By Ryan Mink
rmink@digitalsports.com
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Last week DeMatha football Coach Bill McGregor implemented a new drill at practice. He wanted to work on his team’s smiling.
McGregor, as did the rest of the team, felt the Stags have been uptight from the pressures of living up to last year’s phenomenal senior class and extending DeMatha’s WCAC championship streak to an unprecedented six straight.
So McGregor asked his players to smile, to enjoy themselves.
After Saturday’s 35-6 win over Gonzaga, McGregor told his players to show him their faces and he checked for those smiles once again. And this time he found them.
“Smiling starts enthusiasm,” DeMatha senior linebacker Raheem Cardwell said. “Then we pass it on and pass it on and work together. When one gets up the whole team gets up.”
Cardwell said the Stags have felt down this season. First there was the shocking loss to Gilman on Sept. 12 in which DeMatha seemed to have the game in hand. On Oct. 2 the Stags took a 42-21 loss on national television to Good Counsel and followed that up with a less-than-stellar performance against Paul VI in which they won 21-13.
After the Paul VI game McGregor gathered the team and when he looked at his players faces he saw them nonverbally asking, “Did we do ok or did we not do ok?”
“The answer is yes, we did absolutely fantastic,” McGregor said. “We won the football game, 21-13, and it was a big, big win. Any WCAC win is a great win.”
That’s when McGregor started smile checks.
“The level of expectation is very very high and the kids are doing a great job,” McGregor said. “We’re going to be happy.”
After stalling on its first drive, DeMatha (5-2, 3-1) scored on its second in just four plays. Quarterback Tommy Chroniger got the offense rolling with back-to-back runs eating up 31 yards and Jeff Knox finished it off with a leaping end-around for the touchdown.
But Gonzaga (2-5, 2-2), who was coming off a huge win against McNamara, hung around despite not being able to generate much offense. Gonzaga never made it past the 50-yard line in the first half.
DeMatha, who was hampered by penalties all game, scored its second touchdown on a long drive featuring 35 yards rushing from Marcus Coker and 60 by Aaron Conaway, who ran 17 yards for the touchdown.
The Stags drove one more time at the end of the first half but were forced to settle for a 22-yard field goal on first down by Michael Branthover to give DeMatha a 15-0 halftime lead.
The score shouldn’t have been surprising considering last year’s WCAC champion team only beat Gonzaga, 7-6, in a fight to the very end.
But this year’s team essentially put the game away on the first play of the second half. Gonzaga sophomore quarterback Kevin Hogan stepped back and thought Cardwell was moving to his right. Cardwell instead slid to his left and intercepted the ball right at his chest. Two plays later, DeMatha’s Coker was in the end zone and the Stags had a 22-0 lead 47 seconds into the second half.
“I just played my coverage, did my job and the ball just happened to be placed in hands,” Cardwell said.
The Stags said the win would provide a good confidence boost before next week’s game against O’Connell, who is also 5-2 overall.
“We know we have our hands full when we go over to O’Connell next week,” McGregor said.
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