Coming off their bye week, the Pirates had plenty of time to relish their 57-28 win over Lawrence, while also preparing for the final two games of the regular season prior to the playoffs.
Cinnaminson (6-1) hosted Burlington City (2-5) Friday night in a Purple Out game in conjunction with student council and the DeSean Jackson Foundation, picking up a 38-0 victory, their third shutout of the season.
“We went back to basics,” head coach Mario Patrizi said. “Offensively, we changed nothing. Defensively, we cut it down. We cut down the checks. We played aggressively tonight. We weren’t thinking, we were flying. The last couple weeks we were kind of doing too much.”
It was a slow and sloppy first quarter for the Pirates who simply needed a little bit of time to get going following their bye. On their opening drive, quarterback Shaun Davilla broke off a huge run down the right sideline, but fumbled the ball at the City one and could not recover it.
The two teams played to a scoreless first quarter, but when the scoreboard changed to the second, the Pirates offense exploded.
“Tonight was our first playoff game,” Patrizi said. “That was the mindset. This time of year there’s no off-nights or off-weeks. It was a playoff game tonight.”
Cinnaminson put up 17 points in the second, 14 of those on two touchdown passes from Davilla to wide receiver Devon Taylor (15 and 52 yards). The other three came on a 32-yard field goal from Tyler Simcoe.
“Shaun played wide receiver last year and I tried out this year,” Taylor said. “When I realized they were moving him to quarterback I immediately went to Shaun and asked him for help. How I should get off the line, how to do all those kinds of things. That helped our chemistry get up to what it is now.”
The Pirates led Burlington City 17-0 at halftime, which saw the seniors from football, cheerleading and the marching band all honored on the track.
In the third quarter, the Pirates added two more long scores on a 48-yard touchdown catch by Taylor and a 58-yard run by Frank Stepnowski.
“I think it started with the team that left last year,” two-way lineman Rich Rickus said. “We realized we had some big shoes to fill. We all looked at each other in training camp and said ‘we gotta get it done.’ We were out here doing situps and pushups in 100 degree weather and that was the start of it.”
To cap off the rout, Stepnowski rumbled 66 yards for another touchdown in the fourth quarter. Simcoe converted all five PAT Friday night.
“The offensive line is tremendous,” Taylor said. “It’s the best offensive line we’ve had in years. It’s the biggest offensive line we’ve had in years. They work hard everyday in practice. They watch film. They do whatever they need to do to get better.”
Cinnaminson forced two turnovers Friday, a fumble recovery by Kevin Schoch and an interception by Taylor.
“We’re 6-1. Beginning of the year nobody really gave us a chance to do anything,” Patrizi said. “You know what, we played one bad half of football (Holy Cross) and that’s it. I’m proud of the kids. Senior night tonight. I’m glad to see these kids enjoying themselves. We’ve got a good group this year. I’m really proud.”
The defense picked up shutout number three in 2015 and the Pirates have now outscored its opponents 231-87 across seven games.
“This week we had a real good defensive practice,” linebacker Dom Cicale said. “It really made us better as a team. We were hitting harder than we usually had. We had a little extra pep in our step this week. I think we did a tremendous job today.”
Pirates football travels to Pemberton for a Liberty Division game on Friday, November 6 at 1pm. Cinn City Sports will have live coverage of this game. Follow us on Twitter for live updates.
[…] is fresh off a 38-0 trouncing of Burlington City that moved their record to 6-1. Devon Taylor caught three passes, all for touchdowns, in the […]