Steve de Lazzari knows that the bigger tests are still ahead.
The schedule has been fairly easy so far, but the St. Thomas More senior football coach is still basking in his team’s strong start to the B.C. AAA season.
Following Friday’s 41-0 victory over the Mount Boucherie Bears, the Knights are showing they are deserving of some provincial poll love.
For the team’s coaches, that kind of stuff is just peripheral noise; but as a program implementing a new offensive scheme, these successful early steps are cause for cautious optimism as the No. 5-ranked STM build a case to be a playoff force.
“Our execution, that’s what I’m most pleased with (so far),” said de Lazzari. “We’re playing within our system and improving each game.”
That offence capitalized on its first possession and built up a 28-0 lead before the second quarter began.
The trio of quarterback Dario Ciccone and receivers Michael Simone and Vasco Repole, childhood friends, made hay of the Boucherie secondary.
Simone scored two majors on catches of five and 22 yards, while Repole scored a lengthy 70-yard touchdown. Ciccone, meanwhile, carried in one major and went eight-for-11 for 130 yards.
“We had a couple of explosive plays,” noted de
Lazzari. “The chemistry between Dario, Vasco and Michael is pretty strong.”
The Knights also got touchdown runs from Rickey Parsons and Julian Valerio, as the team improved to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in conference play.
Defensively, Simone corralled a pass interception and Matthew Lemp recovered two fumbles.
Over the first three games, STM has only surrendered one major and demonstrated momentum and growth each week.
However, the meat of the schedule is approaching, and the team will proceed without last year’s conference defensive MVP Sam Steele after he suffered a broken leg in a non-football accident last week. They expect the two-way star to miss a month of action.
“(Steele) is what I call our heart and soul,” said de Lazzari. “He’s such a vital and integral part of our team, that it’s going to take everyone to fill his spot.”
Their next game, against winless Centennial on Friday, 7:30 p.m. at Burnaby Lakes, doesn’t have the cache of a big game, but de Lazzari knows the trap those kinds of contests lay.
“You still need to prepare and focus and play them to your best ability. We have (No. 1-ranked Lord) Tweedsmuir in two weeks, but we can’t look past (Centennial).
“We don’t know where we measure up until we play the Tweedsmuirs, the (Terry) Fox’s.”
