Division I

On the Gridiron: Bishop Guertin football finding its best receiver

There was only one real reason why Sam Raitt was throwing the football to the receivers he was throwing it to. The Bishop Guertin High School quarterback was just throwing to the open guy. "It was our progressions on some of those plays," Raitt said of how he picked his targets during Friday's 41-28

There was only one real reason why Sam Raitt was throwing the football to the receivers he was throwing it to.

The Bishop Guertin High School quarterback was just throwing to the open guy.

"It was our progressions on some of those plays," Raitt said of how he picked his targets during Friday's 41-28 win over Nashua South.

In the first half, eight of the Bishop Guertin High School quarterback's passes went to Dylan Fagan for 148 yards and three touchdowns, while four went to Sarveen Shafian-Rad for another 48 yards.

In the second half, Raitt completed six passes to Shafian-Rad for 163 yards and two scores, while Fagan didn't have a catch after halftime.

"It was just how the formation was treated and what we called," Bishop Guertin coach Jeff Moore said. "It wasn't like let's throw it to Dylan now. It was if you get this look, we're here. The way we coach it, Sarveen was the primary and we're trying to go over the safety, and if the safety is high, we're going to Dylan. It's how the quarterback chooses to throw it."

Raitt chose wisely against the Panthers, who managed to shut down the Cardinals' ground game well enough that Bishop Guertin (2-0) had to go to the air.

"We couldn't run the ball," Moore said. "They're in a different defense this year than they were last year. They have those two overhang guys, so it gives you a different run box. We didn't get much push."

With games at Spaulding (0-2) and Keene (0-2) coming up on the schedule, the Cardinals could be in position to finish out the month in a great spot in the West Conference.

"It's a win and we're happy about the win, but it was real sloppy," Moore said. "If we can clean up the slop, we'll be a good team."

Bigger picture

Scott Knight could have been upset Friday night after his South team lost to Bishop Guertin.

Some blown assignments and some poor execution helped put the Panthers in a 21-0 hole before the second quarter was even a minute old. Maybe the coach got mad in the moment, but after the game was over, he had the bigger picture on his mind.

"We had a couple of sophomores back there (in the secondary) and a few issues with the linemen, but once we got it squared away, we were OK," Knight said. "We're OK. I'm more of a big picture coach, so I look at where we were and where we are and where we're going. Our kids are athletic, we just have to square away alignment issues. If we do that, we'll be fine."

In order to fix some of the immediate problems, Knight had to put quarterback Sean Holland at safety at times in the second half. Despite that, Holland was South's best player on offense, rushing for 158 yards and a touchdown and throwing for 79 yards and two more scores.

"We had start using Sean Holland a little, we try not to have to use him on defense," Knight said. "He's been great. He's a competitor. He ran the ball hard and our backs start run hard."