BREWSTER – If the hundreds of high school football players cracking shoulder pads and catching deep passes was any indication of the season to come, it certainly promises to be an exciting one.
Mashpee High School running back DeShaun Dias breaks a tackle in Saturday’s scrimmage vs. Wareham High.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
From Brewster to New Bedford and all points in between, the countless high school football scrimmages Saturday morning through late afternoon were loaded with surprises, the usual teenage bravado and with simple certainty, talent.
The Dennis-Yarmouth Dolphins, under the tutelage of 15th-year head coach Paul Funk, were spending the next-to-last day of their pre-season camp at the Cape Cod Sea Camps battling with the Highlanders of Somerville High School and the Monomoy Regional High School Sharks under 1st year head coach Ross Jatkola.
The St. John Paul II Lions were originally slated to participate in the scrimmage but backed out and instead faced Nauset on Friday night. Nauset was originally slated to face Barnstable High in Hyannis, along with Bishop Hendricken (Rhode Island), but backed out “due to low numbers,” according to Red Raider 5th year head coach Chris Whidden and a number of other sources.
But if low numbers mattered much during the pre-season, someone forgot to tell Mashpee High School.
The Mashpee High Falcons under 11th year head coach Matt Triveri welcomed the Wareham High Vikings and Austin Prep Saturday morning and with just 18 varsity men on the sideline, the Falcons nevertheless looked as solid as they’ve been hyped up to be.
Dennis-Yarmouth’s Jack Peterson takes off running in Saturday’s scrimmage against Somerville.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
Mashpee quarterback Nick Carpenter connected several times on deep routes and in particular with freshman DeVaughn Ford, while running back DeShaun Dias – whom Coach Triveri said was the “best on the Cape” this season – looked superlative. On one play during the scrimmage, Dias broke not less than five Wareham tackles en route to a 50-yard score.
“He can do some things,” Triveri said.
Unfortunately, the Falcons may have lost one of their top performers and that loss came on the first offensive snap of the scrimmage at Michael S. Horne Stadium. Junior wide receiver Domenic Fellini, also a stalwart on the Falcons basketball team, dislocated his right knee cap on a short pass route and had to be taken off the field via ambulance. How long Fellini may be out remains to be determined, but without much depth to begin with, the injury might haunt Triveri’s squad down the road.
Still, the Falcons’ helmsman was optimistic about the quickly approaching season, less than two weeks away.
“Our defensive tackles and defensive ends are going to be very, very good,” Triveri said. “Carpenter threw the ball well after poor first and second throws and we have three good receivers, just no depth.”
Barnstable High School’s Keaton Bergal looks for daylight against Bishop Hendricken in a scrimmage Saturday at W. Leo Shields Memorial Field.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
At the other end of the Cape in Brewster, Funk’s Dolphins looked every bit in near-mid-season form and junior quarterback Ryan Downs looked seasoned already in his first stint at the varsity spot. Running back and slot receiver Andrew Jamiel looked better than last season with the ball in his hands but defensively, the Green & White were both quick and intelligent against an athletically-gifted Somerville squad.
Monomoy’s quarterback Drew Senatore showed some real flashes of brilliance in the running game against a tough Dennis-Yarmouth defensive unit and there was little question the Sharks had some fire in their belly under the apt eye of their new first-year head coach.
At Greater New Bedford Voke, the Falmouth High School Clippers lived up to some pre-season predictions and blanked their hosts while carving it up on offense.
Junior quarterback Nick Couhig threw for three touchdowns – two to Tyler Brown and one to Trent Leachman – and ran another one in himself.
Coming off one of its toughest season since 2008 with last year’s 3-8 finish, Barnstable High struggled with Rhode Island powerhouse Bishop Hendricken on both sides of the ball.
Mashpee High junior wide receiver Domenic Fellini dislocated a knee cap in Saturday’s scrimmage versus Wareham.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
Two underclassmen are battling for the quarterback spot with junior Keaton Bergal taking the first snaps and Bryce Conroy looking equally as good behind center. He bright side was that Bergal ran the ball well while Conroy’s short-route passing game looked solid.
Defensively, Barnstable’s secondary looked raw and its front line play on both sides of the ball is lacking great depth but whatever weaknesses or strengths the 123-year-old varsity program may have will certainly come to light on opening night on September 11.
“I think it was a great opportunity for us to assess where we’re at at this stage of the pre-season,” Coach Whidden said of his Red Raiders. “We’re far from a finished product. On one hand, there were a lot of kids that showed they could be contributors. On the other hand, there were a lot of kinks that need to be worked out before we’re ready to play a game.”
— Story, video and photos by Sean Walsh, sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
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