Zach Weeden
Staff Reporter
“Just ‘cause we’re hurt, doesn’t mean we quit,” senior captain Aaron Slaughter could not have done a better job describing the attitude of the 2009 Green Terror football team. After a 2-8 season last year and having several key players hurt already this year, the team refuses to throw in the towel. With a convincing win over the St. Vincent Bear Cats on Saturday, 52-37, the team seems to be back on track and ready to accomplish big things this season.
With 22 seniors returning, 33 freshmen and four new assistant coaches, one of whom joins the Terror from the professional ranks, the team thinks that they’ve found a winning combination. One of the new assistant coaches, Mike Dailey, has 19 years of experience under his belt; 12 of which were done at the professional ranks in the Arena Football League under NFL legend John Elway. Along with Coach Daily, the squad has also picked up McDaniel Alumni Jamie Unger as a wide receiver coach. Unger graduated in 2006; he holds the Green Terror record for the longest touchdown reception in school history and was also the offensive most valuable player of the year in 2005. The Terror also introduced two new linebackers’ coaches in Alonso Escalante and Josh Rutter. Escalante comes from Springfield College were he was a student assistant coach. He also did a fellowship with the New York Giants over the summer. Rutter comes to McDaniel with a solid college career receiving freshmen linebacker of the year, and all-conference playing for William and Mary.
“Our senior class has been excellent, they haven’t had the best of success while they’ve been here, but they have their mind set on turning things around,” Coach Keating couldn’t have said enough about all the hard work this year’s senior class has put in this preseason. The team’s hard work in the off season to turn things around was evident week one as they overpowered St. Vincent in all three phases of the game.
The McDaniel offense was led by sophomore quarterback Tom Massucci’s career high 238 passing yards and four touchdown passes. Massucci found senior captain Matt Cahill, junior Nick Bender, and sophomore Woody Butler twice for Terror touchdowns. Cahill totaled 118 yards, with Bender and Butler ended up with a combined 78 receiving yards. Senior T.J. Develin and Junior Ray O’Hara added two rushing touchdowns to the McDaniel onslaught, compiling a total of 146 rushing yards. McDaniel’s experienced offensive line did their part controlling the line of scrimmage throughout the game and not allowing Massuci to get sacked all day.
The Terror defense brings back a very experienced starting line up to the field returning eight seniors. With a new pro style mentality brought by defensive coordinator Mike Dailey, expect every hit to resemble a car crash. Senior Travis Wenrick led the way with 7 tackles against St. Vincent. The rest of the defense combined to get a total of three sacks and two fumble recoveries, allowing only 59 rushing yards.
The Green Terror have done the hard work this off season to put themselves in position to achieve big things this season. With Massucci stepping up at the quarterback position to go along with an experienced cast of wide receivers, running backs, and lineman, McDaniel’s offense has the potential to put up a lot of points this season. And with a new defensive coordinator expect the defense to be as good as ever. Next for the Green Terror will be a trip to Moravian where they hope to make a statement in their first Centennial Conference test of the new season.