QB, Brookfield coach like matchup against Kirtland

By Brian Dzenis

bdzenis@vindy.com

GIRARD

There’s a bit of 2012 in the 2015 Brookfield football team and then some.

Three seasons ago, the Warriors made it to the regional finals before ending the season with a 12-1 record. This year’s team is 10-1 heading into a Division VI, Region 19 semifinal against last year’s state finalist, Kirtland (10-1).

Brookfield coach Randy Clark pegs his current squad as the more versatile of the two.

“I think overall our kids match up pretty well with that team,” Clark said. “We’re better up front, but we were dang good up front that year and everywhere else. We have a better receiving corps and with our quarterback we can throw the ball a little better, we were more of a running team back then.”

That quarterback — who has run the Warriors’ spread offense for the past three years — is Augustus Necastro. He is part of the winningest senior class in Brookfield history with 36 victories

Necastro is one of the best passers in the area with 1,899 passing yards, 25 touchdowns and just eight interceptions. Only Columbiana’s Mitch Davidson has more passing yards and the very competitive Necastro was somewhat reluctant to admit it irked him before practice Wednesday at Arrowhead Stadium.

“It does bother me a little bit,” he said. “Mitch is a great player. We’ve seen him on film a couple of times this year and we threw against him in 7-on-7, so he’s a really good player.

“I just want to prove to everybody no matter who we play that I’m the best player on the field.”

He’s been just that for the Warriors in his career and win or lose on Saturday night at Twinsburg’s Tiger Stadium, he will end his prep career as Brookfield’s all-time leading passer. According to his coach and neighbor, Necastro has wanted to play quarterback since he was 5, throwing the ball around with Clark’s two sons, Joey and Alex.

“I knew that was his position since he was 7 or 8 years old, we worked very hard at it even way back them, he’s always throwing the ball in the yard,” Clark said. “He’s always been a good baseball player as a pitcher and we always knew that’s where he’d end up.”

Said Necastro: “I started out in midgets and for QB, it came down to who could throw the ball the farthest and it went on from there.”

Necastro has four viable targets. Caleb Hunkus leads the foursome and is third in the Mahoning Valley with 46 catches with 739 yards and 12 touchdowns, but Necastro says lets the game decide who gets the ball.

“All them make plays, but it’s just a matter of who’s hot during the game,” Necastro said. “In the past couple of weeks, Marc Kraml has been very good, during the whole season, [Hunkus] and Kasey Tingler have been great targets and Xavier Bailey is faster than everybody in the area. He can hurt you in any way.”

Off the field, Necastro carries a 4.0 grade-point average and is in the running to be one of the school’s valedictorians. He intends to play football at the next level and said he has received some attention from FCS-level schools, but his long-term goal is to become an orthopedic surgeon. It was a goal that began with a starfish and a worm and hopefully for the QB, will end with humans.

“I really like biology, but what really started it off was doing dissections in seventh grade and my dad’s friend, who is a orthopedic surgeon at UPMC-Farrell,” Necastro said. “I went into surgery with him and witnessed some surgeries and it was really cool.

“I just thought it was cool. It was something that interested me seeing how everything worked.”

Necastro fears neither the sight of innards nor the Hornets, whom the Warriors face Saturday at 7 p.m. at Twinsburg.

“I feel like we’re peaking at the right time,” Necastro said. “We’re playing a lot of good ball, I feel like we match up with Kirtland well. They like to run the ball and our strength is stopping the run and they run a lot of man and they’re small in the front while we’re humongous up front. I just feel like we match up pretty good with them.”

Said Clark: “Our kids need to come in with the mindset that the past is the past. This team might have four state championships, but right now we’re both 10-1and we’re ready for them and we’ll give it our best shot.”