Strong defense helps Poly Prep overcome sloppy first half

September 15, 2014 By Rob Abruzzese Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Brenden Femiano showed off why he’s one of the best running backs in Brooklyn as he ran for over 100 yards with two touchdowns in Poly Prep’s 28-0 victory over Peddie School.

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The Poly Prep Blue Devils lost four fumbles throughout the entire season last year, but had three in the first half of Friday’s game and committed 125 yards worth of penalties to make things worse.

“We are never going to beat anybody playing like that — four turnovers in the first half and we had 125 yards in penalties,” Poly Prep head coach Dino Mangiero said afterward. “That’s a terrible first half. That’s probably the worst half of football that we’ve played here in a long, long time.”

Luckily, the Blue Devils looked like an entirely different team in the second half. The offense settled in to score three touchdowns en route to a 28-0 victory over the Peddie School (NJ) in Bay Ridge on Friday night.

“I think we just came out with too much energy and sometimes if it’s not put to the right use it can hurt you because it leads to sloppy plays and bad penalties,” senior running back Brenden Femiano said. “We settled down in the second half and I think what you saw was one of those days where we all changed as a team. We went from a bunch of high school kids to a real solid unit. Now we just build from here.”

Poly Prep owes a lot to its defense for keeping them in the game. Nick Storz led the way with two sacks, a tackle for loss and a fumble recovery, but the Blue Devils sacked the quarterback seven times from many defensive contributors. Poly also had two interceptions, including one from freshman Fara’ad McCombs, that helped make up for an earlier fumble.

“Our defense was phenomenal,” Storz said. “We came right out of the gate with a lot of effort and our coaches gave us a really good scouting report so we knew exactly what we had to do. We’ve been playing (Peddie) for the last few years and this is the best they’ve ever looked to me so I’m really proud of the job we did. For us to shut them out like that was amazing.”

Femiano put Poly Prep on the board first when he scored on a two-yard run with 4:56 left in the first half to make it 7-0. Peddie nearly answered right back, though, thanks to a great kickoff return that gave it excellent field position at Poly’s 35-yard-line.

The Poly Prep defense wouldn’t give them an inch and, in fact, took many away. Ray Marten and Malik Bethea each had a sack on the drive and after a couple of penalties that went against Peddie, it was fourth-and-53 and the threat was completely snuffed out.

“The defense really came out in the first half and really saved the offense because their backs were to the wall three or four times,” Mangiero said.

That seemed to have been a big momentum shift for Poly Prep. Quarterback Chris Parker scored on a 14-yard run just 3:28 into the second half that made it 14-0. Femiano then made it 21-0 late in the third quarter after a seven-yard touchdown run. Finally, Rashaun Bailey made it 28-0 on a three-yard touchdown run midway through the fourth quarter.

The defense was, collectively, the star of the game game, but afterward everyone was singing the praises of Femiano. He ran for over 100 yards with two touchdowns and constantly kept the ball moving for Poly Prep.

“Femiano is a beast,” Storz said. “He’s an absolute animal. If the O-line makes their blocks and we get big enough holes for him, I mean, he doesn’t even need big holes because he’s that good. He does his job and he gets yards no matter what.”

Poly Prep is now 2-0 on the season after this win and an opening week victory over Cardinal Hayes. It will look to continue its perfect record at home next week against Canada Prep School.