Taken at face value, the St. Thomas More Knights’ exhibition record is pretty impressive.
At 2-0 and without surrendering a point, the Burnaby AAA varsity football program could hang its hat on that accomplishment and feel pretty impressed.
That’s not going to happen, however.
STM kicks off the regular season today (4:30 p.m. Friday) with the Kelowna Owls in town, looking to maintain the upward trajectory the players have established over the past two weeks.
They completed the exhibition slate with a 38-0 shutout over the Abbotsford Panthers last week, getting a strong performance from quarterback Dario Ciccone as the club moved the ball efficiently both on the ground and through the air.
Ciccone completed touchdown passes of 41 yards to Michael Simone and 10 yards to Vasco Repole, then scrambled for a major of his own to rack up 155 all-purpose yards on the day.
“He really handled himself well,” noted head coach Steve De Lazzari. “To have a Grade 11 quarterback come in and play so confidently is a big step.”
Over the two games, Ciccone has completed a blistering 14 of 20 pass attempts for 183 yards and four majors.
Abbotsford began the game well, pushing the ball down field before the Knights forced them to punt. On just STM’s third play from scrimmage, running back Tyler Eckert broke free on an 80-yard dash to put up the first points.
It was part of a 107-yard game for Eckert, carrying the ball eight times and two touchdowns. His two-game total of 361 yards on 21 carries – an average of 17.19 per carry -- was tops among AAA players in the exhibition season.
“It just sets the tone when you can score on your first possession,” noted De Lazzari. “Abbotsford is a well-coached team and they’ve got a very dynamic running back (Samwel Uko). We were able to build off our first possession and keep them in check.”
More led 19-0 at halftime, after Simone hauled down Ciccone’s pass and scampered into the end zone.
The line did an outstanding job on both sides of the ball.
Defensively, inside linebacker Joel Pielak counted eight tackles and defensive end Daniel Auld counted six in the contest. Jonah Fridfinnson nailed a couple of tackles for losses.
While undefeated and unscored upon, STM can’t be looking at that as an indication of what’s going to happen going forward, the coach said.
“I think we’re always aware that, just because of the size of school we are and who our (conference) competition is, we always have to look at it as needing to improve everywhere,” said De Lazzari. “You can’t get too satisfied.”
He looks at the matchup against Kelowna as another one of those tough tests where, while neither team is among the provincially ranked, a big game could catapult the winner onto the pollsters’ radar.
“(Kelowna) likes to run a spread offence, and they throw a lot,” remarked STM’s coach. “You have to be prepared.”
His own team’s expectations haven’t changed all that much even with the powerful showing so far. De Lazzari said this group has shown to be very attentive, and while led by Eckert, is capable of putting up points in a number of ways.
“What do I like so far? The coachability and football IQ, and team speed,” he noted. “We have a very tough, tenacious group who work hard.
“In terms of my original goal for the team, in the back of my mind I’m definitely looking at playoffs, but we still have to focus on the week-to-week details, be prepared for each opponent and have our gameplan down pat.”
STM’s game today (4:30 p.m.) against Kelowna goes at the Burnaby Lake West complex.
