Football: Keys to Crespi-Notre Dame game

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

OK, I’ve been doing some deep thinking, and here’s how Friday night’s Crespi-Notre Dame game shapes up:

You’ve got two outstanding junior quarterbacks in Bryan Bennett of Crespi and Ryan Kasdorf of Notre Dame. Bennett has had more than a year of varsity experience. Kasdorf has seven games under his belt and has passed for 2,081 yards and 22 touchdowns under Notre Dame’s new no-huddle, shotgun offense.

The receivers for both teams are fast and dangerous. Crespi’s Kevin Cummings and Blake Stanton are a good match for Notre Dame’s Chris McNeill, James Flynn and Tyler Ruiz. The defensive backs for both teams could be in for a long night.

But it all comes down to which offensive line is going to give the quarterback enough time to pass or run. Crespi has two outstanding junior linemen in Ben Loth and Hroniss Grasu. Notre Dame has two outstanding junior linemen in Ben Gottschalk and Daniel Munyer.

If you tell me how many sacks Crespi or Notre Dame will have, I’ll know who’s going to win. I give a slight edge to Crespi because the game is at Crespi and the Celts have faced a tougher nonleague schedule. But Notre Dame has improved the most since the first game and if the Knights continue with their weekly improvement, they’ll win.

In other words, I don’t have a certain pick. So enjoy the game.

-- Eric Sondheimer