Wood sees room for improvement after loss to Bergen Catholic

WARMINSTER >> Even with all the individual talents Archbishop Wood has on its roster, the Vikings still need time to come together as a team.
Friday night was a good example of where Wood is after two weeks, a group of outstanding players who show flashes of putting it all together, but still a couple steps from a finished product. Of course, the competition was no slouch either and the Vikings looked at it as an opportunity to measure up then get back to work.
Behind a handful of big plays, visiting Bergen Catholic topped Wood 34-16 at William Tennent, showing why the Crusaders are one of the top teams in New Jersey and showing Wood where it stands.
“I thought at halftime, going in, we were doing pretty well,” Wood linebacker Matt Palmer said. “I thought it was going to be a game, then they had two easy touchdowns and it started going the other way. I thought overall we played pretty well but they got us on big plays.”
One of those big plays came on the Crusaders’ first snap. After forcing a Wood punt, Bergen Catholic ran a double handoff that got the ball back to quarterback Johnny Langan, who hit a streaking Dylan Classi for a 75-yard touchdown in the first quarter.
Langan was terrific for the visitors, hurling four touchdowns in his 159 passing yards to go with 55 yards on the ground. His 19-yard hit to Ankaury Camilo late in the first quarter gave Bergen all the space it would need as it continued to build on the lead throughout the game.
Wood on the other hand, couldn’t capitalize on the advantages it had. The Vikings ran a staggering 80 plays to Bergen Catholic’s 44, but had to settle for three Dan Zanine field goals going into the half. Wood’s best play of the half, a 34-yard completion from Shawn Thompson to Jalen Reynolds on a fake punt, was basically nullified into a field goal by a holding penalty a few snaps later.
“This is a learning experience and I told the kids we have to turn it into a positive,” Wood coach Steve Devlin said. “We have some things we have to shore up. Physically, I thought we battled them and they got three big plays on us.”
Wood’s passing game struggled at times, with sophomore starter Jack Coylar going just 17-of-42 for 129 yards. There are going to be some growing pains in the position and while Wood didn’t want to be throwing 43 times total in a game, Devlin said the amount of weapons on the outside means the Vikings do want to go aerial.
“He made some good plays, we do a lot of different things on offense and we just have to be on the same page,” Devlin said. “He battled and was tough, he’s learning, he’s a sophomore and he’s only going to get better.”
Thompson, who put in a major effort on both sides of the ball, said the slow start hurt the team Friday. The senior rushed for 58 yards and also had two sacks on defense, forcing a fumble that Wood recovered on the first.
“We have to make sure we start at the same level they do, or even higher, to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Thompson said. “We weren’t connecting, we weren’t catching the ball. We’re going to improve on that, the coaches will make sure we improve on that.”
After Bergen scored on a 44-yard TD pass in the third, Colyar did hit Kyle Pitts for a 19-yard score that cut it to 20-16, but a pair of big runs by the Crusaders allowed them to extend the lead midway through the fourth. The Crusaders defense later force a turnover on downs at the Wood 1-yard line and scored the final TD of the game when Langan hit Classi on a 1-yard pass.
The Crusaders pass defense did a good job of making things tough on Wood standout receiver Mark Webb through three and a half quarters. Webb finished with nine grabs for 77 yards but half of those came with Bergen giving up underneath routes ahead by two or more scores.
“We just have to jell,” Palmer said. “We have the talent we just have to converge.”
Unfortunately for the Vikings, they have to sit on this one for two weeks. Wood has no game next week, something Devlin and his players aren’t fans of, and returns on Sept. 16 when it hosts St. Joe’s Prep in a nationally televised game.
Thompson said it’s going to be tough waiting to play again with the sting of a loss hanging over them. Palmer also conceded it’ll be a long wait, but it gives the coaches extra time to zero in on what’s holding the team back and get those things corrected.
“This loss doesn’t predict our future or stop us from trying to win a state championship,” Thompson said. “We didn’t have a perfect game at all, so we can work on everything to get better.”
“Playing these first three games will tell us really where we’re at,” Palmer said. “If we can play well then we’ll be pretty good for the end of the season. Playing these teams tells us what we can get better at, where we can improve and it’s going to help us down the road.”

BERGEN CATHOLIC 13 0 7 14 – 34
ARCHBISHOP WOOD 3 6 7 0 – 16
1st Quarter
BC – Johnny Langan 75 pass to Dylan Classi (Michael Kearney kick) 9:07
AW – Dan Zanine 36 field goal 5:03
BC – Langan 19 pass to Ankaury Camilo (kick blocked) 2:13
2nd Quarter
AW – Zanine 32 field goal 7:03
AW – Zanine 30 field goal 10.8
3rd Quarter
BC – Langan 44 pass to Andrew Vito (Kearney kick) 5:24
AW- Jack Coylar 19 pass to Kyle Pitts (Zanine kick) 3:20
4th Quarter
BC – Josh McKenzie 1 run (Kearney kick) 6:31
BC – Langan 1 pass to Classi (Kearney kick) 3:24
Team Statistics
BC AW
First downs 10 20
Rushes-Yards 28-137 38-155
Passing 8-16-4-0 18-43-1-0
Passing Yards 159 163
Total Yards 296 315
Fumbles-Lost 2-1 0-0
Penalties-Yards 5-40 5-44
Punting 4-33.8 2-22
Indvidual Stats
Rushing: BC – Langan 16-55, McKenzie 9-63, Johnson 2-4, Kitz 1-15; AW- Raheem Blackshear 18-98, Shawn Thompson 12-58, Adrian Lambert 1-5, Jack Coylar 3-(-28), Dan Freeman 3-8, Nasir Peoples 1-14
Passing: BC- Langan 8-16-4-0-159; AW- Coylar 17-42-1-0-129, Thompson 1-1-0-0-34
Receiving: BC- Classi 2-76, Feaster 2-14, Camilo 1-19, McKenzie 1-3, Vito 2-47; AW-Mark Webb 9-77, Jalen Reynolds 3-45, Blackshear 4-13, Kyle Pitts 2-28