Bishop Noll, Whiting pleased with early play

Updated: August 13, 2011 10:48AM

WHITING — Bishop Noll coach Mike Juscik said that his team’s training camp leading up to Friday night’s scrimmage against Whiting had been phenomenal.

And at the conclusion of the scrimmage, he said he was pleased with what he saw and is looking forward to seeing his team improve on last year’s 3-7 mark, which was accomplished with a relatively young group of kids.

Based on the numbers, the host Oilers outscored Bishop Noll 14-7 on the long scrimmages and 28-14 on 10-yard scrimmages with the starting squads competing. But the arm of senior quarterback Josh Galgan was definitely on display, as he threw three touchdowns on the night, with the first one coming from 40 yards out to Kevin Kearney.

“Josh doesn’t get the recognition that most quarterbacks get,” Juscik said. “He was shy of 1,800 yards (1,750) in his first season, and he’s coming back as a senior with a lot of quality options to throw to. We have Kevin (Kearney) and Bob Edinger who started every game last year for us, and Jordan Taylor is going to be a good tight end for us. Josh will be able to spread out the passes and make it tough on defenses.”

Bishop Noll, which dropped a class to 1A, started nine sophomores last year and graduated only seven seniors — with only three who played consistently. Juscik said the key Friday was to observe where his team is on the road to getting up to game speed.

“This is obviously the fastest stuff we’ve seen,” Juscik said. “But our guys kept competing; they’re a good group who will work hard, take coaching and keep learning. We had a phenomenal training camp. Our kids did a lot of growing up last year, and they continue to show signs of growth every time they take the field.”

Whiting, which graduated 13 senior from last year’s squad, was aggressive on the run in long scrimmages, with touchdowns coming on 1-yard runs by Noe Torres and Joey Lytle. Quarterback A.J. Veloz threw two touchdown passes in the 10-yard scrimmages.

“It will probably be more important for us when we get a look at the film and the individual assignment and see how the kids did,” Whiting coach Jeff Cain said. “I told the kids that this is still a practice week, and they’re all still trying to work on themselves.”

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