St. Mark’s quarterback Billy Sullivan, shown here against St. Georges last year, has completed 16 of 19 passes for the 3-0 Spartans this season.
What a difference a year makes.
At this point last season, the St. Mark’s football team was 1-2. This year, the Spartans are 3-0 with decisive wins over the same three opponents – Newark, Lake Forest and Brandywine.
The difference has been health. St. Mark’s lost three of its best players to season-ending injuries early last year. So far, this year’s Spartans are intact.
“We’re healthy,” St. Mark’s coach John Wilson said. “We’re just like any Division II team. If you lose some key guys, it can impact your team tremendously.”
The Spartans opened the season with a 27-7 win over Newark, which edged St. Mark’s 19-14 last year. Then the Spartans hit a speed bump early against Lake Forest, trailing 7-6 at the half before roaring to a 37-7 victory.
“I was really concerned at halftime of the Lake game, because I thought we were a better team than that,” Wilson said. “But we’ve played some good football. Just some of the little things the players do give me an indication that these guys have grown up a little bit.”
Last Saturday’s 47-0 win at Brandywine built even more confidence, as St. Mark’s moved up to third in The News Journal’s Division II rankings. But it gets tougher the rest of the way.
The Spartans play host to No. 10 Archmere at 7 p.m. Friday. Then they meet No. 8 Delaware Military Academy, Caravel, No. 4 St. Georges, Hodgson and St. Elizabeth before closing the season against Division I power and traditional rival Salesianum.
“We have a lot of football left at this point,” Wilson said. “The teams we’re going to be playing are all playoff contenders, so we’re going to learn a lot about ourselves.”
St. Mark’s is averaging 37 points per game, led by the eye-popping passing statistics of senior quarterback Billy Sullivan.
“He’s been so good at being calm in the pocket,” Wilson said. “He’s 16-for-19 passing, and those three passes I wouldn’t call incompletes. They were three drops. He’s been as good as they come in terms of his progressions, his reads, his poise.”
Senior slotback Austin Colmery has become a big-play threat on jet sweeps, short passes and returns, and gritty junior fullback Dominic Catalano has displayed a nose for the goal line with seven touchdowns.
Linebacker A.J. McGonigle and defensive end David Balint have provided senior leadership to a young defense that has allowed just 14 points in three games. And Balint has added a nice offensive trait as a tight end and receiver.
“He’s mean when he gets the ball,” Wilson said. “He’s trying to find the end zone.”
Sussex Tech player improving
Sussex Tech football coach Mark Quillin said Monday that Ravens center John “Jack” Kane, who was injured and airlifted to a hospital during Tech’s game Friday night, was back home Saturday night and expects to recover fully.
Kane was transported to Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, Md., where Quillin said the player was diagnosed with dehydration, a neck sprain and a concussion. Quillin said Kane was moving his extremities when he was airlifted.
“He’s recovering nicely,” Quillin said. “He should make a full recovery and actually should return to football in about three to four weeks.”
Quillin said Kane was hit at an odd angle by a blitzing linebacker with 11:48 remaining in the Ravens’ 59-35 loss to Laurel.
“It was a scary sight for the families and our players, the players from Laurel and all of our fans,” Quillin said. “We really kind of bonded together with the whole situation, and luckily he’s in pretty good shape. I saw him on Saturday and talked to him on Sunday, and his mom said he’s doing well.”
Kane, a junior, is in his first year as a starter on the Sussex Tech offensive line. He also plays defense for the lacrosse team.
“He’s a tough nut,” Quillin said. “He’s only about 175 pounds as our center, but he plays like he’s 300 pounds.”
Rounding it up
— A familiar nemesis got the best of the Cape Henlopen field hockey team on Saturday, as Severna Park (Md.) scored at the 6:13 mark of overtime to edge the Vikings 1-0. The loss snapped Cape’s overall 54-game winning streak (the Vikings tied Severna Park 2-2 on Sept. 28, 2013) and a 77-game unbeatean streak since another 1-0 loss to the Falcons on Sept. 15, 2012.
Cape still has an 89-game winning streak against Delaware opponents, the last loss coming to Sussex Tech 1-0 on Nov. 17, 2010, in a DIAA championship game. That streak could be challenged this week, as the top-ranked Vikings will play host to No. 2 Delmar at 6 p.m. Thursday.
— The Smyrna football team, ranked first in Division I by The News Journal, advanced from 13th to eighth in Maxpreps.com’s Northeast regional rankings. The region covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
— Padua junior Lydia Olivere won the girls challenge race by a whopping 22 seconds (17:22) on Saturday at the Carlisle (Pa.) High School Invitational cross country meet. The Pandas finished third as a team.
— Caitlin Cobb of St. Andrew’s won the girls varsity race (20:28.4) and Connor Nisbet of Wilmington Friends took the boys varsity title (16:37.8) at the Middletown Invitational cross country meet on Friday at St. Andrew’s. Concord earned the boys team title, while St. Andrew’s took the girls crown.
— Caravel is seeking an assistant coach for softball. Interested candidates should email athletic director Bill Perdew at adcaravel@caravel.org.
Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