St. Rita 24 @ Notre Dame College Prep 17 F
- Thread starter RockSoup
- Start date
Sounds like an absolute scoring frenzy between rivals I hope we can keep in the future. No one asked but I hope we stay in the Catholic League, no matter the color designation!!
What I witnessed in the 2nd half was a very strong Don defense and a ton of penalties that the Mustang committed. Let's clean that up for the fall.
I also witnessed a great 1st down conversion by KB to seal the game.
I echo your sentiments. I love the CL/ESCC merger. Love seeing games against Don Benet among others.
Tiocfaidh ár lá Our day will come... Go Dons!!
My takeaways:
Too many penalties. Hopefully it’s a compressed schedule and Junior heavy Oline thing and cleaned up by the fall.
I know I seem like the President of the LB Michael Gaughan fan club each week but another insane game. Go to the week 6 streaming link and watch his second half. Good Lord. I know he’s signed with St. Joe’s PA for lacrosse but Coach Bielema, pick up the LA and any other game film and then pick up the phone.
3 star Junior lineman Valen Erickson has to be a great candidate to pick up a 4th star. I believe @EdgyTim might have mentioned that earlier in the season in a podcast or column. He improves each week. Right body type, footwork, pad level, second level pick ups and attitude. It seems he wants a pancake each run play. He gets many.
Seniors, thank you for bringing St. Rita football back to the state conversation and top 10 top 5 rankings.
Not surprised but I love the way NDCP plays. Well coached, tough kids
NDCP PA announcer has to be one of the best in the business. Very solid.
Too many penalties. Hopefully it’s a compressed schedule and Junior heavy Oline thing and cleaned up by the fall.
I know I seem like the President of the LB Michael Gaughan fan club each week but another insane game. Go to the week 6 streaming link and watch his second half. Good Lord. I know he’s signed with St. Joe’s PA for lacrosse but Coach Bielema, pick up the LA and any other game film and then pick up the phone.
3 star Junior lineman Valen Erickson has to be a great candidate to pick up a 4th star. I believe @EdgyTim might have mentioned that earlier in the season in a podcast or column. He improves each week. Right body type, footwork, pad level, second level pick ups and attitude. It seems he wants a pancake each run play. He gets many.
Seniors, thank you for bringing St. Rita football back to the state conversation and top 10 top 5 rankings.
Not surprised but I love the way NDCP plays. Well coached, tough kids
NDCP PA announcer has to be one of the best in the business. Very solid.
Well if you’re the President of the LB Michael Gaughan fan club can I be the vice president?
Last year All Star LB Michael Gaughan had 161 tackles in a full season with the playoffs. This year in six games he finished with 90 with 54 of those being solo’s. It’s a shame that the kids did not get to play a full season.
The announcer was a god send. I was watch/listen to the game on my cell phone driving back from Carlisle PA last night on the Pennsylvania/Ohio turnpikes. Had visiting fans been allowed I would have been there. Nothing beats seeing games live.
Great game. Two hard-hitting, well-coached teams. Emphasis on hard-hitting---there were some monster hits out there last night. Rita certainly had the bigger playmakers. The gamble-a-tron had the Dons as 25 point dogs--laughable. I am admittedly not as in tune with high school football as many on this board so while watching the game, I kept thanking the Lord that KB will be in Tuscaloosa or Ann Arbor or wherever next year. And then I read the game recap and realized he is just a junior--what a talent! If I understand the rules right, the Mustangs will be up in Blue next year so maybe the Dons won't have to see him again (as much as I'd love to see ND get another shot after back-to-back seasons losing by a single TD).
It was a season of growth for the Dons. Stout, as always, on defense. The offense struggled mightily in the early part of the season without Sayles under center. But by the end of the season, things looked to be starting to click. Would have been nice to have some 'warm up' games before getting in the trenches with Providence, Marist, Montini. But it was great to see football under the lights in Niles again.
And the great thing about this weird spring season....only four months until we kick off a new (hopefully normal) season!
