St. Paul quarterback Brady McManama unloads a pass while under pressure from Bristol Central on Saturday during a quad scrimmage hosted by Wolcott at Joe Monroe Field.
We’re under two weeks until the high school football season begins, and the locals were putting in work in multi-team scrimmages.
Holy Cross went up against Naugatuck Valley League foe Watertown, along with Plainville of the Central Connecticut Conference this past Thursday. On Saturday, Wolcott hosted a quad scrimmage that included St. Paul and Bristol Central, along with East Catholic-Manchester.
Holy Cross has a solid offensive leader in third-year starting quarterback Drew Caouette, a senior. Caouette actually began starting games for the Crusaders as a freshman before sliding in full time as a sophomore. Holy Cross lost all-around standout Marques Campbell to graduation, but Dae’sean Graves is back for his sophomore season and could be the main target for Caouette in the passing game. Graves caught a ball across the middle in the scrimmage against Watertown and showed speed and balance while nearly tallying a touchdown.
Fellow sophomore Nate Craft is ready to run out of the backfield, as he showed with a 25-yard touchdown run in the scrimmage at Plainville. On defense, the Crusaders had several big hits. They will look to seniors Adrian Acosta, Anthony Shivas, James LaFleur and Nicholas Damato to lead the way.
On Saturday, Wolcott senior Michael McCormack was dynamic all over the field. McCormack ran with the ball out of the backfield, caught it in the passing game, and knocked it away a couple times on deflections while playing safety. McCormack is going to be a problem for opponents and should be expected to have a big impact overall for the Eagles. Wolcott needs big efforts from McCormack and his fellow seniors as it navigates a tough early schedule. St. Paul senior quarterback Brady McManama showed off a pretty solid deep ball, including a pair of touchdowns to six-foot-five junior receiver Emet Evjen against Bristol Central. The Falcons were also able to move the ball at times on the ground. Bristol Central has solid numbers and head coach Jeff Papazian wore a maroon T-shirt that read “WE ARE BaCk” in white print on the back. The B and C were emphasized in gray print and capital letters. The Rams return both leading rushers from last season, Donovan Rodriguez and Jack Hartley. Expect the run to be the breadwinner for Central, like it has been most often under Papazian.
GALLERIES
Here are my photos from Holy Cross on Thursday at Plainville.
Here are my photos from the Wolcott quad scrimmage that included St. Paul and Bristol Central.
