Falcons Lose Opener to CHA 21-13

Good morning and welcome to another season of Falcon football. I need to begin by apologizing for not having any pictures from yesterday’s game. You see, one of our young staffers had one job and one job only. The job was to make sure that the camera was ready and available by kickoff time. Well, just as the team was warming up, I asked about the camera and found that the memory card was not in the camera. Grrrr! Needless to say, that young staffer, who once had a bright future, is now unemployed.

Pregame Warmup
At one point, while the team was warming up before the game, we had a flashback to the early 1980’s. I’m sitting on the team bench, getting ready for the start of the game, and I heard a voice from down in the end zone area. I looked in that direction and realized that it was our normally mild-manner offensive line coach, Rob Moore, who was really getting into it with the linemen. He was so effective that I got up and started hitting random people on the sideline. I eventually came back to my senses, picked up a couple of the people I knocked down and got ready for the game.

Game Commentary
The Falcons came out a bit flat and spotted Chestnut Hill a 14 point halftime lead. There were some miscues (penalties, overthrown balls, missed blocks and tackles, etc). But, if the fourth quarter was any indication of what this team can do this season, I expect the Falcons to have a real good run. After all, Chestnut Hill Academy is considered by some to be a top 10 city team this year.

Defensive Observations
The linemen on both sides of the ball played as well as can be expected. On the defensive line, Soph Jack Schanz, in his first varsity game, had 4 tackles, as did Senior linemen Stephen Rooney. Our linebacker corps, led by David Williams (11 tackles) and Daniel Clark (6 tackles), contained the “All World” CHA running back, Ibrahim Campbell. Campbell was held to under 100 yards until a successful fourth quarter drive, where he accounted for 48 yards of this 147 game total. The defensive backs weren’t really challenged in this game, as CHA only attempted 7 passes, completing 4 of those attempts. One of those completions was a 20 yard completion to about the North 8, but the ball was stripped by Stephan Singleton and returned 50 yards, where the Falcons began the first of their two scoring drives. Julian Huggins had an interception and Gabe Toledo led all defensive backs with 5 tackles.

Offensive Observations
The line did a decent job of opening holes for Eugene Byrd, who rushed for 56 yards in the first half, before going down early in the third period with an ankle injury. The injury didn't seem too severe, but the coaching staff decided to keep him out for most of the second half as a precaution. Overall, six different Falcons carried the ball, for a total of 105 yards. In the second half, the Falcons threw the ball a little more, so the running game wasn’t as much of a factor. Junior QB, Anthony Reid (14-28-185-1-0), making his first varsity start, seemed to get off to a decent start. Anthony had a couple of early overthrows, which we think could be due to the little extra adrenalin running through his body. But, when push came to shove, Anthony was nailing his targets down field, leading the Falcons to two 4th quarter scores. We’re expecting big things from this young QB this season. Dave Sherman led the team in receptions (7 catches for 81yds), while Julian Huggins (5 catches, 77yds, 1 TD) showed his versatility by playing well on both sides of the ball (1 interception on defense and 1 nice catch and run for a TD on offense).

Overall Outlook
After watching this game, and despite the loss, we should come out of this game with confidence that the Falcons will be just fine in the 2009 season. Yes, the coaching staff has some work to do so the team overcomes some of there early season issues. Elimination of the silly penalties and an improvement in the kicking game should help a bit. But, what do we know? We’re just a bunch of writers who really don’t have a clue.

Did You Notice…..
…..that the teams didn’t use locker rooms at halftime? Yes, they have locker rooms at CHA, but they are in the next zip code over, and neither team wanted to wear out the players by marching them five miles to the nearest locker room.
…..that they don’t charge admission for their football games at CHA? Maybe if they did charge admission, they could afford to build some visitor stands on their field. (see below)
…..that there were no visitor stands in this stadium? What’s with that? You’d think that with all the money out in Chestnut Hill, they could afford some bleachers on the visitor side of the field.
….the very nice restroom facilities? They went out of their way to provide not one, but two matching spot a pots in the corner of their football complex. This was CHA’s contribution to the wildlife, as we didn’t need to find trees to do our business.

Faces in the Crowd….
Note: Since the spectators were all on the home side of the field, we didn’t have an opportunity to see many people. But, we’ll list those who we did see.

….Mike Fagan, class of 1957, who probably sees more high school football games than Ted Silary, was in attendance. After talking it over with the FalconNest staff, it was voted that Mr Fagan has now gained “Super Fan” status. It’s really difficult to go to a North football or basketball game without seeing him.
….The class of 1969 was represented by Jack Devine. Jack is also a regular at football and basketball games. And, as usual, it’s always a pleasure seeing him.
….Former NC Athletic Director, and current Director of Institutional Advancement, Tom Kaiser, was at the game. Tom doesn’t miss many games. As a matter of fact, I can’t remember the last time I was at a game and Tom wasn’t in attendance.
….The Wikiera brothers, Gary and Ben, were both in attendance. Ben is a former NC player, and Gary is the grandfather of former player and current Villanova student, Shane Rand, as well as Taylor Rand, the “Kate Smith” of NC athletics.

Where’s Waldo?
We were a little worried during this game, when we tried in vain to find the new NC Athletic Director. You see, we’ve grown accustomed to seeing our AD at football games, but yesterday, he was a no show. We’re not going to criticize our AD for missing the game, as he’s new to the job, but we will offer a top ten list of reasons for him not making it to the game.
Top Ten Reasons why our AD didn’t make it to the football game.
10. He’s new and didn’t realize that it’s football season.
9. His car broke down and he didn’t have a train schedule
8. The Wawa didn’t have maps of Philadelphia and he ended up at Chestnut Hill College.
7. He went down the shore to catch the NC soccer game against Wildwood Catholic.
6. As a teacher, he was working on his curriculum for the upcoming school year.
5. He got caught up playing Mafia Wars on Facebook and just couldn’t pull himself away for the game.
4. He thought he was the announcer for the game and didn’t want to ruin his streak of football game no-shows.
3. He had a fever and had to call out sick..
2. He was out late the night before celebrating Father Judge’s (his alma mater) first win of the season over Council Rock North.

And, the Number 1 reason why our AD wasn’t at the football game…..
1. He was so overwhelmed and worn out by the long and drawn out interview process to get the job that he just didn’t have the strength to get up and out the door.

Ok, that wraps up another week of NC football. We hope to see you at the game next Saturday, at 1:00PM against Archbishop Ryan. This game will be played at Frankford Stadium and we expect you to be in the stands, cheering the team to victory.