#CFC50 HS game preview (BC/AB): No. 7 ND Pride travel through the Rockies to face No. 30 Hyacks

Coach David Diluzio and Farhan Lalji have built a mutual relationship which stemmed from their experience at the CFC Coaches Clinic in Burlington two years prior. Hence, when Coach Diluzio was considering accompany his team to BC for an non-conference game, he reached out to Coach Lalji, who was more than eager to set up this intriguing matchup which will take place this Friday at Mercer Stadium, 7pm.

“One other note. One of the reasons this game is happening is because of Lee Barrett and CFC. Two years ago Lee brought in both Coach Diluzio and I to speak at his clinic in Burlington. He had us both room together in the hotel and we got to develop a bit of a friendship and have stayed in touch since. So when Coach Diluzio was looking to bring his team to BC for a game he reached out to me. We already had another US game scheduled at that time, but I was able to find a replacement for our opponents and free us up to play Notre Dame” states Coach Lalji.

In 2015, the Notre Dame Pride were the #CFC50 No. 8 ranked program in Canada, led by LB Amen Ogbongbemiga who received a full scholarship to NCAA Div 1 Oklahoma St. The Pride graduated a large number of impact players from last year’s team. But they expect many of their current seniors who were backups last year to be solid full-time contributors this fall.

Coming off a provincial championship loss, it will be interesting to see how the ND Pride are able to bounce back this season and handle being somewhat of an underdog, for the first time in quiet some time. The team still bolsters a physically imposing defensive front, a concern coach Lalji seems to be well aware of.

“We know that Notre Dame is going to be very physical so preparing for that will be the focal point this week. Watching them on film it’s clear that they are well coached and fundamentally sound and we’ll have to match that in all three phases. They are always big up front and have a couple of very good linemen that we have to keep from taking over the game.”

Some of these players are #CFC100 Tyler Packer, a 6’5 270lb OL and #CFC100 DB Deane Leonard.

tyler-packer

As per training camp, the #CFC50 No. 30 New Westminster Hyacks, like many teams this time of the year, are simply looking to put players in the right positions to be effective. The graduation of several key players hasn’t dampened the outlook on the 2016 season as many new faces have stepped up and accepted the challenge of continuing the strong Hyacks’ football tradition. These include #CFC100 Trew Dancey and #CFC100 LB/LS Connor Pattison.

“Camp was good”, explained Coach Lalji. “No real surprises. We have a number of newcomers that we are trying to integrate into the program and our systems. We also had a few minor injuries to manage which affected our practice depth, but overall we got a lot done, things were positive and productive.”

trew-dancey

With regards to this matchup, the New Westminster Hyacks’ key to the game will be continuing to improve in all three facets of the game in preparation for the regular season.

“[Last week] we played a very good team in Oregon and we physically competed with them well, but at the end of the day, we turned the ball over 6 times, all in their end of the field. You can’t play good teams like that and expect to overcome that. Defensively our tackling was also very poor and we will make sure that both of those areas are significantly improved this week.”

“Offensively we have to execute our systems more consistently than we did last week. We have some good returning starters on that side who need to play better than they did last week.”

We expect this to be a tightly contested game, with the outcome being contingent on which team takes care of the ball the best.

 

hyacks-logo

notre-dame-pride

 

 

Advocating for football prospects one story at a time.

Leave a Reply