St. Joe's Prep shows its age

RAMSEY, N.J. - Gabe Infante knows the territory well. It's where the St. Joseph's Prep coach cut his teeth as an assistant and where he laid the foundation in becoming a head coach.

Infante knew the tornado vortex his team - a young team - would be sucked into if they made mistakes and got behind early. And it's exactly what happened Saturday night when the Hawks visited North Jersey powerhouse Don Bosco Prep.

The Ironmen scored on their first two possessions and held a 35-0 halftime lead en route to reminding the Hawks just how young they are in 42-0 victory. Prep fell to 1-1 entering its game against North Penn on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High.

Prep had just 64 yards of total offense and three first downs in the first half when the game was still competitive.

But there were many things Prep could glean from this September setback that could make a state playoff march in December viable.

"As for positives, we came out healthy and we know where we have to go," said a philosophical Infante, who coached at Paramus Catholic and Bergen Catholic in North Jersey before being hired at Prep. "We have to go back to work and get better. I had no illusions of grandeur about the growing we would have to do. There's no better way to make a young team mature than throwing them into the lion's den."

Prep pinned the Ironmen in a number of third-and-long situations, only to see Don Bosco quarterback, Temple-bound Frank Nutile, find a wide-open receiver. In the first half alone, Nutile was 14-for-18 for 261 yards and four touchdowns in building the halftime lead.

What has to be factored in: At any one time, Prep had three seniors on the field playing defense, linebacker Ryan McNulty and defensive backs Rob DiSanto and Jawan McAllister. Otherwise, this is a junior-laden group, and though Prep has star defensive back John Reid, he can cover only so much of the field.

Prep also plays three sophomores on defense: linebackers Nick Vandevere and Joe DuMond and defensive back Shawn Harris.

"That's what I'm talking about," Infante said. "Their first four TDs were passes. We're young and we're making mistakes, correctable mistakes, but they're still mistakes. In a way, this is good. Now they see this, what I'm happy about is people get off our backs and let us grow up.

"People have to realize this isn't last year's group. We're going to be a very good football team, trust me, but we're not there yet. We're healthy and together, that's what we gained from Don Bosco."

Prep is also young offensively. The Hawks didn't turn the ball over, but had many three-and-outs.

"It just wasn't really our night," Hawks senior quarterback Chris Martin said. "Obviously, 42-0 isn't a good game, and in the long run, I think this could help us. We have to take this - and it isn't easy to take.

"We have to see how we'll respond and once we watch the film, leave this behind and move forward. I think we can learn we're not really as good as we thought after we beat Dallas Jesuit. We were right there the whole game on a lot of plays, offensively and defensively."

One thing Infante, Martin and the Prep want to address is the slow starts. The Hawks were down, 13-0, to Dallas Jesuit in the opener before winning 48-27, shutting out the Rangers in the second half. Against Don Bosco, Prep was staring at a 14-0 deficit on a pair of Nutile TD tosses in the first quarter.

"I think we're prepared and ready to play, but the start of games I think is an attitude thing that will change," Martin said. "We're all hyped and ready. It will get there. We're definitely going to be a different team than we were [against Don Bosco]. We're still a young team with a lot of guys playing varsity for the first time. It's going to click for everyone pretty soon. We're better than 42-0; we'll be all right."