Poly Prep’ football team is set to make a run at a perfect season this year — for much the same reason it was so successful last year.
The Blue Devils’ lines pushed teams around on both sides of the ball a year ago, led by Jay Hayes, who is now at Notre Dame. And in Hayes’s absence, a new crop of physical lineman will look to impose their dominance this season.
The unit is led by junior Justin Morgan and sophomore Isaiah Wilson on the offensive line. Morgan is 6-foot-6 and 360 pounds and Wilson is 6-foot-5 and 300 pounds. Both with rotate in on defense.
“We are pretty big up front this year,” said Blue Devils coach Dino Mangiero.
Stanley Kaminsky (5-foot-10, 250 pounds) will join them. Nick Stroz (6-5, 235) and Ray Marten (6-4, 230) will both play tight end and defensive end. That group should continue to give Poly, which plays an independent schedule, a decisive advantage up front.
“It’s not too bad running eight yards without getting touched,” junior running back Brendan Femiano said.
Femiano, who is recovering from a sprained knee, is one of the dynamic playmakers working behind that line. He is also the team’s top linebacker in addition to being one of the team’s kick returners. Femiano is being recruited by the likes of Boston College, Lafayette, Villanova and Richmond.
He is part of a three-pronged attack in the backfield that is orchestrated by four-year starting quarterback Chris Parker, who also plays safety. Mangiero calls the 5-foot-6, 160-pound Parker the most explosive player the school has had in the last five or six years. It is evident by his numerous multi-touchdown games a year ago. Defenses should have a tough time containing him, Femiano, sophomore Tegha Egbri, senior Devin Rose, and full back Joe Elci.
“You have Brendan running a 50-yard run one play, and you have Tegja squirting out the next play, and you have me finishing off the run,” Parker said. “It doesn’t matter. Any play, anyone can squirt out.”
The defense will feature four full-time, two-way starters with Femiano, Parker, Elci at linebacker and Torres Brown playing receiver and safety. The unit’s speed and athleticism should allow them to cover a lot of ground quickly behind its physical defensive line.
Mangiero knows the dangers of a small roster that needs a few key players to fill multiple roles. Health is as big a key as talent. Poly feels it has plenty of the latter. It lost just its final game a year ago and will try to finish what it started, beginning with Catholic High School Football League power Cardinal Hayes on Sept. 6 in the Bronx.
“This team has the potential,” Femiano said. “There should be nothing to stop us. If we play the way we have been practicing and trained our whole lives, you can’t go wrong with this line with the running backs and the heart.”
