NORTH EASTHAM — There’s something to be said for passion on a high school football field.
Not blessed with great depth this season, the Monomoy Regional High School Sharks more than made up for a lack of numbers with high intensity and superb execution on both sides of the ball in Friday night’s scrimmage with host Nauset and the Cape Tech Crusaders and rolled away with a pair of shutout victories.
Monomoy head coach Ross Jatkola inspires his players during a time-out in Friday night’s scrimmage against Nauset and Cape Tech.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
The well-attended pre-season scrimmage at Nauset Regional High School was played beneath the lights and under perfect late-summer weather — each team faced each other once. Monomoy took a 6-0 win and an 8-0 win versus host Nauset and Cape Tech, while Nauset ended the night on a bright note with a 35-12 win over Cape Tech. Each team played against each other “live” for 15-minute quarters.
“I’m happy with the energy,” said Monomoy first-year head coach Ross Jatkola, a former assistant at Dennis-Yarmouth under longtime head coach Paul Funk. “But we have a lot of work to do. We missed some blocks and we were out there with our number four and five (running) backs.”
But by the looks of it, Monomoy’s Devin Lopes looked like any team’s number one back as he scored a pair of touchdowns — one on a five-yard pop pass from Drew Senatore against Nauset and the second one a 25-yard sweep against Cape Tech.
Eli Nickerson caught a two-point conversion pass from Monomoy’s Charles Amaker who alternated with Senatore calling the plays from the line of scrimmage as well as running with the ball.
Monomoy’s Devin Lopes is congratulated by teammate Garret Sherman after scoring a touchdown Friday night.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
“Nickerson was great tonight,” Jatkola said.
Nickerson also set the tone early on with an interception of Nauset quarterback Travis Van Vleck’s first attempt of the scrimmage and the Sharks followed with a fumble recovery on Nauset’s next possession.
Nauset’s Akeem Atkinson looked lightning quick in the open field on the scrimmage’s opening kickoff and almost broke for a 90-yard return score but was called for being out of bounds at midfield. Atkinson hails from Centerville and is a junior.
Cape Tech’s James Criasia, Justin Lucas and Marcus Aylmer showed some skill in both of the Crusaders’ 15-minute quarters.
Jatkola singled out Lopes, Amaker and freshman Kyle Charlot as standouts for the Sharks, but there was little doubt the new head coach shared the passion of his players throughout the contests, shouting out “everybody’s stepping up tonight” after one solid defensive stop after another. Still, he could not say enough good things about Nickerson.
“Nickerson played out of his mind tonight,” Jatkola said.
In another scrimmage off-Cape, Barnstable High notched victories over Durfee and Bishop Stang. Red Raider head coach Chris Whidden was buoyed by his team’s performance.
“Big improvement over last week,” Whidden said.
— Story, video and photos by Sean Walsh, sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
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