In his third year at Columbian, coach Brian Colatruglio has his Tornadoes on the verge of something the program hasn't achieved since 1987: a perfect regular season.
Colatruglio, who had a string of perfect regular seasons when he was at Hopewell-Loudon, has a chance to do so at TC tonight, when the Tornadoes travel to Norwalk to face the 7-2 Truckers.
"I know, from having been around Tiffin, I remember, I went to games in '87," said Colatruglio, himself a Calvert graduate. "I know that team is looked at very highly around here. To have a chance to match that... it's going 10-0. No. 1 it's a hard thing to do. You have to have things go right, and you have to find a way to win 10 weeks. It's tough to do that. For us to have that chance, it's pretty special."
Interestingly, the Truckers, who are still alive in the Division II postseason chase, are coached by a man who was on the Tornadoes' 1987 undefeated squad - Chris MacFarland.
He coaches a team that has lost its only two games of the season in the last two weeks. But Colatruglio said the Truckers are dangerous, especially on the offensive side.
"They're trying to finish off their season on a strong note," Colatruglio said. "They're dangerous because they have some pretty good football players. It's probably the best group of skill kids offensively that we've seen all year. They have four receivers of 20 or more receptions, and a running back (Breck Turner) that's closing in on 1,000 yards. Their quarterback (Jake Fetherolf) is a three year starter ... they have a lot of offensive talent.
"They're scary because they have big-play potential. They don't have a lot of 15-20 play drives; they have a lot of 1 and 2-play drives. It's a scary thing to face, a team that's explosive like that."
The coach said he's particularly impressed with receiver Damius Peacock.
"He's one of the most talented players we've gone against," he said. "He may not have the raw speed that the kid from Mansfield had, but as far as a talented receiver that runs great routes and goes and gets the ball, he's as good as we've faced at the receiver position."
On defense, Colatruglio said Norwalk was a "little undersized."
"I think they have a little bit of an advantage in the skill spots," Colatruglio said. "Our advantage has got to be up front. I think that's where we have a slight advantage, and we need to be able to control the line of scrimmage on both sides. We've done that just about every week, and that's something we're gonna have to be able to do to control the ball offensively, keep it out of their hands and score touchdowns."
Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.
