St. Viator routs Sullivan 63-0
The St. Viator Lions kicked off their 50th football season as they hosted the Sullivan Tigers on Friday evening at Forest View.
The Lions (1-0) handled the Tigers in impressive fashion as they posted a 63-0 shutout.
Wasting no time, Lions senior defensive back Kyle Martin quickly scored by returning an 82-yard kickoff. After a three-and-out, Lions' senior quarterback Cameron Korab connected with senior wideout Nick Frett for a 28-yard touchdown.
Korab would later score on a quarterback keeper from 6 yards.
"We came in completely blank," said Korab in regards to a scouting report on the Tigers. "We had a great week of practice and came in with a chip on our shoulder. Coach 'K' (Chris Kirkpatrick) told us to go out there to prove critics wrong.
"The defense was ridiculous. I give all my props to them. They gave us the ball and we scored."
While blanking Sullivan on the scoreboard, the Lions defense halted the Tigers offense to 21 yards passing and negative 12-yards rushing.
Senior defensive linemen Anthony Pensa recorded 3 sacks; Ryan Romenesko and Mike Wolf tallied two.
The Lions kept the game virtually out of reach for the Tigers after a 25-yard touchdown reception by senior wideout Dominic Monaco thrown by junior quarterback Frank Laterza. This made the score 27-0 midway through the first quarter.
"They worked their tails off in camp," said Lions assistant coach Bob Moynihan. "We've said this is the best four-year freshman class we've seen. The boys work hard on and off the field. We feel we'll be a force to be reckoned with this year.
"We know it's the first game and teams will get better through the year. We will also make adjustments through the year and expect our team to improve."
The Tigers enhanced their ability to move the ball in the second half, however the deficit was too high for them to retaliate.
Tigers' linebacker Jamal Lawson led the defense with 12 tackles, while defensive lineman Elliot Ward recorded the lone team sack.
"Viator has a great program," said first-year Sullivan head coach Vince Rociola. "We want to be like this program in four years. In the second half, we played our brand of football and moved the ball a lot better.
"Even though the scoreboard didn't reflect it, we had our goals accomplished faced adversity and learned about ourselves. This is preparing us for our conference."
The Tigers travel to Round Lake for their next game, while the Lions host Dunbar. St. Viator won last year 48-14.
"I mean this is our 50-year anniversary," Korab said. "We want to make it different from all other years. We will go week-by-week. We're telling ourselves, 'Why not state this year?'"