie, Jeff Cortese and Mike Palumba. Wide receiver Kevin Epp made a nice grab for a touchdown.
Trinity went 3-7 last season, and lost running back Mike Rivas (921 yards, 14 touchdowns) to graduation. The Crusaders appear to have running backs to replace Rivas. The key will be improving a defense that surrendered an average of 35.2 points per game.
"The running backs are good,'' Stokes said. "I've been through this two-headed quarterback system before. They're both better players because of it. "
King, which opens its season Sept. 17 at Fieldston, N.Y., has its own offensive weapons in senior quarterback Kevin Peabody, a third-year starter, and running back Joey Santoro. King is looking to improve on last seasons 2-6 record. The Vikings have a roster dominated by underclassmen.
"The best thing about this scrimmage is we were physical the whole game,'' coach Dan Gouin said. "We started rotating in some younger players in the third series."
Nick Della Jacono grabbed a touchdown pass and Logan McCullough had an interception for the Vikings, who looked impressive on defense early on in the scrimmage. "For the first scrimmage I thought we did some good things,'' Gouin said. "From last year to where we are now, I think we improved by leaps and bounds. I think the best thing I saw is that we're physically tough."
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