James Norris was as advertised, the O-Line handled the Cardinals' pressure, the defense made the plays it had to and Joe Iademarco got things started with a memorable touchdown.
POSTED BY EDDIE DWYER
You could see the excitement in head coach Rodney Gallaway's expressions after his promising freshmen team opened its 2012 football season on Thursday night with a sound 27-6 victory over Cardinal Mooney on Wasmer Field.
"I thought the offensive line really handled the pressure," said Coach Gallaway, who is in his fouth season as the head coach of the Wildcats' ninth graders and his fifth overall at Saint Ignatius. Coach Gallaway also teaches Algebra and Honors Geometry at the Jesuit Preparatory School in Ohio City.
"Mooney was throwing a lot of blitz packages at us and the offensive line did a great job of handling it," Coach Gallaway continued. "And I thought we made a lot of big hits on defense."
Coach Gallaway, like so many in attendance at Wasmer Field (the home side was packed), was extremely impressed with the debut of freshman tailback James Norris, who rambled for three long touchdown runs. Using his sound blocking, bouncing and cutting to open space almost effortlessly and then turning on the jets in the open field, Norris displayed skills that you normally see in a much older player, skills that Coach Gallaway said gave him goose bumps as he was watching Norris fly to the end zone.
Now, believe this corner when I tell you that I don't like to get carried away when it comes to freshmen. And that is in fairness to them. But while I am not going to compare Norris to such Wildcat greats as Eric Haddad, Pete Fitzpatrick and current All-Ohioan Tim McVey, or the brilliant two-time Mr. Football from Euclid High School, Robert Smith, let me just say that I hope God allows me to be around for Norris' entire career at Saint Ignatius.
Along with Norris' impressive runs, the Wildcats' faithful were treated to an athletic catch and run in the flat by Joe Iademarco in the early going, an effort that saw Joe grab the ball in stride and make an outstanding cut en route to the end zone. It was a touchdown Joe won't soon forget being that it was the first six points for a class that has plenty of potential.
As for Cardinal Mooney's freshmen, the Cardinals were big and game.
Trailing, 27-0, the team from Erie Street in Youngstown found the end zone after recovering a Saint Ignatius fumble with 5 minutes and 46 seconds remaining to be played. Cardinal Mooney had one other major threat earlier in the fourth quarter, but that was wiped out by a fumble recovery by the 'Cats' Marcus Hogan at the Saint Ignatius 21-yard line.
Saint Ignatius led, 20-0, at halftime and Coach Gallaway went to his bench in the third quarter after Norris' third touchdown.
"It was a great initial experience at Saint Ignatius, now build off of it," Wildcats assistant coach Jack Duffy '09 said to the freshmen, who huddled with the coaches near the Lorain Avenue end zone after the game and then made their way to the chapel for prayer and to sing the alma mater.
Up next for Coach Gallaway's team is a trip to De LaSalle in Warren, Michigan on August 31.