By Joe Scalzo

scalzo@vindy.com

youngstown

Much of the attention leading up to Ursuline’s opener against Red Lion Christian Academy has centered around the Lions’ freshman quarterback David Sills, who verbally committed to USC two years ago as a seventh-grader.

And not just from fans.

“I’ve heard more than once from my defensive linemen, ‘I want to sack the kid that’s going to USC,’” said Irish coach Dan Reardon, whose team begins its quest for a fourth straight state title Friday night at Stambaugh Stadium. “That would definitely be a feather in their cap.”

Ursuline is one of three Ohio teams on the Delaware school’s schedule this season — the Lions play Mooney in Week 5 and Massillon in Week 7 — and while Sills gets most of the attention, there’s talent everywhere, Reardon said.

“I think they’re as talented as anybody we’ve played since I’ve been a head coach,” said Reardon, who is 68-23 in seven years with the Irish. “[Stills] is very, very talented. The fact that he’s only a freshman is almost shocking.

“He can make any throw on the field and you can tell he’s very well-schooled in how to handle blitzes, where to throw and where his hot read is. For him to be this far ahead of the curve, I can’t imagine how good he’s going to be in two or three years.”

Red Lion, which also has games scheduled in five other states, is an anomaly in that it offers financial aid for athletics and conducts spring practices. In exchange, the Lions cannot play schools from the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association or compete for state titles, making them more like an All-Star team than a typical high school program.

“It’s kind of hard to compare them to anyone because of that,” Reardon said.

Senior defensive end Eli Ankou, a UCLA recruit, and outside linebacker Trent Corney (who has a half-dozen Division I offers) both hail from Canada. Ten of Delaware’s top 13 players are from Red Lion alone, according to USA Today.

That’s a lot of talent. The flip side is, there’s not much depth.

“When I saw their scrimmage, they played their starters and maybe one or two other guys on both sides of the ball,” Reardon said. “There’s two ways of looking at that. They might benefit [playing Ursuline in the opener] from a depth perspective but the way we’re looking at it is, they’ve got a lot of new faces that have never played a game together before.

“That may be an advantage for us.”

The Irish are used to playing unfamiliar teams — they played just two teams in the tri-county area last year and one of them, South Range, was a playoff opponent — but Reardon admitted there’s a little bit more buzz this time.

“In a game like this, the kids take it up a notch,” he said. “They realize we’re representing more than our school. We’re representing our area and Ohio.”