To end the 2011 football season, South lost in double-overtime of the sectional semifinals. “We were literally six inches away from going to the state final at Rutgers. Everything just went really well last year,” says head coach Todd Smith, “so we are looking to continue that into this year.”
South is led by eight seniors. Running back Brian Schoenauer is expected to shine on offense, as he is approximately 400 yards away from becoming the all-time leading rusher in Mercer County history. “He’s one of the best football players to ever come through this school,” Smith says.
Coach Smith said that resting Schoenauer on the defensive side of the ball, where he has played safety, is one key to South’s 2012 season. After having “an outstanding preseason camp” junior T.J. Lanzetta has stepped in at safety to spell Schoenauer so the running back won’t take so many hits on defense.
“We had a big question mark at that position, and he stepped in and really filled the role for us. Last year Schoenauer played strong safety for us. But because we’re going to give him the ball so much we wanted him to play out of the box and play some free safety this year, so we had to have somebody take his spot,” Smith said.
Andrew Murray will serve as one of the team’s other running back as well as a defensive back. Linemen Eric Davis, Anthony Colonna, and Mitch Ngai bolster South’s offense and provide a run-stopping front.
Senior Tom Efstathios will split time between wide receiver and linebacker. Max Tanner, another senior linebacker, will also be South’s tight end and its punter.
Defensive end and wide receiver Patrick Boyle will handle the team’s kicking — extra points and field goals.
After losing last year’s top scholar athlete and conference player of the year Chris Evans to graduation, South will feature a new quarterback this season. Coach Smith says Junior Malick Fuller “has big shoes to step into” but he comes prepared.
“We’re not asking Malick to take over for Chris. Malick is going to be his own quarterback — he’s extremely athletic and he can run the football, so we have quite a few plays that are uniquely designed for him to showcase his athleticism. But he can definitely still throw the football when he needs to, so we are looking for him to shine back there this year,” he said.
Smith says Nicholas Benfer, who started for South as a sophomore last year, had an tremendous preseason camp and grew into his position on the defensive line. Another junior who Smith believes will have a big impact this season is Diego Cuitino, the team’s middle linebacker.
“He’s a really big kid who can move — he’s got a really great combination of size and speed to be a force on defense,” Smith said.
Some unfamiliar matchups will take place for South in 2012. The Pirates play Northern Burlington and Burlington Township, two teams South has never faced in the regular season before, and Coach Smith calls the chance to face those teams “very neat.” But he has a date at Princeton — Saturday, September 22 — circled.
“It’s a rivalry we used to have. They got off our schedule a couple of years ago and now they are back on, and it is a geographic rivalry as well,” Smith said.
This season will be the first since Todd Smith took the helm of the program that the Pirates do not play Hamilton West or Nottingham. “They took those teams off our schedule and they also removed Allentown.”
South’s supporters are eager to enjoy “Friday Night Lights” all season long. As Smith was being interviewed, lights were being installed high above the field. “It’s fun to watch. We’ve been watching it all preseason and we’ve seen each stage of how the lights go up. That’s one really exciting feature of this season. I grew up playing high school football on Friday nights and we have had a couple of Friday night games since I’ve been here. But to now be able to say that every home game is going to be on a Friday night, hopefully that can help open games up to the community a little bit more and get some bigger crowds and make our games more of a town gathering,” Coach Smith said.
As far as the neighbors and others who raised concerns about the lights at last year’s planning board hearing, Smith says all worries will soon be put to rest.
“I think once the lights are put up and get turned on, people will see how far the technology has come to where there is really not much runoff of the light; it’s really focused on the field. I don’t think it’s going to affect anyone negatively,” Smith says.
