Football - News                                         

               News     |     Roster     |     Schedules--Results     |     Archives    

11/10/05-Football

Round 3: St. Mary's, Rice gridders meet in regional final Saturday
BY MIKE ROSENBAUM OF THE OBSERVER AND ECCENTRIC

For veteran coaches Al Fracassa and George Porritt, there aren't many firsts left on the gridiron. But they'll have one this Saturday, when 9-2 Birmingham Brother Rice and 11-0 Orchard Lake St. Mary's meet for the third time this season. The teams played a regularly-scheduled game Oct. 15 then, by virtue of their Catholic League records, Fracassa's Warriors and Porritt's Eaglets met in the Prep Bowl final on Oct. 22. According to the coaches, neither has ever played an opponent three times in one season, so both will enter untested waters when their teams collide in this Saturday's Division 2 regional final. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m., at West Bloomfield High School.

Although the Eaglets have won both games against the Warriors -- 24-21 on Oct. 15 and 20-7 the following week -- Porritt expects a tough battle.

"It's probably going to be another physical football game," Porritt says. "I know they're a great football team. That's just the way it is, in the state playoffs -- and being in your league -- you've got to play them three times. Nobody wants to do it, but we've got to do it and hopefully it'll be a great football game."

According to conventional football wisdom, it's hard to beat a team twice in a season, because the first-game loser will be highly motivated to even the score in the second game. But the revenge factor didn't help the Warriors in the Prep Bowl. The question now is, 'Will Rice's players lack confidence when they face the Eaglets a third time?'

"Maybe psychologically we're thinking, 'Wow, we lost to this team twice,'" Fracassa said. "Our team knows what kind of people they (the Eaglets) are, what kind of talent they have. I think for a young boy to think about that is just normal. (But) I think that we have kids on our team that believe that maybe this time might be different. And that's good. I'm sure that Orchard Lake St. Mary's (players) are thinking, 'We did it before, we can do it again'...But a lot depends on how that ball bounces on Saturday."

When two teams know each other as well as Rice and St. Mary's, there's not much hope of catching the opponent unprepared. And, this late in the season, it's difficult, the coaches say, to add new wrinkles to offensive or defensive schemes. But, Porritt says, it is possible.

"There's always something that can happen," Porritt explains. "You've got to prepare. They've got some things they probably haven't shown, and so do we. But it's still the basics, the things that they do well, the things that we do well. I don't think there'll be too much change from that."

Fracassa doesn't expect any surprises Saturday.

"I think that you've got to go to the bread-and-butter stuff that got you to this point in the first place. So we're going to rely on what we've done in the past and try to see if we can do it a little bit better. I think if you put a whole bunch of new stuff in there, or even a little bit of stuff, it can mess up your team. So you've got to be careful what you do. Orchard Lake St. Mary's has got some basic things they do very, very well and, again, those are the things that got them to an 11-0 season. And I'm sure that they're not going to use too many more wrinkles."

But St. Mary's may be forced into a key offensive change because of an injury to quarterback Justin Siller, who broke his right index finger during St. Mary's pre-district victory over Walled Lake Central. Nick Koenigsknecht played quarterback in last Saturday's district final. Although Porritt doesn't expect Siller to return, Fracassa is preparing his team to face Siller.

"He'll probably be back this week," Fracassa says. "We're planning on seeing him... If he's there Saturday it's going to make a difference. But Koenigsknecht... did an outstanding job last Saturday against Walled Lake Western. He kind of just took over. He's a senior. He's a good athlete and I don't think they lost any steps with him in there."

St. Mary's, which averaged about 12 passes per game with Siller at quarterback, threw just once last Saturday. Nevertheless, Porritt says the Eaglets are prepared to use all their weapons.

"We've got our full package in," Porritt says. "We've got confidence that he (Koenigsknecht) can do some good things out there. We've got to keep the full package, when you're going to play the type of team we're going to play this coming Saturday. Otherwise we'll struggle."

Siller was a key factor in St. Mary's victories over Rice this year.

On Oct. 15 he threw for 149 yards, including two long touchdown passes, and ran 63 yards for another score. In the Prep Bowl, Siller tossed two more TD passes and finished with 174 yards passing. His passing success was critical for the Eaglets, who were held to their lowest rushing total of the season, 111 yards.

Saturday's victor advances to the state semifinals, Nov. 19, against the winner of Friday's game between Detroit Murray-Wright (9-2) and Rochester Adams (11-0).

Prep Football

Copyright 2005, St. Mary's Preparatory, Orchard Lake, Michigan.  All rights reserved.

No logos, photographs, or graphics on the site may be reproduced without written permission.