Lansdale Catholic

By Mike Cabrey

mcabrey@thereporteronline.com

LANSDALE — Having to replace an entire offensive line and most of a defensive front might be seen as barrier to success. Lansdale Catholic coach Tom Kirk, however, sees it a chance for some Crusaders to step up.

“You can look at it one of two ways and say this is going to be a rebuilding process, but I’m sure not interested in rebuilding and I’m sure the senior class isn’t interested in rebuilding as well,” Kirk said. “The message to our team is whether you’re a freshman, sophomore, junior or senior, we have a lot of opportunities for kids to go out and play.

“You can either seize the opportunity or just act like a freshman, sophomore or junior.”

Last year, LC won its first five games and finished 6-4 to earn the program’s first winning season since it went to the PIAA Class AA quarterfinals in 2007. The Crusaders are back in 2A for 2014, meaning a new set of division rivals in the Philadelphia Catholic League. And those teams have to deal with a new cast of playmakers in green and gold.

“The exciting thing about this year’s team is other teams really don’t know what to expect,” senior quarterback/safety Joe Pinzka said. “In the past, we’ve had guys that other teams were keying on all offseason, stuff like that. This season, we got a whole group of guys and it’s exciting, teams aren’t going to know what we’ve got.”

Pinzka is back under center after throwing for 454 yards and eight touchdowns and running for another two scores. Senior Eddie McKee should provide Pinzka was a quality downfield target with his 6-foot-4 frame.

Junior Ryan Quigley was third on LC with 658 yards and 10 touchdowns on 100 carries and was second in receiving yards – 152 yards and two scores on five catches.

Junior Marlen Fenstermacher will also factor in to the running attack, while Kirk is still looking to fill the fullback spot.

“Our running game is our bread and butter,” Kirk said. “And we’re going to run the ball as well this year. We’re obviously going to have some different wrinkles because we don’t have the experience up front that we had. We have some size, we just don’t have quite the experience.

“But if we can’t run, we can’t pass. So, we have to be able to run the football and really control the clock is really what’s important for us.”

The new-look offensive line will include junior Dave Torri at center and Methacton transfer Vince Picozzi.

The Crusaders defense allowed 21.2 points per game in 2013, but did hold four teams to singles digits and collected a pair of shutouts against Germantown Academy and Bishop McDevitt. Most of the experience this year is at linebacker and secondary.

“No question about it, the strength is our middle seven if you will,” Kirk said. “Our defensive (backs), linebackers are pretty strong, we’re a little bit undersized right now at defensive ends, but the way that we play those guys it’s almost OK, very seldom are they matched up against big interior linemen.

“We have size on our defensive line, we just don’t have an awful lot of experience there. But, again, I think by the time the season rolls around, we’ll be in pretty good shape.

Pinzka and Quigley are helming the safety spots, while McKee teams with senior Andrew McClintock and junior Marty Dolan in the linebacking corps, the trio looking to help cut down the 250.1 yards per contest the LC defense gave up in 2013.

“We’re big guys strong provide a lot of intensity on defense,” McKee said. “I just like working with them, it’s a lot of fun.

Moving down to 2A puts Lansdale Catholic in a PCL division with Bishop McDevitt, Conwell-Egan, Neumann-Goretti and West Catholic. The Crusaders beat the first three last season and get first crack against West since 2011 in their division-opener in Week 5.

Before meeting the Burrs, LC starts in Ocean City for the third straight season, taking on Public League side Simon Gratz. Then come matchups with Suburban One sides Springfield (Montco) and Hatboro-Horsham and defending District 1-AAA champ Academy Park.

“In (PCL) AA unlike AAA, only two teams make the (division) playoffs. So, yeah, we were in the playoffs the last two years, but everybody made the playoffs,” Kirk said. “So, in AA there’s only two teams, so our goal is to get to the Catholic League championship. It’s not to win it, it’s to get to the championship game and every game that you play, every scrimmage that you have prior to the regular season gets you prepared for that.”