Monday Morning Quarterback: North Coach's Impression of Homecoming Game

Last Friday's Homecoming game was everything a Sachem fan could ask for: offense, defense, a dominating performance on the gridiron, and some great halftime entertainment.

We caught up with Head Coach David Falco immediately after the game to share his thoughts.

On his overall impression of the game:

"I think it's less about what we did on offense and more about what we did on defense tonight. I think we had to come out and we had to make some drastic changes in our techniques in our attitude, in how we play defense: I think that was the focus for tonight. I think what we do on offense is what we do. A lot of guys touched the ball and the offensive line did a great job. But it's more about what we did on defense; Tyler's [Andreassi] the key there, but it's the guys that are surrounding Tyler, surrounding our nose guard, whether it's Mills or DeRossi, or whoever is in the middle. Those outside, peripheral guys I think did a great job tonight."

On Trent Crossan (who was sidelined with tightness in his hamstring):

"The thing about Trent is he's a solid player. Something's tweaking his hammy; his hammy's not a hundred percent healthy. I think it was more that he's concerned about what it is than it is anything else. There's a lot of scar tissue in there, but Trent's gonna be fine."

On the peformance of Kevin Lathan:

"Kevin did a great job. Kevin did an outstanding job and we're happy for him. He's a guy that's gotta step up for us now that Anthony Ross is going to be out for a while. So he's the guy that we're gonna count on."

On Bryan Morris' first career field goal, and 100th career point:

"I've said all along that he's a weapon. I'm excited for him; I'm excited that we have him for another year. He's just a solid kid and he's worked extremely hard to get to where he is."

On whether there's added pressure to perform at Homecoming:

"I think our guys are loose. I think the pressure was that we needed to play better defense. Last week we gave up the most points in the history of this program and that was not acceptable for us, or for them, and I think we really focused on that. So I think that's what it was about tonight, we needed better defense, and how they stepped up."

On this week's matchup against Sachem East at the NorEaster:

"I think that speaks for itself. Our kids are gonna be excited; their kids are gonna be excited. Two really good teams. I think they're much improved from a year ago. So we're gonna have our work cut out for us. They're a little older than we are, so that's a big concern of mine, but our guys have gotten some good experience here the first three weeks. That's a good team."

On what the team will work on this week:

"We still have to continue to be better defensively. When they spread us out they're still running the ball on us a little bit, which is a concern. But I thought our pass defense was much better. I didn't like that call [pass interference penalty] I thought that's what we want; we want our guy to get on top of the route, and have that guy have to run through us, that's not a good call there, but I'm happy with what we did in the secondary. We gotta build on that."

Next Game: Home against Sachem East (The NorEaster)

Date: Saturday, September 29

Time: 1:30 p.m.