After suffering a tough defeat to Montini the week before, Nazareth was faced with two options: feel sorry about the loss to the Broncos or bounce back against Providence.
As evidenced by their 17-7 win against the Celtics on Sept. 18 in a Catholic League crossover, the Roadrunners are a resilient group.
“You’re always concerned,” Nazareth coach Tim Racki said. “There’s always going to be an emotional letdown after an emotional win or emotional loss like last week. But we didn’t flinch.
“We just had a lot of meeting time and we didn’t even talk about football. We just talked about staying together and the progress we’ve made on (last) Monday and where we want to go. We’re just focusing on the positives and what we can do better this week. The kids really took it to heart and we had a really solid week of practice. To see all of that translate (Friday) night was just very rewarding.”
Keying the win for Nazareth (2-3) was its stout defense. Junior outside linebacker Harry Keenan finished with an interception and a fumble recovery while junior cornerback Sean Trayser added an interception.
“That was a coming of age for Harry,” Racki said. “You really need that confidence. All of our younger players when they come up from the lower levels and they just experience this conference for the first time on the varsity level, it’s a lot faster and they hit a lot harder.
“In the first half of the season, we’ve been playing outstanding teams including (Friday) night. And I really thought our younger kids really came of age. That was the best game they’ve had thus far and that’s because of the upperclassmen helping them out and developing and not getting down and believing in themselves.”
Nazareth limited the Class 5A top-ranked Celtics (4-1) — who were playing their first game since the sbrupt firing of coach Tyler Plantz — to just one touchdown in the fourth quarter while forcing four turnovers overall.
“Our defense really played lights out,” Racki said. “Because Providence has an incredibly powerful running game and so we were concerned about slowing that down and we certainly did.
“They had some (times) when they moved the ball a little between the 20s, but once they got to midfield or the red zone, we really clamped down. When we made them go to the air, that’s when we started making some big plays.”
The Roadrunners scored on a 5-yard run by Charles Calhoun, who finished with 103 yards on 21 attempts. The other touchdown was on a 34-yard pass from JJ Chapman to Charlie Heck. Chapman had 89 yards passing for the game.
“The kids didn’t get down (after the loss to Montini),” Racki said. “They believed in themselves and the coaches did an exceptional job as well. It was really nice to see all those younger guys (Friday) night get rewarded for all of their hard work and going through a grinder.”