Sacred Heart begins its football season against a familiar foe with St. Patrick.
The Fighting Irish almost had as frustrating of a season as the Crusaders did last year. St. Patrick opened the year with a 2-1 record but lost their final six games as their offense struggled to score points. In total, St. Patrick was shut out four times last year. Three of those shutouts happened in the Fighting Irish’s final three games of the year. In that stretch, St. Patrick was outscored 103-0.
According to Sacred Heart coach Ed Smith, St. Patrick appears to have a larger roster.
“I think they have added some kids and have 40-something kids on their roster,” Smith said. “They have moved up to 3A, so it’s going to be a bigger challenge than it has in the past just because they are growing. But it’s somebody we are fairly familiar with. We didn’t get to play (last year). It was one of our games that got dropped last year when they pushed the season back.
“We have some kids that played against them a couple of years ago. There is a little familiarity there. It’ll be a tough challenge to start out the year. I think they are really improved.”
St. Patrick’s top returning name on offense is Kaleb Chatman, who played various roles on the Irish’s offense, including quarterback, running back, and wide receiver.
“He’s more of a receiver that they put in at quarterback in almost like a wildcat look,” Smith said. “He may start against us and play against us in every snap. They have him and a couple of other skill guys that can be dangerous.”
As quarterback, Chatman was 10-of-25 and threw for 103 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for 239 yards and four touchdowns while making 10 catches for 43 yards last season. Despite the unknown of Chatman’s role in St. Patrick’s offense, Smith knows he can expect the Irish to be a team that will opt to throw the ball often.
“They are a spread offense and will run some four-wide and also a two-back set with three wide,” Smith said. “We haven’t seen them run a lot (of plays) with the tight end. They will spread it out and try and run the ball on us, but they’ll throw it around enough to keep you honest. They’ll take some shots downfield.”
Defensively, St. Patrick brings back its four tacklers from last season, which includes Jameson Thriffilehy, who led the team with 57 tackles. The Irish came up with 13 turnovers as a defense but only made two sacks last season.
“They are sound on defense,” Smith said. “They base out of an 8-man front and try to play bend don’t break defense. They don’t give up big plays. We’ll have to put together 10 to 12 play drives to be able to move the ball and score on them.
“It’s a tough one to open up with. We have known it was there. We usually have been outnumbered when we play them, but our kids like to compete against them. We will have to play smart and have good technique on defense. Offensively, we can’t make mistakes and shoot ourselves in the foot. We have to make them earn everything. If we can do that, then I think we can be okay.”
