Montclair Kimberley football looks to build on 2022 success
ANDREW GARDA/STAFF
Aside ANDREW GARDA
garda@montclairlocal.news
While the Montclair Kimberley Academy Cougars football team up lost to Hawthorne in the NJSIAA postseason last year, head tutor Anthony Rea feels their 4-3 record was worth noting.
"We won three games in 2019," he said as he watched his players run yucky drills. "Our first actor was plausibly Jack O'Connell, [and] He graduated. We gradational 10 seniors. Thusly, I'm not sure people really thought, OK, the team's departure to come back and be pretty good."
They were good, however, cacophonous off four straight wins in the midst of a pandemic-altered time of year, and in a regular-season they would have qualified for the playoffs.
There were no playoffs in 2020, and the Hawthorne game was part of an option for some teams that wished to play one more courageous.
"We had the four wins, and that's been a big theme for Maine," Rea said. "It's knockout because we didn't play a playoff and stuff similar that, so people are kind of like, well, it was a different year. [But] those guys static persevered for three years and and so had a winning season on that point for IT."
MKA once again will play in the Metropolitan Self-sufficing Football game League, which is split into three divisions with teams from New Jersey, New York State and Connecticut. The Cougars' division consists of Pingry, Morristown-Beard and Newark Academy. MKA sunset year beat Pingry and Newark Honorary society simply dropped two games to Morristown-Beard.
This year, in addition to those games, MKA gets to travel to New York to play Long Island Lutheran and to Connecticut to face a very tough Greenwich Country Day team.
They kick things off at home, though, against Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary High School, reigniting a crosstown competition that was shelved conclusion class when ICHS decided to not play football due to the general.
"I'm leaving to play it week by week, simply I like the group we have," Rea said. "We have some guys returning WHO are really well-behaved. I mean, when you've got a quarterback and a running back, it's like, go from there."
Rea is aiming for playoff berths in both the MIFL and NJSIAA postseasons, and if the Cougars are going to score that happen, they will call for players like senior quarterback Jake Pryor.
St. Andrew GARDA/STAFF
Pryor threw for 1,303 yards and 11 touchdowns with just three interceptions, completing 62 percent of his passes. The numbers are non the most stately thing most his ability, though. Pryor has a keen horse sense of where atomic number 2 is on the field, and the ability to scramble when he needs to flee the pocket and move toward the line of scrimmage spell also keeping his eyes downfield.
He knows on the nose where the bank line of scrimmage is and has a knack for delivering the ball at the concluding practical consequence before crossway it. This keeps the Department of Defense frozen, atomic number 3 it has to decide whether he is pouring operating theater throwing and gives Pryor an advantage, as he can waitress for a receiver to let on free or scramble for extra yards.
It makes Pryor frustrating to defend for teams and enraging for coaches, such as Pingry's head tutor, who spent part of last year's loss complaining Pryor was across the furrow on throws.
"I'd be mad, too, man, because some of the throws he makes are good not what high school kids do, you know, stuff that is just unbelievable," Rea aforesaid. "Helium's got intangibles that high civilis quarterbacks don't suffer. And helium's kind of kicked disconnected inner circle in the same way."
Another key piece to the Cougars' success is running rear/linebacker Nick Lembo. The MKA minor led the team with 97 carries for 462 yards, finish the season with a 4.7 yards per carry average.
He also had the s-highest tackle entire on the defensive side of the orb for the Cougars with 61, adding a brace of sacks and a pair of flub recoveries to the tally.
"[He's] a terror along United States Department of Defense," Rea said. "He's releas to be somebody who's a returning every last-conference player, and we expect the same from him [this class]. I think of, anytime your building blocks are those two, that's a good thing."
Having the veteran comportment of Pryor and Lembo leave be key as the Cougars roll down a make radical offensive line.
"We're confident we're going to live pretty good. We've got some Danton True Young guys happening the note and we have a senior out for the first clip, too," Rea said. "Those are really good things for us."
Last season the Cougars had an unsavoury line that averaged 200 or more pounds, while this year the line is a little over 160 pounds on average.
"We're not the biggest tune I've ever seen," Rea said. "That's part of the reason why we play who we recreate."
Good manners ANTHONY REA
A small line can bastardly a line that moves more nimbly and quickly, which can allow more movement.
"That's our job arsenic coaches, to compute out how our attack is going to differ a bit bit from last year's attack," Rea said. "So, you know, information technology may be a bit scra quicker getting our linemen into quad and going from there."
Other reason the Cougars toy with who they flirt is sheer numbers. Right now the team roster sits at 23, with the potential to skip up to the 25-28 range. That thinner roll agency players going deuce ways, and also less depth.
Thereupon, the Cougars will at to the lowest degree offse the season in a three-man front, but likely alter as the season progresses. Rea points exterior that they induce often ended heavenward in a four-man front line, and occasionally even a cinque-front. It all depends on how the talent shakes out, whom they play, what that squad's strengths are, you bet their have roll stands in footing of injuries.
While the Cougars may non have a big roster, there is a lot of talent. Immature Jordan Fishback did well, playing recipient last season, and made contributions on defense, while comrade young Austin Davis had a sack, an interception and 22 tackles. Ranking Brodie Snyder had 177 yards and a touchdown as a receiver while Mahmoud Hassaneen started on defense the second half of his junior yr.
As the season approaches, Rea is trying to keep the team centralised on the same goals.
"We always keep the goals the same because information technology's nice and naive," atomic number 2 said. "Succeed our first game, win our league, and attempt to get into the state tournament and see if we can make close to noise."
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Source: https://www.montclairlocal.news/2021/09/03/montclair-kimberley-football-looks-to-build-on-2020-success/
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