It was a season of growth for the Dons. Stout, as always, on defense. The offense struggled mightily in the early part of the season without Sayles under center. But by the end of the season, things looked to be starting to click. Would have been nice to have some 'warm up' games before getting in the trenches with Providence, Marist, Montini. But it was great to see football under the lights in Niles again.
And the great thing about this weird spring season....only four months until we kick off a new (hopefully normal) season!
Very well said! I gotta feeling Rita and NND are on the rise. I would like to see NND in a title game.
Calling you out Rock🥊... I judge Mustang linebackers by two legends. Mark Zavagnin and John Foley without a shadow of a doubt are the 2 best. Where does Michael Gaughn fit in? He’s got a place in my heart cuz he’s mentioned in “Take Me Home To Mayo”
Great question. Zavagnin (ND, late round Bears draft pick) and Foley (USA Today National Defensive player of the year, ND) were anomalies because they were close to being the biggest player on the field (and in Foley’s case also the fastest) yet both could run running backs down sideline to sideline.
As you know, in the spread era, the responsibilities of the LB has changed and thus their body types have changed. Believe it or not, there are non coaches closer to the inner circle at St. Rita than me and I remember them telling me before Michael Gaughan’s freshman year, “Wait till you see this LB Gaughan”. So I head out to a freshman game, see this 5’8 150lbs kid and think in my head “yeah right”. Then the game started. And my next thought was “Good Lord, what an incredible football player.”
Varsity examples as a filled out 6’ 215lb senior from this year: Friday NDCP. 4Q Dons trying to get that tying score, working from their own 30, Gaughan drops into pass coverage, NDCP calls a perfect swing pass out to the flat with WRs blocking, the play is going to go 15 to 20 yards easy, except Gaughan sees it, sprints 25 yards, crushes the RB and it ends up a 4 yard loss.
Vs LA. The only two people in the state that can keep Pemberton (also the biggest and fastest on the field against many teams) to under 100 yards is Coach Holecek and Gaughan. 23 carries for 90 yards. 4 yards per carry. Pemberton averaged over 8 ypc in the CCL/ESCC Blue division. I’m not taking away from Pemberton, he’s special, just putting Gaughan’s 16 tackle 1 INT game vs LA into perspective.
Foley and Zavagnin can be put on one level but Gaughan is definitely on the Kingsbury (Purdue), Angsten (Illinois St.) McNamara (Dartmouth), Hopkins (Iowa) level.
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I grew up 2 blocks from Zavagnin in St. Bernadette, so he is my favorite. And John Foley epitomizes the toughness of St. Rita and its 63rd street roots. But for high school performance only, I think Tim Angsten belongs on the short list of greatest St Rita LBers ever.
I never saw Zavagnin play in high school. I saw him plenty at ND and he was a stud. I saw John Foley play numerous times in high school and he may be one of the most dominating high school players I ever saw play. I never saw Angsten play but I do remember him. St Rita might be linebacker U of Chicago high school football.
a linebacker in a safety body. maybe he can be a 5'11 Landon Collins, play close to the line of scrimmage type Safety. Size likely keeping the big boys away
No doubt tweener status hurts him. I can see so many packages to use him in but you can’t expect D1 staffs to think that deeply on someone when they will be happy just filling 20 spots a year with body type/metrics players with easier projected positions and figure it out from there. But I’d love to see a staff take a chance...
Good morning all. To quote the great Lee Corso, "Not so fast my friend". This should be a separate thread. Mount Carmel will have something to say about this and when you have the great Dick Butkus, CVS must be on the list. As far as Gaughan. I know his game very well from lacrosse. Very very good player and I hope he does well in college. I always pull for the south side kids after graduation and I really do believe the south side one day will reach the same levels as Loyola and the northern schools in ability at Lacrosse. Of course the girls will get their sooner in lax because we all know they are the real badass athletes on the southside. Anyway I digress. Linebacker High lets start the thread or dig up the old one.
