Reluctant QB leads Irish
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish senior football team’s quarterback plans went awry early in the season.
Playing against the Saint Paul Patriots in its opening game, starting quarterback Connor Cropper was lost for the season with a knee injury.
“It was a rollout left and he got a MCL tear and maybe a slight ACL tear,” said his brother Hunter Cropper, following a 43-0 victory by the Irish over the visiting Denis Morris Reds Friday in Niagara Catholic Athletic Association senior football play.
Unfortunately for younger brother Hunter, he was next up on the depth chart for the Irish at quarterback.
“He really didn’t want to do it, but his brother went down and he had to step in and he’s doing a good job of running the offence,” Notre Dame head coach Tim Bisci said. “He was there in the mix to begin with and we were lucky that in a year where we got a quarter back injury, we had some depth. It’s not like we lost any talent there.”
The 16-year-old had much different plans for this season.
“This is the year that I wanted to play receiver, but I had to step it up because my brother got hurt,” Hunter said. “It was hard, but I told myself that I have to do it and it’s for the team.
“I had to step it up and suck it up.”
His brother has helped him improve at the position.
“He helps me at home by going through the plays that I don’t know because I only knew the plays I had at receiver.”
Hunter feels he is making progress each week.
“I go through the stuff every night but there are a few plays I still mess up on.”
Bisci likes a lot about his backup quarterback.
“He has a good arm, he can throw the ball well and he’s starting to understand the offence. It is going to take him a bit but as we go, hopefully he picks it up, understands it and we can do some of things we did last year with it.”
The defending Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association champions improved to 4-0 with the win, but Bisci is far from satisfied with his squad.
“Physically, sometimes things happen when you get a drop here or you slip, but mentally we’ve got to be perfect and we haven’t got to that point yet,” he said. “That is what it’s going to take to keep moving on this year.
“We have to be perfect, we have to work hard, we can’t take anyone lightly and we have to be intense all the time.”
Bisci does like the progress his team is making.
“We’ve had to mix and match because we’ve had a couple of injuries and sickness, and everyone has had the same thing,” he said. “We’ve been lucky enough to have enough depth to fill guys in when other guys haven’t been here.”
One player Bisci is lucky enough to have is offensive and defensive lineman Gerrid Holton, who had another dominating performance Friday.
“You get big kids like that and they might not be strong or they don’t move their feet, but he wants to go,” Bisci said. “We run the ball to his side and they double him and he still blows open big holes. Defensively, guys are going to try to cut him and stop him, but he’s too big and strong.”
The Reds fell to 1-3 with the loss.
STATS PACK
Irish 43 Reds 0
Johnny Rocco’s/Mick and Angelo’s Player of the Game: Notre Dame’s Gerrid Holton with a strong performance on the offensive and defensive lines.
For the Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Jacob Succar, TD runs of four and 39 yards and a 41-yard TD pass from Hunter Cropper; 22-yard TD run by Zack Melnyk; 35-yard interception return for TD by Jacob Snider; 28-yard field goal and single point on punt by Cole Smith; tackle in end zone for defensive safety by Tyler Polce; two interceptions by Landon Leger; and, sacks by Dylan Backos and Jacob Lawrence.
For the Denis Morris Reds: fumble recovery by Logan James; sack by Riley Lyons; combined sack by Will Bradley and Carson Kaufman.
Game stats: First downs: ND 11, DM 6; Net offence: ND 292, DM 96. Turnovers: ND 2, DM 4. Penalties: ND 3 for 35 yards, DM 4 for 45 yards.
THUNDER 44 GATORS 3
Xavier Hamidu had two rushing touchdowns and threw TD passes to Max Mosquite and Luke Lemessurier to lead the Blessed Trinity Thunder (3-1) to a 44-3 victory over the Lakeshore Catholic Gators (0-3) Thursday in NCAA senior football action.
Isaac Macalonan added a pair of rushing majors for the Thunder and single points were contributed by Lemessurier (2) and Hunter Oakley (4). Macalonan and Oakley had one rouge each.
Lakeshore’s points came on a 25-yard field goal by Nathan Riel.
