Madonna’s home opener is Trinity’s season opener
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WEIRTON -- The Madonna Blue Dons got to enjoy a big win over Catholic Central last week, and they already are happy again this week just to be playing football.
They will be hosting Morgantown Trinity Saturday night, a team that has been unable to play yet this season due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The game, originally scheduled for noon, has been moved to a 7 p.m. kickoff at Jimmy Carey Stadium and will be Madonna's first home game after four straight on the road to open the season.
"We don't know anything about Trinity because they haven't played and there is no film available on them," said Blue Don first-year head coach Dan Rovira, whose club is 2-2. "All I know is what Trinity head coach Chris Simpson told me on the phone last weekend, and it wasn't very much.
"He said they play the 4-2-5 defense, and they like to throw the football, so they can use their speed. Their quarterback, Drew Boczek, is a sophomore but started last year as a freshman, so he has some experience. Coach Simpson also is in his first year as head coach, but he is familiar with his kids because he was an assistant coach last year."
Boczek likely will be throwing a lot to Mason Steptoe, who is one of only four seniors on the 19-player Warrior roster.
"You know, most of the time it is your team that you have to worry about anyway," Rovira said. "So, we'll just have to see what Trinity does with our coaches relaying information from the press box Saturday and adjust on the fly. But, at least we will be playing."
Rovira added that the preparation this week won't be much different than any other, except not being able to work on Trinity's defense and offense.
"We want to get better each week, and to do that we have to improve on our blocking and tackling, which is what we work on every week anyway," Rovira said.
He noted that his Blue Dons played better last week against the Crusaders than they have been playing, but emphasized that they have to run the football to be successful.
"We gained 85 yards on the ground, and while that isn't a tremendous amount of yardage by most team's standards, it is twice the amount of ground game yardage we had the previous week against Conotton Valley," he said. "We were able to pass the ball for 155 yards, but because we had some success on the ground, we were able to pass when we wanted to and not because we had to.
"I'm more proud of the fact that (Santino) Arlia threw the ball away several times rather than risk costly interceptions. He continues to mature as a quarterback. We don't want turnovers, and his ability to recognize the defense and determine a pass would be risky probably saved us from having a couple of turnovers.
"It'll be interesting Saturday night from the standpoint of not having any information about Trinity. We have the advantage of having played four games, but they have the advantage of getting film of our games so they can prepare for us, but we'll work through that. I'm always happy to get on the field, I'm happy that we finally have a home game, and I'm happy that we have our fans in the stands rooting for us."
Arlia's passing numbers have tailed off a bit, dropping him to second place among the area's gunslingers. He had a very efficient 12 of 19 passing against the Crusaders for 155 yards and two touchdowns, giving him a four-game total of 50 completions in 104 attempts for 925 yards and 10 touchdowns. His interception total remained at seven.
Junior Seth Humberson led the Madonna rushing attack against Central with 37 yards on five carries and a touchdown. Senior Thomas Sessi, the Blue Don rushing leader, had nine carries for 30 yards and a touchdown.
Senior Lucky Pulice made his presence felt against the Crusaders on offense, defense and special teams. He moved into second place in the area in receiving by catching five Arlia aerials for 39 yards and a touchdown. He now has 20 receptions this season for 246 yards and two scores.