Saturday proved to be an exciting day for two local football players at Temple.
The Owls shut out Stony Brook 38-0 at Lincoln Financial Field, but more importantly for us, Isaiah Wright and Logan Marchi saw time on a Division I football field for the first time.
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| Wright (Temple athletics) |
Wright, a true freshman who was born and raised in Waterbury, rushed seven times for 42 yards, including a long of 11.
Wright played a single season at Holy Cross in Waterbury before transferring to the Kingswood Oxford School in West Hartford. Wright played both ways and did it well for former Crosby head coach Jason Martinez. He was named all-conference three times at Kingswood-Oxford. At Holy Cross, Wright had nearly 1,000 all-purpose yards as a freshman. Wright was a verbal commit to Rutgers, but switched to Temple. He was named NEPSAC Player of the Year and was chosen as All-USA Connecticut Offensive Player of the Year by USA Today as a senior.
Temple head coach Matt Rhule raved about Wright during the preseason.
“Isaiah Wright is a player we have been playing at wide receiver and running back, and you can tell he is going to be a special player,” Rhule said in a story written by Marc Narducci of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Marchi has traveled a post-high school road that took him from UConn to thinking about
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| Marchi (Temple athletics) |
attending East Coast Prep for a post-grad season, then finally to Temple. March, a Winsted native who red-shirted last year, also saw his first Division I action on Saturday. Marchi was 0-for-2 throwing the football, but still, the experience of being on a Division I field must have felt great. Marchi knew when he came to Temple’s camp in 2014 that it wouldn’t be easy.
“It’s just competition. It’s all about whether you want to compete or not,” Marchi said in an article from Matt Breen of the Inquirer. “You’re not going to walk into any Division I program with a starting spot open for you. You have to earn it.”
Marchi, as everyone knows around here, was a prolific passer for St. Paul Catholic in
Bristol. He is second all-time for his career in passing yards and most completions, and he is third in most passing touchdowns. He is tied for third all-time for most passing touchdowns in a game with seven. Marchi has the all-time record for most passing attempts in a career. What made Marchi tough to defend was he could also run the ball. He was able to scramble and keep plays alive, which made the Falcon aerial assault difficult to contain.
There’s plenty of games left in the Temple season, so I’ll keep you up-to-date on what goes on with Wright and Marchi.
