St.
Francis DeSales
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Stallions find
few changes
under new coach
By JARROD ULREY
ThisWeek Staff Writer
There should be a mix of the famil-
iar and the new surrounding the
DeSales High School football pro-
gram as it enters its first season since
1987 without Bob Jacoby as coach.
Ryan Wiggins, who has taken over
a program in which he was an assis-
tant from 1997-2005, is planning to
return to a reliance on the triple-option
offense that Jacoby helped make an
institution with the Stallions for much
of his tenure before experimenting
with mixed offenses in recent years.
And perhaps the biggest emphasis
— as was the case with Jacoby’s teams
— will be on beating Watterson. Last
season, DeSales lost for the ninth con-
secutive time to Watterson, its rival in
the CCL-Silver Division, when it fell
40-34.
Jacoby took some of his coaching
staff with him when he left to take
over at Hamilton Township less than
one week after his team’s 10-6 loss to
New Albany in a Division III regional
final, but Wiggins will have a veteran
coaching staff and experience on both
sides of the football.
DeSales, which went 169-68 under
Jacoby, including 9-4 last season, opens
Aug. 24 at Lima Shawnee.
“We’ve got a big group of seniors
and a lot of guys with playing expe-
rience,” said Wiggins, who coached
Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary to a 4-6
record last year. “We don’t think things
need to change, they need to continue.
For the most part, we’re doing things
the way they’ve been doing them.”
Bishop Hartley
Central Ohio High School Football Preview ’07 • August 22, 2007
Defense needing to make early stand for Hawks
By AARON BLANKENSHIP
ThisWeek Staff Writer
Hartley High School football coach
Dick Geyer had planned to build his
offense around junior quarterback Jake
Groeschen.
But Geyer was forced to switch
gears quickly when he learned that
Groeschen, who threw for more than
1,000 yards last season, would be mov-
ing to North Carolina.
To make matters worse, backup
quarterbacks Pat Stone and Tim
Schmitz both decided they weren’t
going to play football to concentrate
on training for other sports.
With no other experienced quar-
terbacks remaining, Geyer called upon
senior Jeff Daley to play the position
for the first time since his freshman
season. Daley, who has been a receiver
and defensive back the past two sea-
sons, accepted the challenge.
“We suddenly went from having
50 three quarterbacks who took snaps for
Jimmy Vahalik, a 2007 graduate
who is playing baseball at Toledo, fin-
ished 104-for-188 passing for 1,908
yards with 21 touchdowns and 13 inter-
ceptions and rushed 134 times for 359
yards with 10 scores. His backup,
senior Nick Crawford, started in
DeSales’ 24-21 opening win over
Toledo St. Francis and finished 8-for-
15 passing for 237 yards and two
touchdowns. Crawford was battling
juniors Cord McCallister and Thomas
Gentile for the starting job during the
preseason.
Seniors Ryan Clark (115 carries,
933 yards, 4 touchdowns) and Adam
Slupski, junior Sal Carfagna and sopho-
more Adam Griffin are expected to
play at slotback. Seniors Jeff Walsh
(5-foot-9, 185 pounds) and Josh Kuzan
(6-1, 190) will be the fullbacks.
Senior Justin Thompson caught 25
passes for 527 yards and nine scores
at tight end but could see time at wide
receiver as well, along with senior
Kenny Stafford, who had 23 recep-
tions for 494 yards and five scores.
Senior Patrick Omameh (6-6, 245),
who has made a verbal commitment
to Cincinnati, is at right tackle. The
other expected starters on the line are
seniors Dominic Pezzutti (T, 6-3, 225),
John Hiles (C, 6-1, 275) and Matt Kel-
ley (G, 6-0, 210) and junior Jacob
Smith (G, 6-2, 245). Senior Jacob Hin-
ton and juniors Greg Dolcich and Matt
Ray also are in the mix.
“We’ve done some good things so
far,” Omameh said. “I feel we have
lots of improvement to make, though.
We need to keep working on our pass-
ing game, and I’d say we just need to
At a glance
BISHOP HARTLEY HAWKS
Colors: Red and blue
Coach: Dick Geyer, 28th season
Key players: Christian Addis, Jeff Daley,
Luke Evans, Michael Feeney, Corbin Holli-
day, John Marchi, Malik McCord, Corey
McSweeney, Vinnie Petrella, Geoffrey White-
side and John Zang
On the Web: cdeducation.org/schools/bh
2007 SCHEDULE
Aug. 24.......Centennial ..................Away
Aug. 31.......Columbus Academy....Home
Sept. 7 .......Bexley.........................Away
Sept. 14 .....St. Thomas Aquinas...Home
Sept. 21 .....Dayton Dunbar...........Home
Sept. 28 .....Cols. Crusaders.........Home
Be a champion for life — donate blood!
1-800-GIVE-LIFE S www.BloodSavesLives.org
the varsity team last year to having no
experienced quarterbacks at all,” said
Geyer, whose team finished 5-5 over-
all but beat Ready 6-3 in its CCL-Gold
The Stallions’ Malcolm Burrell goes through the Westerville South defense for a touchdown Aug. 11.
