Whaler Football Beats Cardinal Spellman In 49-0 Shutout To Open Season
David Creed •
The Nantucket football team has their sights set on hopefully returning to the playoffs this fall, and they started their season off strong Saturday afternoon in a road matchup against the Cardinal Spellman Cardinals – beating them 49-0 in an effort that included two passing touchdowns from sophomore quarterback Burke Lombardi to wide receiver Tristan Grimes, a pair of defensive touchdowns by Jeremy and Canton Jenkinson, two rushing touchdowns by David Guillen Taveras, and a score by Arann Hanlon.
“Our defense has always been a sound run stop defense but we've been working on our secondary a little bit," Whaler head coach Coreese Everett said. "When you can shut down the pass and the run, it is hard for offenses to operate. I think we're just focusing on being a complete defense overall, and every aspect of the game. If we can keep doing that, it is going to be really hard for teams to operate.”
Nantucket jumped out to a 35-0 lead midway through the second quarter, so there wasn’t much need for them to throw the ball beyond the first quarter and a half. However, in the period where they were throwing, Lombardi was able to connect with Grimes for a 17-yard strike with 7:20 to go in the first quarter and then once again from nine yards out with 7:32 to go in the second quarter.
“The offense is great," Everett said. "There's still some little things that I talked about before that we need to clean up like small little penalties, unsportsmanlike conduct penalties so we can be a complete football team in all three phases of the game. When you talk about Tristan and Burke, those guys took the offseason very, very serious. All spring and all summer, they were dedicated to this and right now, it is paying off. We are getting results.”
Taveras also added a pair of rushing touchdowns on the goal line and continues to be the power back Nantucket can depend on in short yardage situations while having an explosive element to his game that Everett says they are continuing to tap into.
"David is still getting warmed up," Everett said. "Last year he had a few good touches for us but we're trying to create a monster out of him. He's a very hefty back. He has a lot of speed, a lot of power to him. When we can get him to full speed, I think right now, he's at about 80 percent, when we can get him to 95 to 100 percent, it's going to be really scary for defenses that we play.”
Aside from Jeremy Jenkinson’s 31-yard interception for a touchdown and Canton Jenkinson’s six yard scoop and score on a fumble, junior defensive end Russell Simpson shined for Nantucket with four sacks.
"He has been a great part of this team," Everett said. "We didn't know if he was going to have an early start for us, but he showed us signs that he was going to be a dominant defensive end last year so coming into this year, we just wanted to see what he got. He's off and running very, very early. So, I'm excited to see what he has in store for the rest of the season.”
Up next, the Whalers will be welcoming the Carver Crusaders to the island on Saturday, September 13th for a 2 p.m. game. Everett said the key for his team to continue building on their recent successes is to keep respecting the opponent and working hard every day.
“We need to keep sticking to the plan that we had this week," Everett said. "Respect the opponent and what they have and having a mindset that each week we're going to be playing the best team we're going to see all year. So going into a game with that type of mindset is going to set us ahead, just to prepare for any type of tactics that they have, but also just playing to the final whistle. I think a few times last year, our kids kind of gave up on themselves. They threw in the towel early. If we can fight until the clock says zeros, I think we're going to come up victorious a lot.”