Patriots QB gains confidence, Irish still unbeaten
Matt Murray is settling in nicely as the second-year quarterback of the Saint Paul Patriots senior football team.
“He is improving every day, every practice, every game and he had a lot of potential,” Patriots head coach Rick Oreskovich said Friday, after Saint Paul defeated the Holy Cross Raiders 36-7 in Niagara Catholic Athletic Association play. “We just have to work with him and make sure he makes the right decisions.”
He feels Murray has made strides since his rookie senior season at quarterback.
“He is a little more confident now, he is a little more aggressive, he’s a little more accurate but it is a process He is a really good kid and student and he is at every practice. I think that he has a great future at quarterback.”
The 6-foot-2, 200-pound quarterback believes he is a much different quarterback than last season.
“It’s my work ethic. I have been putting in the work,” the 16-year-old said. “I watch film and I have been hitting the field a lot. I am throwing on the field every practice and most weekends.”
In the summer, Murray was one of four quarterbacks with the Niagara Spears varsity football team. Even though playing time was scarce, he felt the experience aided him a lot.
“It helped me a ton with my mental game a million per cent. It improved it so much.”
He knows what he needs to do to take the next step as a quarterback.
“I have to keep on working and keep on grinding. I want to take it to the next level.”
The Patriots improved to 2-1 on the season with the victory.
“We want to improve every practice and every game and where we are at right now is I think we are getting a little bit better, but I am still not fully happy with practice turnout and practice efficiency,” Oreskovich said. “We have to all be there at practice and our players have to be excited about coming to practice. We have to work hard and execute the plays both offensively and defensively. We need to clean up a lot of mistakes we have had in the last two or three games.”
Those mistakes have been glaring to Oreskovich.
“We have had a lot of penalties and plays where there were either dropped passes, missed assignments, etc. We have to get better incrementally.”
Next up for the Patriots is a game next week against the defending champion Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
“Next week will be our test. We have already played BT which is a really good team but Notre Dame is over and above anybody I have seen right now,” Oreskovich said. “They have so many weapons and they can score quickly with big plays. We have to limit the big plays and we have to compete with them play for play. It will be a real task but we will try our best and it is going to be a lot of work preparing for them.”
He is hoping Elijah Pappin will be able to return from injury and play in that game.
Murray is confident in his team moving forward.
“I think we have a great team. We showed what we are capable of today and hopefully we can do the same next week against Notre Dame.”
Holy Cross fell to 1-3 on the season and was done in by a familiar problem.
“We came out flat, we didn’t play our best ball. When we do we are more competitive,” Raiders head coach Gerry DiSanto said. “We come out slow all the time and it shows on the scoreboard. In the second half, we start waking up and play better.”
Holy Cross will conclude the regular season next week against Denis Morris.
“The competition has gotten better this season and we have gotten better with it,” DiSanto said. “We are staying positive with what we have and we are keeping moving forward to next week when we play DM.”
Oreskovich was impressed by the Raiders.
“I have to give them credit. They battled, they gave their best and they have a lot of good future prospects. I hope they keep their heads up and continue to go forward.”
STATS PACK
Patriots 36 Raiders 7
Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: St. Paul quarterback Matt Murray with two TD passes.
For the Saint Paul Patriots: Omane Fenten, 10-yard TD run and 90-yard TD reception; Jacob Jackson, 11-yard TD run; Staja Williams, 14-yard TD run; Mateo Canakis, 30-yard TD catch; Gennaro Riberto, sack in endzone for safety; and, Marco Gruosso, sack.
For the Holy Cross Raiders: 60-yard TD pass from Jackson Stuart to Lucas Johnson.
Game stats: First downs: St. Paul 14, Holy Cross 7. Net offensive yards: St. Paul 415, Holy Cross 136. Turnovers: St. Paul 0, Holy Cross 2. Penalties: St. Paul 10 for 100 yards, Holy Cross 3 for 25 yards.
FIGHTING IRISH 35 MUSTANGS 7
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish senior football team improved to 3-0 in NCAA play with a 35-7 victory over the Saint Michael Mustangs Friday.
“We are trying to find our rhythm offensively and defensively. It has been tough with injuries and sickness to get some chemistry but it’s coming. Our defence is young and we have been learning from our mistakes,” Notre Dame head coach Tim Bisci said. “It’s going to be important for us to get some momentum as our schedule gets very tough in the next couple weeks against Saint Paul and then Blessed Trinity. We need to be firing on all cylinders to match up with those teams.”
Leading the way for Notre Dame Friday were: Jake Tessier with 112 yards rushing and three TDs; Marshall McCray with two 15-yard rushing TDs; and, Dylan Correia with five converts.
