The Harrison football team may not have found out much about their ballclub in their Week Zero romp, but at the end of the day, just getting on the field was the important thing.
On Saturday, Sept. 3 the Huskies officially kicked off their 2022 campaign, hosting CHSAA foe Cardinal Spellman for a non-conference matchup.Harrison proved too much on the afternoon, overwhelming the Pilots and coming away with a one-sided 47-0 victory.
For Harrison coach Jay Ciraco, however, Saturday’s game was less about the final score and more about just getting his players some much-needed game-experience.
“It’s a really long preseason and the kids work so hard,” said Ciraco. “We wanted to give them something to look forward to, something to shoot for, and I think you can tell that these kids were really excited to come out and have a game this week.”
As for the game itself, there wasn’t much excitement to be found, as the outcome was never in question. Harrison dominated in every facet of contest and held the overmatched Pilots to -32 total yards on the day as they cruised to an early win.
Coming into Saturday’s game, Ciraco explained that he was simply hoping to see that the Huskies were able to demonstrate an attention to detail in a game-situations.
“We talked about doing the little things the right way,” said Ciraco. “Being aligned on time, not being late, getting the calls in on time; those are the things we need to be doing right.”
While he admitted it was tough to gauge exactly where his squad was at due to the one-sided nature of the game, Ciraco predicted that line play would be a calling card of this Huskies team. With a big physical unit up front, Ciraco said he believes that Harrison should have a chance to control the line of scrimmage against most of its opponents this year.
“Our strength right now is probably the offensive line,” he said. “We have a lot of guys we rely on and we just have to keep them healthy.”
Harrison returns some key playmakers as well, including quarterback Marco Citro and wideout Chris McLaughlin, and also boast a true special teams weapon in Nick Reed who may be the top kicker in all of Section I.
“He’s worked his tail off,” said Ciraco of Reed. “Kickers usually do their thing off to the side, but he’s been at every single team workout, he’s really improved and we’re excited for a big year from him.”
Harrison will face a dramatic step up in competition this week, as they prepare for a June 10 showdown with Clarkstown South. Ciraco said that the Huskies will have to turn the page on their Week Zero win as they look ahead to the rest of the season.
“We’ve gotta reset, forget about what happened today,” said the head coach. “We’ll watch film, we’ll nitpick a little bit, but we’ve just gotta prepare for a really good football team.”
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