40 teams in 40 days – Day 13: Cardinal O’Hara

Written by: David Mika on Friday, August 3rd, 2012. Follow David Mika on Twitter.

2011 season

Jay Watkins and Damiere Shaw led the team in rushing. Dashawn Darden passed for 1,011 yards and 11 touchdowns. Thaddius Smith had 241 yards receiving.

The Lions finished the season with a record of 6-5.

“Last season our kids never quit,” said head football coach Dan Algeo. “I will give you an example. The first game we were down at the shore playing Archbishop Ryan and we were down, 21-10 with under four minutes to go and we found a way to win. We won 24-21.”

We were a very young team.

Q & A with Cardinal O’Hara head football coach Dan Algeo

We sat down with Algeo and talked to him about his team for the 2012 season.

How is your off-season going this summer?

Our off-season is going well. The weight training, our speed camps and 7-on-7 are going well. The kids are working real hard during the off-season.

Who do you have coming back on offense?

We have four of the five kids back on the line from last year.

We have our left side of our line back. Our left tackle is senior Carmen Cervella and our left guard is senior Tyler Dinnella.

They are going to be the only two seniors we start this year.

Kevin Campbell started at center for us last season, he is back. Our right tackle Jake Kraiza started last year for us as a sophomore.

The big question mark is who is going to be right guard? Jeffrey Driggins and Andrew Gallagher will be battling for the right guard position.

Dashawn Darden is back at quarterback. He started all of the games for us last year. As the season progress he progressed. His last game against Haverford, he was 22 of 26 for 297 yards and three touchdowns. We are hoping he will continue where he left off.

His main target will be Thaddius Smith at wide receiver. He will be a junior and already has a Temple and Rutgers offer. He is an explosive kid.

The other two receivers we have are Chris Colvin, who runs good routes and Darell Jackson.

My tight end is Nolan Cummings.

My fullbacks are Tom Jones and Paul Eisenacher.

Lamont Veal is our tailback.

Who do you have coming back on defense?

Joe Demaio is a free safety. He was first team All-Catholic. I think he is one of the better safeties in the area.

Darrell Jackson is one of our cornerbacks. We are going to rotate Lamont Veal and Thaddius Smith at the other cornerback spot.

John Harris will also rotate in at cornerback position.

Nick Moriconi started last year at defensive end. We are moving him to inside linebacker with Nolan Cummings.

There is a battle at outside linebacker between Matt Penza, Tarron Dunbar and Andrew Houtmann.

The defensive tackles are Kev Campbell and J Kraiza.

Our defensive ends are Eric Trainor and Nick Lucchetta.

Who do you have coming back on special teams?

Our punt returners are Thaddius Smith and Joe DeMaio. Steve Weyler is our kicker and punter.

Smith, DeMaio and Lamont Veal will be our kick returners.

What do you have to do to be success in your league this year?

We have to be better up front. We want to win the league and it goes through Wood. Our coaches know it and everyone knows it. They had a great team last year and have good kids coming back this year. They have a tremendous staff. They are the team to beat. Bonner is going to be good again. I think our league is going to be competitive.

To have a successful season you have to?

Stay healthy. We don’t have a great numbers. We have to play better defense and be more physical.

On offense we need to run the ball better.

Home Opener

Cardinal O’Hara opens at Ocean City (NJ) against Archbishop Ryan on September 1^st

40 teams in 40 days

Day 1 – Mount Carmel Area (4)

Day 2 – Manheim Central (3)

Day 3 – Delaware Valley (2)

Day 4 – Southern Columbia (4)

Day 5 – Berwick Area (2)

Day 6 – Easton Area (11)