Senecas head to rival Mohawk in Week 1 clash

Since 2021, Calvert and Mohawk have opened up the football season on a Thursday.But this season will be the last time the two play in Week 1 as non-league opponents as Calvert will move into the N10 starting next season.With both squads coming off postseason wins a year ago – Mohawk with a regional semifinal appearance – who will begin this new season 1-0?With this matchup, even though Calvert is 3-1 vs. Mohawk since the rivalry was renewed, the last two games were decided by a combined three points as Calvert edged the Warriors 28-27 at Frost-Kalnow Stadium."Week 1 is always a good measuring stick. It's just down the road, a rivalry game," Calvert coach Mike Lento said. "It's been a battle the last couple of years and it surely was exciting last year for a Week 1 matchup for a Thursday night game."Both teams lost some really good players to graduation as some holes will have to be filled this season. Most notably, Mohawk had to fill the spot of quarterback as multi-year starter Ben Bogner – the N10 player of the year in 2024 – graduated.Mohawk coach Eric Daniel acknowledged there were some big shoes to fill, but he has liked the progression he's seen from his team."Very happy with our progression and our maturation throughout the preseason. The kids have caught on to what we're showing them, but I'm just really proud of the kids and where the program is at," Daniel said. "We kind of used last year's success as a leapfrog this year to carry that same mentality of toughness, togetherness and for them to be good teammates and they've honestly gotten better every practice. It's been one of the best preseasons I've ever been a part of."Andon Clouse steps into the quarterback position for the Warriors, but he does have some good talent around him, including Kaden Bish in the backfield and Owen Patrizi as well."They like to get downhill with Bish, and Patrizi is one of the toughest kids pound for pound we'll see all year," Lento said. "Mohawk has some guys coming back, but had to fill in some gaps like us as well, but coming off that success last year I'm sure they're looking for more. We just have to fine-tune some things and put our best foot forward."On the flipside, Calvert returns a quarterback, but there could possibly be two of them that plays – Tucker Coleman and Charlie Palm. Both have been getting reps in the preseason and Daniel expects to see them both.But up front is a strength of the Senecas with the Moyer twins – Cameron and Connor – back for their senior years, along with the dynamic athlete Logan DeMoss on the outside and speedster Nolan Lee in the backfield."They're exceptional up front, they come off the ball well and they do a great job establishing the line of scrimmage," Daniel said. "I was hoping those Moyer boys would've graduated by now, but they are certainly two big cogs to their wheel, but honestly between the Lee kid in the backfield, who has exceptional speed and the DeMoss kid, who is a spectacular receiver on the outside … he took advantage of some things and hurt us last year so we have to know where he's at at all times."And we know we might see either Coleman or Palm, but they're both good athletes and both do a great job. Their offense has a lot of talent and defensively it's the same. We know the back end of the defense is very good. Everything kind of goes and flows through those guys up front, so they're difficult to block too."The biggest key for Lento will be his Senecas matching Mohawk's physicality."We have to make sure we compete with their physicality up front and do the little things we need to do to be successful Thursday," he said. "We also need to capitalize on our opportunities better than we did a season ago. We had a lot of wasted opportunities last year, so we need to capitalize."