A two-hour pregame bus ride – even in a luxury motor coach – is supposed to take its toll on your legs.
Somebody forgot to tell Kevin Todisco and the Salem High Blue Devils.
The junior burst onto the Granite State football scene on opening night at Keene on Friday, rushing for 146 of his teams 412 ground yards in Salem’s 19-14 win.
Not bad for a kid who played a handful of defense as a sophomore before enduring a broken wrist and broken ribs that cut his season short.
“I was confident. Our team has looked pretty good in practice. I knew going in we were read,” said Todisco. “I was just doing what I do, and the line was really the reason we ran the ball so well.”
Like many of his teammates, Todisco, who also plays lacrosse and wrestles for the Blue Devils, was not happy with the results of a year ago.
After feeling the brunt of physical Division I varsity player, he decided to do something about it, bulking up from about 145 pounds a year ago to his current 170 pounds.
His first 100-yard game was a heck of a memory. But he knows it’s a long season and hopes it extends into November.
“I knew coming in that Felix (Gonzalez) and I were going to get a lot of the time running the football. We have depth at running back, though, and we’ve got a lot of guys who can go in there and do the job,” he said.
“I have high expectations with the team. The whole goal is to make it to the championship, but we have to go one game at a time.”
PLAYING BIG IN EXETER
You wonder if high school football still means something. I say it does.
Thursday night, up in Exeter, at halftime with Timberlane, I went to the car to input some info on my laptop.
As I’m walking in for the second half, a rather large 30-something dad, who looked like he could be still be a wrecking machine on the field himself, stopped to talk.
He asked me, “you’re a reporter, right?” I responded in the affirmative, and he followed with, “Yeah, you’re the guy who wrote that Pinkerton Academy had the best offensive line in the state (when I played).”
Apparently, before the state championship game back in the day, I had written a feature on the Astros’ front five and perhaps proclaimed it.
As the former Exeter player noted, “some things, you just don’t forget.”
After the game, I brought the conversation to legendary Exeter coach Bill Ball.
Without hesitation, Ball said, “you mean 2011!” intimating that, of course, he used the story as some bulletin board material for his boys.
Ball’s Blue Hawks took that D-I state title game, 23-13, the first of back-to-back championship wins over the Astros.
And yeah, football players don’t forget.
EYE ON THE OWLS
The classy Ball certainly had some good things to say postgame about the Timberlane Owls, who jumped on Exeter with some big plays to lead 14-3 early.
Timberlane is going to endure some growing pains. Losing four offensive linemen from your state semifinalist team is going to do that. But it’s clear, the skill guys can play with anyone.
“They’re good. (Liam) Corman and (Eddie) DiGiuilio, they’re good backs, and I think the quarterback (Jeremy Mlocek) played well, too, especially early.”
Mlocek, who earned the job in the preseason, is a junior replacing Eagle-Tribune All-Star Dom Coppeta.
He comes with a strong reputation and made some super throws in the loss Thursday night.
“He’s definitely a kid to watch. He can really throw the football,” said Trevor Knight of the TK Quarterback Academy.
And it looks like, along with the two backs, Mlocek has some solid targets.
Jake Basnett (2 catches, 36 yards) showed some explosiveness on the outside, and Tyler Chiccino (3-36) had a highlight-reel toe-tap grab on the sideline. Senior Gary Shivell is a returning two-way starter and is as consistent as it gets on both sides of the football.
If the line progresses, Timberlane is going to be a team to watch in the East Conference.
HEBERT, EASON NUGGETS
We had a couple of leftover interesting nuggets culled from the story on MVC quarterbacks this weekend.
Both Methuen High’s Drew Eason and Central Catholic’s Blake Hebert were asked how they got their start at the position.
Each had a strange transition.
“In third grade, I was a right tackle, and then I played a little bit of running back,” Hebert said.
“I was a natural thrower. I mean, my dad was a quarterback, and at that age, whoever can throw it can play quarterback.”
Hebert, who lived in Canada and, of course, was a hockey player, moved here in eighth grade and immersed himself in football from that point on.
All this – the amazing All-Scholastic career and all the wins — nearly never happened for Eason.
“I started football in third grade and played tight end from third grade to sixth grade in Methuen,” he said. “I almost was really going to quit football. I wasn’t having a good time at all. It wasn’t fun for me.”
Enter Salem, N.H., youth coach Steve Aliberti, whom Eason had known through wrestling.
“Going into the summer, there was a flag football tournament, and he was one of the coaches in Salem in my age group,” Eason said. “He was looking for a quarterback, and I always wanted to try it.
“He let me try it, and I was pretty decent, I guess. That was the biggest point of my football career. If we didn’t do that, I don’t even know if I’d still be playing football.”
If the name Aliberti sounds familiar to area football fans, it should.
Steve’s son Dylan is currently a standout running back and safety for defending Division 1 state champion Saint John’s Prep, where he is a captain.
ODDS AND ENDS
Trevor Knight, A 2019 UNH grad who went on to play in the CFL with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, had an interesting thought on the advancement of quarterback play and the mechanics of the position, how it’s grown by leaps and bounds in such a short time.
“With my high school film, compared to today’s film, I would not have been recruited as a quarterback,” the direct of the TK Quarterback Academy said. “I’m not sure anyone in the country would have looked at me.” …
It was great to see Amesbury Athletic Director Glen Gearin of Methuen at the Timberlane-Exeter game, in support of both coach Ball and Owls’ coach Kevin Fitzgerald, whom Gearin coached in freshman baseball at Timberlane many moons ago. …
There are usually a couple surprises in Week 1 in NH Division I, and if you were looking for one, you might point to Goffstown christening its new home turf on Friday night with a convincing win over Nashua South.
Defending champ Bedford High certainly did not disappoint, delivering a crunching 40-3 win over Bishop Guertin.
