40 Teams in 40 Days – Day 31 – Berks Catholic (3) – Small School Team # 5

Written by: David Mika on Wednesday, August 21st, 2013. Follow David Mika on Twitter.

Berks Catholic (3)

Conference: Berks Inter-County Conference, Section 2

Class: AA

Nickname: Saints

Coach: Rick Keely

2012 Record: 9-2

Returning Players – Offense: Sr. TE Pietro Gaspari; Sr. OT Tomas Aguilar; Sr. OL Che Murray; Sr. QB Matt Kase; Jr. QB Patrick Causa; Sr. RB Carsen Allen; Sr. RB Chris Warren; Sr. RB Cooper Kutz; Jr. FB Matt Reinhart; Sr. FB Will Budock; Sr. SE Kyle Eliff; Sr. WR Michael Gokay

Returning Players – Defense: Sr. DT Kobe Foy; Sr. DT Tomas Aguilar; So. DE Eric Bodolus; Sr. DE Pietro Gaspari; Sr. LB Nick Waligurski; Jr. ILB Matt Reinhart; Sr. LB Sam Stiles; Sr. OLB Eric Fellin; Sr. CB Cooper Kutz; Sr. CB Chris Warren; Sr. FS Carsen Allen

Special Teams: “Our kick return game should be good. We have all those athletes back. Chris Warren took I think two or three kickoff returns back for touchdowns last year. Cooper Kutz took two or three punt returns back for touchdowns last year. Patrick Causa when he was a sophomore returned a punt almost for a touchdown, he stepped out at the one. Carson Allen is dangerous back there. We have a lot of guys that can do it. Chris and Cooper lead the way on special teams. Michael Gokay is our long snapper. We don’t return anyone at kicker. Patrick Causa punted last year. Eric Fellin has been punting this summer. He may punt this year. Patrick will be in the mix.”

 

Coaches comments:

How’s your offensive line?

“We have a lineman returning and a tight end. The only returning lineman tackle is Tomas Aguilar. He’s our offensive tackle. We have a bunch of guys battling for the remaining four spots on the line. Phil Bennethum has worked really hard in the weight room and gotten stronger and it looks like he will play center. The two guard spots are kind of up in the air. We may move Sam Stiles from tight end to guard. Eric Bodolus could play guard. Che Murray will be in the mix at guard. All three of those kids are good athletes and can play other spots.”

“Pietro Gaspari returns at tight end. Pietro is a great blocker and has soft hands. This will be his fourth-year starting. He started as a freshman at Holy Name before the two schools merged. He’s very athletic and we have to make a point to get him the ball this year. He’s a weapon down the field for us.”

 

How’s your quarterback?

“We split time last year between Matt Kase who will be a senior and Patrick Causa who will be a junior. We are going to split time again this year at least going into camp. Both kids are good kids and very talented. Both kids could be the starter and we would get the job done. But they will continue to work together and we expect a lot out of both kids this year. Both kids are mobile and both are better outside the pocket than inside the pocket. Matt is a little bigger. He’s more of a power runner. Patrick is more elusive and can shift gears. There isn’t much difference between both kids. Our third guy is Josh Mendenhall.”

 

How’s your running game?

“We have a lot of depth at the running position. We return Carsen Allen, Cooper Kutz and Chris Warren. They all started and rotated in at the two halfback spots last year. All three of those kids can catch, they can run and they can block. All three kids are capable to go the distance. We have a couple of kids that should add more depth. They are Blake Lutz and Joe Stiles. Blake has worked hard in the off-season and he is a tough runner. Joe is a hard tough runner and will contribute somewhere. We have a junior Matt Reinhart. He is big and strong. In a 200-yard sprint he is probably our fastest guy. He’s one of the strongest guys on the team. He is a physical runner. He is our fullback that has break away speed. We have another kid, Will Budock, who ran for 100 yards in a game for us last year. He was a fullback last year and we may move him around. So, we really have some good kids, really talented kids and they all do different things well.”

 

How are your receivers?

“We start two guys and they are Michael Gokay and Kyle Eliff. Both kids are going to be seniors and started every game for us last year. With all our running backs I expect maybe a guy or two in the mix at receiver position. Both kids have really worked hard to improve their game and are great blockers.”

 

How’s your defensive line?

“Our returning tackle is Kobe Foy. He brings a lot of experience back from last year. Tomas Aguilar is back. He is a high motor kid. Tynan DeShields played some line last year. He is a big kid and moves well for his size. He may play some at tackle. The defensive ends are Eric Bodolus and Pietro Gaspari are back. Eric started a few games and one was the Schuylkill Valley game. He made the sack on a two-point conversion less than 30 seconds remaining and we won the game by a point. He is a big time player and he is going to be a sophomore. This will be Pietro’s third-year starting at defensive end. We are relying on Pietro on both sides of the ball. He is the only guy that we need on both sides of the ball.”

 

How about your linebackers?

“We have one of the best returning linebackers in our league. He is Nick Waligurski. He is a great kid and great player. Unfortunately he tore his ACL playing Lacrosse in Mid-july and will miss this 2013 season. He was going to be the anchor of our defense. He was our middle linebacker and was smart, tough, good leader and all the kids look up to him. So, we are going to miss him a ton inside. But we have all those skill guys and we have depth. So we have a lot of guys that will have to step up in his place. I told the kids that I don’t think we are going to replace Nick, but we have a lot of guys that can step up and move over and help and make it work. So, inside linebacker looks like Matt Reinhart. He started the last six games for us last year. He has so much natural ability. Sam Stiles started the first half of the year last year. He will play some. We talked about moving Tom Ferguson inside. Eric Fellin is our other outside linebacker. So all those kids are in the mix at linebacker.”

 

How about your secondary?

“Cooper Kutz was our defensive back of the year in our league last year. He had five interceptions and he plays corner for us. On the other side we have Chris Warren at corner. He is a really athletic kid. Carsen Allen, the other running back, started at free safety for us last year. It looks like there are a couple of guys out there that can push him. But right now he is the guy at free safety. He did a good job for us last year.”

2013 Schedule

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