Irish complete unbeaten regular season
The visiting Notre Dame Fighting Irish senior football team put an exclamation point on an unbeaten regular season with a 50-0 victory over the St. Francis Phoenix Friday.
“We try to get hyped up for games, we want to go after teams, we want to be physical and we want to make good decisions,” Irish head coach Tim Bisci said. “We were still a little undisciplined with our penalties, but we executed well today.”
The Irish (6-0) finished the regular season unbeaten for the second straight year and they’re focused on performing well in the playoffs. Bisci felt his team took its foot off the gas too much last season with so many early leads and it resulted in a championship game loss to Sant Paul. He was determined not to let that happen again.
“We kept our guys in, we kept crisp, we ran our offences and we put up a lot of points this year,” he said. “We got up early and often this year and our defence played well against good teams.”
Bisci constantly reminded his team not to get caught up in reading its press clippings saying how good the team was playing.
“We have had great attendance at practice and the guys are committed to winning and the things they need to do,” he said. “They remember last year and we don’t want it to happen again.”
Jared Tessier, who had a pair of rushing majors in the win over St. Francis, has heeded that warning.
“We can’t let up when we get ahead by a few touchdowns,” the 17-year-old said. “We have to keep pushing and not get it in our heads that we are just going to kill teams.”
The six foot, 185-pound player has been an important player for the Irish this year.
“The season has gone really well and I like how I am performing,” Tessier said. “I am getting my head around the playbook and running the ball harder than I used to do.”
He is one of many weapons that Notre Dame has at its disposal.
“We have to spread the ball around to keep everyone in the game and give everybody the touches they deserve,” Tessier said.
He is hoping to play at the next level and has had interest from Guelph, McMaster, Laurier and Western. Those plans are one year down the road as he is planning to return for his 12B year.
“I want to get bigger and improve my game,” Tessier said.
Bisci has liked the play of Tessier at defensive halfback, receiver and tailback.
“He has done well and he is really coming along,” he said. “He has got to learn the game a little bit more but he has lots of athleticism and a lot of upside.”
Friday’s game meant nothing to the Phoenix (3-3) who were set to travel to Saint Michael’s (4-2) next week for the semifinals regardless of the score.
“We were trying to sharpen up for the playoffs and we would love to face these guys in the final,” St. Francis head coach Jim Whittard said.
The Phoenix got key player Quinton Duemo back from injury Friday and they expect Sacade Kasamba will be ready for next week’s semifinal.
Despite the shutout loss, Whittard took some positives out of the game.
“There were lots of errors out there and guys need to be sharper, but I think physically we were up for the battle,” he said. “As long as you are in the battle physically, everything else will take care of itself.”
STATS PACK
Irish 50 Phoenix 0
Johnny Rocco’s/Mick and Angelo’s/Cracker Jacks Player of the Game: Notre Dame’s Jared Tessier with TD run of 20 and 30 yards.
For the Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Tessier, two TDs; Jacob Succar, 85-yard kick return for a TD and two-yard TD run; Zack Melnyk, 28-yard pick six and a two-yard rushing major; 12-yard TD run by Mason Mastroianni; two-point convert on pass from Hunter Cropper to Alex Goulbourne; Cole Smith, six converts.
For the St. Francis Phoenix: No scoring.
