Dover Dragons host Westlake September 8 at Boyce Park
By John M. Benson
September 3, 2007
Dover football will open the 2007 season at home this Saturday, September 8, at 1:00 p.m. at Boyce Park. Boyce Park is the site for all home games this season, because the campus field is under construction for the terrific new stadium and football/track & field complex.
The Dragons played hard and played well in the scrimmage last Saturday at Blind Brook, where they worked against Blind Brook, Pleasantville and Rye Neck. They were playing with the determination and energy of a team that has worked and prepared for a full calendar year to begin a winning season of 2007 and replace the memories of a disappointing 2006 campaign.
As head coach Frank Smith said, “I have been very pleased with the preparation work the guys have done since last season. They worked out three days a week at the captains’ practices this summer. They have been lifting and running, and we have three outstanding captains who have kept them together and focused. Our captains are Greg Emerson, Dylan Young and Chris Rizo.
“This year, we have a number of seniors, a lot of returning starters, and it is a pretty veteran team. We are a much more experienced team this year going into the season. We are already, I feel after the first week, far ahead of where we were last year at this time. We had to spend so much time on fundamentals last year, where this year, we can right into it and get going. Practices are moving a lot quicker. We were 2-6 last year. We were young. We had two returning starters from the year before, so basically, the whole team was rookies, and it was a pretty intense schedule that we had.”
In the scrimmage last Saturday, Dover played an outstanding Pleasantville team to a scoreless tie, and scored often against Blind Brook and Rye Neck. The defense gave up a couple of big plays in the beginning, as they got accustomed to the speed of real competition and to playing next to new teammates, but they settled down and shut down every team once they got settled.
“We want to run the ball, and in our package, we will run to set up the pass,” said coach Smith. “I was pleased with our offensive line in the scrimmage. I thought Greg was pretty well protected when we wanted to throw the ball, and he had some good completions to Mark Arena and Chris Rizo and Derek Sanchez. I thought the offensive line did a good job on Saturday, allowing Rizo, Ferraro and Sanchez to have a good day running the ball.”
Against Rye Neck in the first series of downs, Dover ran three plays and scored from the 40 yard line: Five yards by Rizo up the middle, 15 yards sweep right by Ferraro, and a quick hitter off right tackle by Rizo who raced through a huge hole, cut it to his left in front of the linebackers, and ran for 20 yards for the touchdown.
Derek Sanchez shows incredibly deceptive speed from his right wingback position. With his long strides, he appears not to be at full speed, but he showed Rye Neck what his speed is like when he easily made the corner around a safety and dove into the end zone for the score.
Quarterback Greg Emerson completed a 30-yard pass for a touchdown to tight end Mark Arena, showing that Dover can move the ball in air as well as on the ground.
Coach Smith gave out the following starting offensive lineup:
Quarterback Greg Emerson
Fullback Chris Rizo
Wingback Derek Sanchez
Wingback Andrew Ferraro
Left Tight End Joe Cook
Left Tackle Dylan Young
Left Guard Eric Robbins
Center Kevin Moore
Right Guard Eddie Bouton
Right Tackle Bill Greenlease
Right Tight End Mark Arena
Rotating in on offense and defense will be linemen Mike Nelson at tackle, Matt Tipping at guard, and Dale Spencer at tight end.
Defensive lineup:
Kevin Moore and Bill Greenlease at the tackles
Joe Cook and Mark Arena at the ends
Greg Eisenhut and Derek Sanchez at the outside linebackers
Chris Rizo and Andrew Ferraro at the inside linebackers
Cornerbacks Andrew Felix, Justin Campbell and David Sanchez
Safety Greg Emerson
The roster is filled out by Corey Celik, Nick Jaouen, Matthew Hogue, Caleb Heinrich, Deshawn Williams, Jim Brown, Brendan Hamilton, Thomas Berry, Ken Wallace, Zack Borner, Joseph Romeo, Kevin Gleason, Josh Dubrey, Andrew Frame, Anthony Tyler, John Erenberg, Lionel Bowser, Anthony Galente, and Mason Mullamphy.
“We have a starting lineup that doesn’t look the same for long, because we are constantly rotating guys in,” said Smith. “We have a lot of guys playing on both sides of the ball, and that is why I am trying to rotate them in and out as much as possible. That is also why we are working hard to develop our junior varsity program, to get our numbers up in the experienced players coming up to the varsity and not have to get by the way we did last year. Last year it was a total teaching year. It was like a JV program on our varsity, because they were all new. This year, we have had these kids for a full year, so they have the skills, and they know what we are looking for on the field.
“Our top newcomer this year is Mason Mullamphy. He is new to football this year, but he has helped us out quite a bit. He is a twelfth grader, and I wish I could have him for a couple more years. He is playing cornerback and tight end, and he will see a lot of playing time.
“We play two corners and one free safety, and the strong safety would be our outside linebacker that lines up to the strong side. We play a 4-4 because it is more balanced. Unlike a 4-3 where I would have one outside linebacker switching to the strong side, we have two in the middle and two on the outside. We play a 4-4-2-1 on defense, with the two outside linebackers. We will be aggressive on defense, run a lot of blitzes and stunts, get after the offense and stay on the attack.”
Smith is proud of the way the players have worked hard and prepared for this season, and he has great confidence in their ability to play and have a successful season.
At the same time, coming off a tough year, he does not want to make predictions for the season.
“We are coming off of a 2-6 record, so I don’t want to make any predictions. I don’t want to sound too hokey, but the fact is, we really are taking it one game at a time. We are working very hard to get ready for Westlake, our first game and our first home game. They are always an outstanding football team, and all we want to do now is get ready to play that first game.
“But I can say that I feel very positive on the outlook for the 2007 season. Our players have been very dedicated in their preparation, beginning with the captains’ practices this summer, which were very well attended and they got a lot of strength and conditioning work done. If we stay healthy, I think we have a very good starting eleven on both sides of the ball. If we get too deep into the numbers behind them, we do drop off, simply because there are younger players there. The key is to keep everyone healthy, keep working hard, focus on Westlake, and we are ready to go. They have been through the conditioning, they have been through the drills, and now we are ready to play.”
Frank Smith is joined by coaches Michael Jaouen, John Johaneman and Eric Watson.
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