Missing Key Offensive Players, Staples Football Adjusts to Changes

With the temperature soaring well past 90 degrees, the Staples football team took part in its second preseason scrimmage Wednesday, working out with Bunnell and New London for about 90 minutes in Stratford.

Marce Petroccio, who is entering his 18th season as the Wreckers' coach, generally was pleased with what he saw and thinks his club is making progress.  

"I think we did some good things well and we did some things not so well," Petroccio said. "I think that's going to be our biggest bugaboo, the fact that we have to find some consistency."

The Wreckers are in a different position from a year ago now that they have lost nine offensive starters to graduation. The team went 11-1 and was ranked no. 1 in the state last year before suffering a 28-21 overtime loss to Cheshire in the CIAC Class LL state championship game.

With a new offensive line and a new quarterback in senior Chet Pajolek, the big thing for the Wreckers is finding some cohesiveness before the season opener against Trinity Catholic on September 17.

They suffered a big blow in June, when Ryan Burke's, last year's leading rusher, blew out his ACL while catching a pass during the spring game.

Burke, who rushed for 968 yards last season, could miss the entire year, although he is hoping to return for the regular-season finale against Greenwich on Thanksgiving, according to Petroccio.

"If we can just get some consistency, I think we'll be much better," Petroccio said. "I love the effort. It's hot out here. We're going against two great football teams. I thight we moved the ball well at times. We just got to get better.

"We got nine new starters on offense, so we're trying to get cohesive. I feel good about the fact that I think we've improved from where we were (during the first scrimmage) at Shelton."

Pajolek showed some good speed Wednesday on runs to the outside, but the coaches have been working on improving his passing.

"The more reps he gets, the better off we'll be," Petroccio said.

At this point, the defense is probably ahead of the offense and will be led by defensive back Chris Coyne, who is headed to Yale next year. Last season, Coyne ranked second in the state in sacks.

While the Wreckers could be hard-pressed to duplicate last year's success with so many new starters on offense, they should be highly motivated heading into the season because of the heartbreaking loss to Cheshire.

Staples' next scrimmage actually is at Cheshire on Labor Day at 9 a.m. The two teams have been scrimmaging against eachother for a number of seasons, but this year's meeting just happens to be a state championship game rematch and may feel like a regular-season clash.

The Wreckers host Fairield Prep in their final preseason scrimmage on September 10 at 4 p.m.