After Santana quarterback James Needy left the team to focus exclusively on baseball, sophomore Zack Breidt became the new leader of their potent spread offense.
Against Kearny on Friday night, the Sultans game plan was to feature an extra tight end and more running plays to keep the pressure off of their new quarterback.
“A little extra blocking, it gives it more things that we can do and run the ball a little better than last year,” Santana head coach Dave Gross said.
Once the game began, however, the plan became much more simple – throw it to wide receiver Travis Reynolds.
Santana's primary deep receiving threat caught five passes for 128 yards, including three touchdowns as the Sultans spoiled Kearny's season opener at home, winning 42-12.
“Basically my quarterback, he hooked me up tonight,” Reynolds said. “He threw great passes and I just caught them.”
Kearny came into the game focused on putting pressure on Breidt up the middle. However, the nimble 5'11 quarterback easily rolled away from occasional pressure, buying time for his receivers to get open. The result was an impressive varsity debut of 13-for-24 with 4 touchdowns and no interceptions.
“Tremendously pleased with him,” Gross said. “He's a sophomore way ahead of his time. I'm really, really happy with him, he showed a lot of poise.”
Knowing that Kearny was focused on disrupting Breidt's rhythm, the quarterback was thrilled with the protection he got from a new tight end and a dominating offensive line.
“The offensive line was protecting me all game, they did a great job,” Breidt said. “I didn't get hit hardly at all the entire game, I have to give it to them.”
As smoothly as things went for Breidt, Kearny quarterback Alex Cazeres'varsity debut went from bad to worse. Operating out of a three back, wing-T offense, Cazeres misplaced multiple out pattern passes intended for star wide receiver Marvin Jones, leading his target well out of bounds before the pass hit the ground. Cazeres, a defensive end last season on JV, completed just three passes for 22 yards.
The lone bright spot for Kearny was a 65 yard run by Ken Hester, setting up a one yard touchdown by Fealt Cooper in the third.
The night started off atrociously for the Komets, as defensive back Gael Ermac tore his ACL and is out for the season.
