Taft 'trapped' after taking Schurz lightly

Taft quarterback Dominik Kuraszkiewicz completed 20-of-34 passes for 173 yards during his team's 21-14 loss to Schurz last Thursday. The Eagles will face Tilden in the City Playoffs at Lane Stadium on Saturday.
(Allison Williams/Staff Photographer)

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Taft overlooked Schurz last Thursday night -- and it proved quite costly.

The Eagles came into the Big Shoulders Conference game at Lane Stadium facing a Bulldogs' team that was 2-5 overall and 0-4 in conference. When all was said and done, Schurz grabbed its third win of the season -- a 21-14 victory -- as Taft fell to 5-3 overall and 3-2 in conference.

"From the get-go we called this a trap game," Eagles' head coach Matthew Walsh said. "My problem right now is the kids think they know more than the coaching staff and their response to everything is, 'Don't worry coach, we got it.' They don't want to listen to us. Our kids just thought Schurz was going to forfeit because they were 0-4. Schurz plays us hard and we told them it's a trap game. But what do they do? They go out and get trapped."

It was all Schurz in the first three quarters, and after a 26-yard field goal on the first play of the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs' 11-0 lead improved to 14-0.

"We underestimated them a little bit because of their record," said Eagles' quarterback Dominik Kuraszkiewicz. "All week long we thought we were going to beat them for sure."

Taft finally awoke from its slumber after the field goal. The Eagles moved into a hurry-up offense and drove right down the field on the back of Zach Cunningham, who rushed for 34 of his 64 yards on the drive. Cunningham put Taft on the scoreboard after a 1-yard touchdown run with 8:05 to play.

The point-after attempt was blocked, but a roughing-the-kicker penalty gave the Eagles another crack. Cunningham was stopped on the two-point try as Schurz held a 14-6 advantage.

The Bulldogs quickly added to that lead courtesy of a 57-yard touchdown run by Renato Sanchez with 5:31 to play, extending Schurz's lead to 21-6. Taft was able to draw closer after a 10-yard TD pass from Kuraszkiewicz to Fitzpatrick Allen with 3:40 to play. Kuraszkiewicz then connected with Jeff Feaster on the two-point conversion.

The Eagles managed a stop on defense to get the ball back but an illegal block below the knees wound up costing them a total of 37 yards, and they failed to convert a subsequent fourth-down try.

"We started going into our hurry-up offense late in the game," Kuraszkiewicz said. "It might be best if we do that all game long for the rest of our games. It pushes the tempo and gives us momentum."

Taft's defense was led by the trio of Sam Adelphia (17 tackles), Milos Vukovic and Nick Berardi (13 tackles each).

Offensively, Kuraszkiewicz completed 20-of-34 passes for 173 yards. Feaster hauled in nine passes for 99 yards while Allen had seven grabs for 79 yards.

"Our heads weren't in the game, and that starts in practice," Feaster said. "We're not working hard enough in practice and it carries into the game. We didn't execute as a team."

Taft will now head into the City Playoffs against Tilden at Lane Stadium at 1 p.m. Saturday.

"Maybe we need to go back to basics, especially with the offensive line and blocking techniques," Kuraszkiewicz said. "But I think we'll be ready to go for the first round of playoffs."

Walsh doesn't know a whole lot about Tilden, but he feels it's all up to his squad.