Football: Briarcliff and Pleasantville Look for Fast Starts

The Bears will open the season at Irvington at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10.

The team is looking for revenge, as Irvington beat Briarcliff last year twice in the last three weeks of the season, 23-6 at Briarcliff and 21-6 at Irvington.

“We are taking care of what we can take care of, and obviously last year is last year,” Coach John Consorti said. “But, I have to be truthful, I know we lost twice to them last year so that’s in the back of our minds; but we have a job to do Saturday and that is our main focus.”

According to the Bears’ coach, the key to the opener will be to just play as a unit, play together, play hard for 48 minutes and play as a team.

“Then we will find out where we stand,” Consorti said.

Consorti added two more important factors will be to limit the penalties and turnovers.

“It is the first game, so hopefully if we do well in those two areas, then we can have success,” Consorti said.

What makes Consorti feel good going into this opener is his squad has been working hard and together during the preseason, he said.

“Those guys that are returning, going 0-8 last year was pretty humbling,” Consorti explained. “They don’t want to go through that again, so they realized that things had to change. By no means do I hold them responsible totally for what happened last year. Sometimes you just get the perfect storm and things don’t work out. I think the fact that after last year the kids just want another shot and this is there opportunity. That’s the underlying thought.”

Giving the Bears hope that it can leave Irvington with a win is quarterback Ryan Hooper.

“There’s a lot of variations to our offense and he has a very good grasp of what we are trying to do,” Consorti said. “He is feeling more confident in himself. I think the year of experience playing wise last year was a big help.”

Defensively, if the Bears are to shutdown Irvington, everybody on the defensive unit will have to pitch in.

“We have a team philosophy on defense,” Consorti said. “Obviously everybody has to be picking up their assignment but it’s really about playing hard, playing fast and playing with heart. We just want to play fast and tackle.”

The Panthers will open this season at 7 p.m. tonight at Putnam Valley.

Pleasantville fans can only hope their team plays as well as it did in last year’s meeting at Putnam Valley. In that contest, the Panthers came away with a 34-12 triumph.

Pleasantville Coach Tony Becerra said he is cautiously optimistic about his team’s chances of winning the rematch.

“After finishing 3-6 last year, you can’t get overly excited about anything until we prove otherwise,” Becerra said.

The opener is always a big deal in football and is even more so this season since only four teams in Class B will qualify for the playoffs.

“This game will set the stage for the rest of the season,” Becerra said.

While there is a lot of pomp and circumstance going into the opener, Becerra’s philosophy is to treat it like the other games on the schedule.

“The first game is like any other game,” Becerra said. “We have to avoid turnovers, be fundamentally sound in blocking and tackling. The first games tend to be ugly as far as mistakes and stuff like that goes so we will try to minimize those things.”

Looking to minimize the mistakes and make big plays on offense for the Panthers will be quarterback John Conway.

“I am feeling good so far about him,” Becerra said. “He is a microcosm of the team. If he gets confidence and has success, then the team will have confidence and have success as a whole.”

Becerra feels the key to his team’s chances defensively are its linemen, Kevin Barile, Mike Minerva and Obum Anyichie. Anyichie is a nose guard, the other two are defensive tackles.

“Our defensive line as a whole is the key because we don’t return any starters there,” Becerra said. “They need to prove that they can get the job done.”

As a group, this Panther team also realizes it has to get the job done so it can avoid back to back losing seasons. Pleasantville had won three league championships in a row previously.

“More than Xs and Os, just the hard work and attitude in the preseason was an improvement over last year,” Becerra said. “They made a point not to repeat 3-6 again.”