At a glance
ST. FRANCIS DeSALES STALLIONS
Colors: Purple and white
Coach: Ryan Wiggins, first season
Key players: Ryan Clark, Josh Fitzpatrick,
John Hiles, Josh Kuzan, Patrick Omameh,
Adam Slupski, Kenny Stafford, Kyle Stygler,
Justin Thompson and Jeff Walsh
On the Web: cdeducation.org/schools/ds
2007 SCHEDULE
Aug. 24.......Lima Shawnee ............Away
Aug. 31.......Toledo St. John’s........Home
Sept. 7 .......Westerville North .......Home
Sept. 14 .....New Albany................Home
Sept. 21 .....Grove City ...................Away
Sept. 28 .....St. Charles .................Away
Oct. 5 .........Watterson .................Home
Oct. 12..St. Leon (Ind.) East Cent. ..Away
Oct. 19 .......Cincinnati LaSalle........Away
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1-800-GIVE-LIFE S www.BloodSavesLives.org
keep playing as hard as we can until
the end because that’s not something
we did during (a scrimmage Aug. 11
against Westerville South).”
Senior Josh Fitzpatrick will anchor
a 50 defense at end. Also on the line
will be junior Davon Custis (6-4, 250)
Oct. 5 .........New Lexington.............Away
Oct. 12 .......Madison Plans ............Away
Oct. 19 .......Spencerville ..............Home
Oct. 26 .......Ready .........................Away
2006 RESULTS
(5-5 overall, 1-0 CCL-Gold)
Centennial.................................W, 25-7
Columbus Academy...................L, 41-33
Northridge ..................................L, 17-7
Louisville St. Thomas Aquinas ...L, 13-10
Dayton Dunbar..........................L, 28-25
Jonathan Alder............................L, 34-0
Fairbanks...................................W, 56-7
Madison Plains ..........................W, 41-8
Fort Laramie ............................W, 35-20
Ready..........................................W, 6-3
Division game last year. “I’ve never
had anything like this happen in my
(44) years with this program. But Jeff
has stepped up and he’s been doing a
Oct. 26 .......Cleve. Benedictine .....Home
2006 RESULTS
(9-4 overall, 1-1 CCL Silver)
Toledo St. Francis.....................W, 24-21
Toledo St. John’s......................W, 34-10
Westerville North .....................W, 53-19
New Albany..............................W, 35-14
Highlands (Ky.) .........................W, 30-25
St. Charles ................................W, 35-0
Watterson.................................L, 40-34
Hughes Center...........................W, 45-7
Cincinnati LaSalle .......................L, 30-9
Cleveland Benedictine........L, 24-21 (OT)
PLAYOFFS
Circleville.................................W, 31-13
Waverly......................................W, 41-6
New Albany.................................L, 10-6
and Pezzutti. Tackles will include Chris
Hopkins (5-11, 230), Joe Whitehead
(6-0, 240), Hiles and Smith.
Senior Kyle Stygler, who finished
with more than 70 tackles, and Walsh,
who had 30 solo tackles and 39 assists
despite missing the postseason with
good job. He’s very athletic, and with
him in there we’ll continue to run our
spread offense with the goal of pass-
ing and running equally well. Jeff has
the potential to be a very effective
quarterback for us. It’s just a matter
of getting him some experience. We’re
still searching for a backup quarter-
back, though.”
Senior guard John Marchi (5-foot-
10, 205 pounds) is Hartley’s only
returning offensive starter.
Sophomore center Cody Mackey
(6-1, 250), junior guard Nick Wahle
(6-1, 178), junior tackle Nick Muet-
zel (6-0, 190) and senior tackle Chris-
tian Addis (6-1, 270) are the other
starters on the line.
Senior Michael Feeney (5-9, 160),
who missed last season with a broken
collarbone, will start at receiver along
with seniorAndrew Gault (5-11, 168).
Junior Malik McCord (6-0, 200)
will start at running back, sophomore
Geoffrey Whiteside (5-8, 150) will
start at slot back and John Zang (6-1,
By Giles Clement/ThisWeek
injury, will headline the linebacking
corps. Others at the position are Kuzan
and juniors Marcus Keuchler and Cody
Melsop.
The secondary will include seniors
Eli Cowan and Mark Sherman at cor-
nerback, Slupski at strong safety and
Cord McCallister at free safety with
juniors Matt Gill and Dion Keaton as
well as Clark and Griffin in the mix.
Sherman missed most of last sea-
son with injury but is expected to take
over at kicker and punter.
Last season, the Stallions won at
least two playoff games for the third
consecutive season.
. . . .
Watterson went 2-0 to win the CCL-
Silver for the sixth year in a row and
was a Division II regional runner-up.
St. Charles finished 0-2 and ended up
ninth in the final Division II, Region
7 computer ratings.
“We always put a lot of emphasis
on (beating Watterson),” Wiggins said.
“Our most basic goal is to beat Wat-
terson and win our league. I think our
kids want to beat them. We talk about
it and emphasize it, and they do the
same thing. It’s always in the back of
our minds.”
225) will play tight end.
Junior Nick Ruggiero (5-8, 135)
has returned to be the kicker. He made
21 of 23 extra-point attempts last year.
“Our line isn’t very big, but it’s ath-
letic,” Geyer said.
Six starters are back on defense —
Zang at middle linebacker, Addis at
tackle, senior linebacker Corbin Hol-
liday (6-1, 215), sophomore linebacker
Corey McSweeney (6-2, 220), senior
defensive back Vinnie Petrella (6-1,
165) and junior defensive back Luke
Evans (5-10, 155).
Other starters are junior tackles
Cody Jackson (5-10, 180) and Muet-
zel and senior defensive backs Gault,
Adam Greger (6-1, 175) and Feeney.
“If we’re going to get back to the
playoffs, our defense will need to lead
us,” Geyer said. “This is the most expe-
rienced defense we’ve had since 2004,
and we had (three) shutouts that year.
We’re probably going to need to play
defense at that same level to have a win-
ning season and reach the playoffs.”