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Knights Coach Stevens Pleased With Scrimmage

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By BART O'CONNELL Tribune correspondent

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 24, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - Like any spring scrimmage, the River Ridge Purple and Silver Game had its share of botched snaps, dropped passes and bad penalties.

But it also had plenty of big plays, something Tim Stevens has wanted to see more regularly out of his offense and defense entering his third season as Royal Knights coach.

The varsity played about three quarters to a tie at 7, with touchdowns from Purple fullback Trevor Shoun and Silver running back Stavros Arianas, before the Silver JV squad got a touchdown pass from Matt Michaels to Chris Dameani to beat the Purple 14-7.

Overall, Stevens was pleased with the play of both squads, highlighted by triple-threat Mario Stewart, who led all players in rushing and passing yards, and several defensive stops by linebacker Frank White.

"We've got some work to do, but we've also got some real football players," Stevens said. "Some of the positions, I'm worried about depth. We've got a couple key players, and if they get hurt, we're in trouble."

Stewart, who primarily played halfback, ran four times for 40 yards, with his first carry going for 23 yards. It was the game's longest play from scrimmage until he took a lateral from quarterback Marco Custodio, rolled right and uncorked a pass deep down the right sideline to wide-open receiver Shane Allen, who was knocked out of bounds at the Silver 19-yard line after a gain of 41.

From there, Shoun bulldozed his way into the end zone after three consecutive carries for the game's first score.

"We tried it once or twice. I already knew that I was going to get to try the play, because Coach knew I had a good arm and I knew my receiver could get down the field," Stewart said of the halfback pass. "I love being able to do everything, just using my skills."

The Silver tied the game after forcing a turnover, driving 39 yards in nine plays. Arianas carried five times for 22 yards, including a 3-yard TD up the middle. He finished with 38 yards on eight carries.

White had one sack and earned compliments from the defensive coaches throughout the game for his hustle.

"I don't know if he's a surprise. He's been doing well. He was a linebacker for us last year, and he's finally starting to put on some weight and get some strength," Stevens said. "He's probably worked as hard as anybody we've got in the weight room. We expect him to be a leader on defense for us next year."

If there was one concern coming out of the game, it was the play of varsity quarterbacks Custodio and Kenny Toce, who ran the ball well at times, but threw a lot of incomplete passes.

"The passing game needs some work, needs a lot of work. But we'll be in that 7-on-7 league this summer, so hopefully that gets us to where we need to be," Stevens said. "Right now, I'm not against rotating them both in. I can run plays in with both of them, and in a way, that's an advantage. We're not in that bad a shape at that position."

Bart O'Connell can be reached at boconnell@pop.tampatrib.com.

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