Having waited 17 long years to make it back to the top of the Section III Class AA ranks, the Liverpool football team will now find out how difficult it is to stay there.
What happened last fall was close to perfection. A ferocious, dominant defense combined with a dynamic ground attack anchored by running back Jaydakis Scott to push the Warriors to its first sectional title since 1998.
Only a missed extra point in the state semifinal against Rochester Aquinas kept Liverpool from going all the way to the state title game. The pain of that 17-16 defeat was accentuated when Aquinas went on to rout Saratoga Springs in the state final a week later.
Yet the impact of this championship season remains strong. As head coach Dave Mancuso said, “when you have success, more kids want to come out”, and there’s more than 350 of those kids spread out through the various levels of Liverpool football, including more than 60 on the varsity roster for 2016.
Regardless of how the Warriors finished last fall, it knew, going into 2016, that it would need to replace most of its starting lineup. More than 30 seniors departed, leaving a very difficult act to follow both on offense and defense.
Matt Rioux, already a standout defensive back, takes over for Jordan Caviness at quarterback. Modest in size (5-foot 9 and 160 pounds), Rioux still has a strong arm and plenty of speed to scramble if the throw isn’t there. Sophomore Zach Neufang is not far behind and could see a lot of time on the field this fall.
And though Rioux doesn’t have a back of Scott’s explosive nature to count on, he knows that Donovan Card, who returns at tailback, did quite well starting two games in Scott’s absence a season ago. Card is part of a backfield that includes Tavon Bates and Jakan Townsend. At fullback, Audey Ashkar is gone, so Steven Murphy, Joe Fontanella and Tyler Viviano will try to match Ashkar’s many contributions.
Even with all of those backs, Liverpool intends to throw it more, especially with 6-foot-4 Naz Johnson back to line up at tight end or wide receiver, causing all kinds of match-up problems. If teams intend to shut Johnson down, Ben Michalowski and Brendan Irick could get open.
For all of the people Liverpool needs to replace, the offensive line might prove the most challenging. The senior quintet of David Carnie, Zach Mentel, Alex Denegal, Ben WIdas and Jeremiah Ferrante dominated the line of scrimmage throughout 2015, and all of them graduated.
The new line is in place, though, ranging from center Brady DePan (230 pounds) to guards Tyler Andrews (240 pounds) and Vinny Baker (250 pounds) to tackles Riley Balthazor (250 pounds) and Lochlainn Fegley (320 pounds). All of them played a season ago, but finding their rhythm as a group might take some time.
Whatever challenges the offense faces with so many new starters is matched, if not topped, by the test Liverpool defensive coordinator C.J. Vivacqua and his staff face.
On the line, where the likes of Carnie, Ben Widas and Merrell Whitehead departed, there’s still some dominant players that include Johnson at end and Will Clayton at tackle. It’s difficult for any offense to try and double-team either of them, so quarterbacks should still feel lots of pressure from the Warriors’ front four.
At linebacker, Joe Scro’s impact was so great that his injury and departure directly led to Liverpool’s lone regular-season defeat to CBA a season ago. Scro, Jarod Thiel and Michael Wright all are gone, but Card returns, and could prove as unstoppable as Scro.
“You have to run away from him,” said Vivacqua. “He’s a difference-maker.”
Freshman Jacob Vacco is generating some buzz as he, along with Mo Ashkar and Zach Scannell, join Card at linebacker, while in the secondary the likes of Zack Khatib and Daryl Nixon will be difficult to replace, but Michalowski, Jalen Harper and Ricky Oundo will try.
And Patrick DelGobbo is back as the Warriors’ primary kicker. Good as DelGobbo was throughout 2015, his last kick of the season was the one that was deflected by Aquinas star Earnest Edwards and sailed wide against Aquinas. DelGobbo would love another chance at a kick that important.
Liverpool opens Friday night against Corcoran. In the reconfigured Class AA-2 division, the Warriors have both of its neighboring rivals on hand, so it will visit Cicero-North Syracuse Sept. 16 and, a week later, host Baldwinsville, whom it has beat in each of the last two sectional semifinals.
Mancuso said that all of Liverpool’s returning players are aware of what’s gone on before them and are bent on matching that high standard.
“It’s a huge feat to get where we did last year,” said Mancuso. “They (the players) saw how great it was, and want to get back there, but it’s not easy.”
