While the Baldwin football team has started the season with a pair of losses, there have been some standout moments. Senior wide receiver Noah Saccani stood out in a big way last week against Fox Chapel, leading the WPIAL in receiving along with forcing a fumble and getting an interception.
“The interception stood out to me the most because getting one does not happen very often. So it feels good to have one under my belt this season,” Saccani said.
Big, positive moments like that have been important for the team.
“It definitely felt good having a game like that,” Saccani said. “It just shows that when we execute on both sides of the ball, good things can happen.”
School is now back in session, and the Highlanders have their home opener against West Mifflin at 7 p.m. tonight.
Along with Saccani’s receiving ability, sophomore quarterback Noah Mickolay has shown improvements.
“Mickolay has improved a lot during the offseason and it is starting to show,” junior Joe Jackson said. “He put on a lot of muscle and has been better at making decisions.”
Saccani agreed that the passing game will be key.
“Our passing attack has shown flashes of being our strong suit, so we look to build on that going into the rest of the season,” Saccani said.
Despite these improvements, the two losses that started the year extended the team winless streak to a WPIAL worst 21-game losing streak. One problem so far this season has been that the team gets down on themselves early in games.
“We have to improve on our effort and we cannot get down on ourselves after the other team scores a touchdown,” Mickolay said. “We have to be resilient and stay fundamentally sound.”
Because of the losing streak, many students have quit and Baldwin is left with fewer than 30 players. That is down from over 40 in the summer.
“It sucks that we lost guys, but we have to keep on doing what we’re doing to try and win games,” Saccani said.
Mickolay feels the team need to adopt “the next man up” mentality.
“We are going to have to plug new kids into those spots and expect them to be ready to go on Friday nights,” Mickolay said.
Despite the hardships the team has faced early on, they believe in pushing through and staying motivated.
“Our saying is ‘We’re all we’ve got. We’re all we need,” Jackson said. “I feel like teams are underestimating us because of the size of our team and the numbers of players we have.”
The Highlanders plan on switching up their approach a little bit going into their game against West Mifflin tonight.
“We are going to try to throw different looks at them on offense, whether that be using different motions or changing up the tempo,” Mickolay said. “They are an aggressive team, so we can use that to our advantage and catch them off guard.”
