Notre Dame (2-0) @ Benet (2-0), 7:30PM
Last week: Notre Dame beat Evanston, 48-21; Benet beat O’Fallon, 41-3
Storyline: Benet enters East Suburban Catholic Conference play with the two nonconference victories it needed by putting up a pair of 40-point games against St. Laurence and O’Fallon.
Jack Sznajder, Marty Dosen and Charlie Weidenbach all ran for touchdowns in the Redwings’ 38-point victory over the Panthers as Sznajder threw for just 107 yards.
Dosen ran 21 times for 95 yards and a TD while Sznajder added a 43-yard touchdown run as the Redwings overwhelmed O’Fallon.
Whereas Sznajder and the offense carried a bigger load in the 42-point output in Week 1 at St. Laurence, Benet’s defense jump-started things against the Panthers.
Junior safety Alec McEachern tackled O’Fallon’s Illinois-bound running back, Kentrail Moran, and picked up a Moran fumble forced by Ryan Liszka and went in for a score to give the Redwings a 9-0 lead in the first quarter.
Another junior safety, Danny O’Malley, added an interception for Tim Cederblad’s defense, which forced three Panther turnovers.
In two games, the Redwings’ defense has combined to force seven turnovers as Weidenbach, Erik Jones and O’Malley have all come down with interceptions so far.
Meanwhile, Notre Dame put up 48 points in a victory over Evanston as quarterback Tyler Tsagalis completed nine of 14 passes for 133 yards and two TDs.
One of Tsagalis’ touchdowns went in the direction of Tim Simon – who also returned a punt for a touchdown and intercepted a pass.
Dons’ junior running back Eric Harper ran nine times for 62 yards and two scores last week.
The Redwings shut out the Dons, 23-0, last year on their way to starting 4-0 in 2014 and will be looking for their third straight 3-0 start to a season.
Benet coach Pat New on Notre Dame: “Their quarterback (Tsagalis) is one of their best players, along with Tim Simon – their free safety and receiver. Simon last week had a tremendous game against Evanston. But I know they’ll be out for revenge against us after we beat them last year. I know they have high expectations going into this season. I know their coaching staff pretty well and they were pretty fired up about this season.
“I don’t know as much about (Harper) because we didn’t face him last year. I know the two guys I mentioned (Tsagalis and Simon) because we faced them last year and they’re both two tremendous players.”
