September 9, 2022

Chat with Coach Bonis #1: Jamboree, Madison Prep Review, St. Paul’s Preview

by Brother Neal Golden, S.C. (CJ ’57)

After easily defeating West Jefferson in the Shaw Jamboree, the Crusaders played Madison Prep from Baton Rouge, a 3A team that has had a great deal of success on the gridiron the last three years. Led by RB Torey Lambert, who won Player of the Week honors, the Crusaders scored a workmanlike 17-0 victory.

Lambert ran the ball an astounding 29 times for 131y and scored both Crusader touchdowns. The first came on a 1y run in the second quarter to make it 10-0 Martin. His other score came just before halftime on a 19 yard screen pass from senior QB Clayton Lonardo. Lambert ran the ball nine of the 12 plays of the 67 yard touchdown drive. Madison Prep came closest to scoring in the third quarter when they penetrated the Martin 20. But senior defensive lineman Brendan LeBlanc sacked the quarterback on fourth down to end the threat.

Asked his assessment of the game, Coach Mark Bonis replied, “I’m happy with the result, and I thought our defense played very well. Our special teams have improved every week from the scrimmage to the jamboree to the first game. But offensively, I’m not happy where we are yet. I think we’re close to doing some good things, but we still have a long ways to go.”

“What I am happy about from the Madison Prep game is the physicality. We played a very talented team, but we were very physical in the football game.”

Coach Bonis did not expect to run Torey Lambert so many times. “There’s going to be a time in the season where we’re going to have to do that. He’s never really done that before. He split time last year with other backs. But we don’t want him taking 29 carries a game. We have to involve other guys, Sidney Harris as well as Jordan West. As the season goes on, Clayton will do more quarterback runs. We’re taking our time so we can develop the next quarterback so he’s ready. We did want to slow the game down and control the tempo. Torey did a good job of ball security.”

“The one thing I was not happy about was that we had the opportunity to finish a couple of times, and we didn’t do that. So in the fourth quarter, our starting quarterback, starting running back, and starting linemen were still in the game. It would have been nice to put one more score on the board so we could get reps for our backups. Some of our backups did play, but I would like to have had them play more reps in the game.” “QB Clayton Lonardo started off missing his first few passes but got more accurate as the game went on. I thought he came out and managed the game well, but we had a couple of dropped passes, and that has to change. Clayton started two games last year, but you want your quarterback to feel comfortable and run the offense in its full capacity. I think he finished 9 of 15, which we want to be better but that’s not bad when we gained over 100y passing. I’m expecting us to do better this week.”

Is the offensive line a work in progress?

“We have one guy who’s a returning starter and another guy who was in the rotation last year. We have 10 guys in rotation throughout the course of the season. But it is a work in progress. They’ve improved tremendously but still have a long way to go.”

Overall, is the defense further advanced than the offense? “

We have three D linemen who are four-year starters, and a linebacker who’s a four-year starter. I’m expecting them to pull their weight this early in the season. We’re athletic in the secondary. We moved athletic guys back there so they’re inexperienced. I’m expecting the defensive front to carry the weight for our secondary to get better but also for our offense to become more comfortable and cohesive.”

The Crusaders play the St. Paul’s Wolves at their stadium in Covington Friday night. St. Paul’s played West Jefferson last Friday, the same team Brother Martin played in the jamboree.

“St. Paul’s had a lot of success in all three phases. They’re talented in all three and coached very well. They were a point away from the state championship game last year. This is a different team, but they return a good core group of guys. Coach Sears does a good job, and they have a culture of winning. They lost to Rummel in their jamboree on a pick-six at the end of the game when St. Paul’s was down by three and going in for the winning touchdown.” The team needs a throng of Crusader fans to make the trek to the Northshore for Friday night’s clash.