Welcome home, Sheamus Murphy.
The 2008 Sandburg graduate has begun his career as the head coach at his alma mater in a memorable manner with two straight wins.
On Sept. 5, the Eagles beat visiting Richards 27-7 as junior quarterback Sean Ruisz threw a 17-yard TD pass to Quinn Durkin and also scored on a 1-yard run of his own.
Durkin also scored on a 1-yard run with other significant contributions from kicker Drew Drzonek, who drilled field goals of 30 and 42 yards, and running back Luke Basiorka, who carried 18 times for 61 yards.
The Eagles were led defensively by senior linebacker Dillon Czerwinski, who finished with 12 tackles.
“Sandburg football history and tradition runs deep,” Murphy said. “To be able to serve as the head football coach at my alma mater, it’s my dream job. It’s everything I could have wished for and it’s really surreal to finally be back and to serve as the head football coach.
“I was on Dave Wierzal’s first team and now Dave is our linebacker coach. He’s on staff and that’s pretty cool. Mike Schofield was a former teammate of mine and he played 10 years in the NFL and he’s also on staff. To be able to share this with a former teammate and my former head coach is another cherry on top. It’s a pretty cool deal.”
So is having a kicker with the skill set of Drzonek, who Murphy credited with making Richards travel long distances on a consistent basis because of his kickoffs.
As for his field goals, Drzonek’s 30-yarder was on the final play of the first half and gave the Eagles a 10-7 advantage. His 42-yarder made it 20-7 with under a minute to play in the third quarter.
“Drew Drzonek was the most valuable player (Friday) night,” Murphy said. “I gave him the game ball. Every kick was a touchback, he had a couple of big-time punts for us and he tilted the field the entire night.
“Our offense was able to work with some short fields and Richards’ offense had some long, long fields ahead of them on pretty much every drive. That’s a credit to Drew Drzonek, man. He’s got a boot and he really, really put our offense and defense in good positions all night.”
The lone points of the game for Richards (1-1) came on a 15-yard TD pass from Noah Escobedo to Carmelo Palumbo.
“(Sandburg) is a good football team, but watching that film (Saturday) morning made me sick to my stomach,” Richards coach Tony Sheehan said. “One block here, one thing there and you know the game is closer than 27-7. It’s going to eat at me for a while because it was the little things we talk about and that’s hard to digest right now. …
“In the first half, we had a third-and-one and a fourth-and-one and we didn’t get it. Later, we had a fourth-and-two and we didn’t get it. To be honest, if you can’t get a fourth-and-one or fourth-and-two, you don’t deserve to win a football game.”