St. Francis football Red Flash confident they can stay atop Northeast Conference

Aug. 31—LORETTO — A roster shakeup thanks to the recent NCAA transfer rules has definitely made a repeat as Northeast Conference champion a bit trickier for the St. Francis University football team in 2023.

However, the Red Flash looked and sounded very confident heading into Thursday's opening game at Western Michigan.

"I think we're right on track with where we were from last year," Red Flash coach Chris Villarrial said at the team's preseason kickoff luncheon on Aug. 18.

St. Francis still enters the season with one of the best quarterbacks in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) in Cole Doyle, and he'll be operating behind a veteran line. That's enough for the conference to pick St. Francis as the preseason favorite after the Red Flash ran the table in league play en route to its second NEC title and a postseason playoff berth.

Doyle's coming off a sensational first season at St. Francis. After unseating incumbent Justin Sliwoski as the Red Flash's quarterback, all Doyle did was direct a Marco Pecora-coordinated offense that ranked 24th in the FCS, completing 65.28% of his passes for 1,931 yards and 21 touchdowns in 11 games.

A southern California native and transfer from College of the Canyons, Doyle was the finalist for the Walter Payton Award as the top offensive player in the FCS and is on the watch list for the honor to open this season.

"Obviously, it's a great accomplishment. It's something that you dream about as a little kid," Doyle said of the national attention, "but I'm focused on 2023. What we did last season was awesome, but, this season, I definitely have way higher expectations for myself. I want to exceed everything I did last year."

While his talent is huge, Doyle himself, at 5-foot-10 and 175 pounds, is not, and keeping him healthy will be paramount. Behind him on the roster are five players, none of whom have thrown a college pass. Among that group is true freshman and Central graduate Jeff Hoenstine, who shattered the Pennsylvania record for most career touchdown passes and threw for the third-most career yards, but making the jump from Class 3A football to guiding a team with playoff aspirations with just one offseason to prepare would seem to be a tall order.

Doyle will be throwing behind a line that's not only experienced, but proven. Ligonier Valley graduate Wylie Spiker, Cole Graham and first-team preseason all-NEC picks Seth Osborne and Bailey Iboleon all are returning starters from a unit that ranked 12th in the country in sacks allowed.

The lone missing piece is tackle Tre'quan Dorsey, who exhausted his eligibility and was drafted by the USFL's Pittsburgh Maulers.

"Our role this year is to be really consistent," said Osborne, the team's center. "Everybody's going to need to continue to get better, and we're going to have to continue to do what we do.

"Last season was last season, but what are we going to do this season? We're just going to keep working and improve every day."

Citing concerns that it would give Western Michigan a competitive advantage in the opener because the Broncos refused to release a preseason depth chart, St. Francis also is keeping its starters secret until the game and also declined to discuss who was contending to fill the shoes of some of the its more prominent departures. However, logically, Jesse Ramil, who was effectively the sixth man in 2022 would complete this year's line. Ramil drew three starts as a redshirt freshman.

Two area players — Bishop McCort Catholic's Nick McGowan and Central Cambria's Levi Villarrial, the coach's son — are among the reserves with the most time in the program, so they could be in position to see some action this fall.

They both are redshirt sophomores. Almost everyone else on the offensive line are redshirt freshmen or two freshmen.

Along with Doyle, the No. 2, 3 and 4 running backs from 2022 are back, although leading rusher Lovell Armstead took his 115 carries and 507 yards into the transfer portal. Junior QuaSean Holmes, who's changed from No. 20 to No. 5 for this season, literally flashed his skill in 2022 when he gained 8.0 yards per carry and went for 168 yards against Sacred Heart and 109 against Merrimack.

Damon Horton, meanwhile, was second on the team in carries and averaged 4.2 yards per tote while getting into the end zone four times. He's a human bowling ball at 6-0, 215 pounds.

Jordan Jackson gained 249 yards and scored four times despite usually playing fourth in the depth chart.

Who Doyle is throwing to is the big question. The only holdover from St. Francis' top six pass-catchers is former Shade player and Shanksville- Stonycreek graduate Dawson Snyder. To be sure, Snyder is a great player to have back. In 2022, the 6-4 redshirt junior averaged 20 yards per reception and caught four TDs.

However, freshman all-Americans Makai Jackson and Elijah Sarratt and tight end Hunter Brown took 143 catches, 1,912 yards and 25 touchdowns with them into the transfer portal.

The next most-proven returnee on the outside is redshirt sophomore Casey McKinney, who had three receptions in 2022. If there's anything the Red Flash coaching staff has proven recently, though, is that it can find wideouts that can contribute quickly. Incoming freshmen Keondre DeShields and Eli Lingenfelter (Central) were 2022 all-state selections and Richland graduate Sam Penna, although he might not quite be ready to get onto the field, has turned heads in practice. Tyler Stewart from national prep power St. Frances bears watching, as well. He had looks from a couple of Power Five schools.

Also, transfer Cinsere Clark caught 31 passes in 2022 at Virginia-Lynchburg.

Absolutely gutted between graduation, the transfer portal and major off-field issues, Bishop McCort Catholic graduate Scott Lewis' defense will have a very different look. Among the losses were NEC defensive player of the year Donnell Brown, first-team all-conference picks Sebastian Benjamin, Travell Cook and Gregory Reddick and second-team all-NEC linebackers Willie O'Hara and Marcel Mami. Jake Bruno backed up Brown in 2022 and would appear to have the inside track there.

Junior lineman Eddie Bierals, though, was optimistic the Red Flash defense could remain a force in transition.

"I see us being very aggressive," Bierals said. "I see us chasing 11 hats to the ball at all times. This year, we'll be a mix.

"We'll be aggressive, but when the situation calls for it and bad situations come around, we're going to stick together. We have players who are going to make big-time plays in space."

Along with Bierals, leading the charge are cornerback Kerry Galloway and linebacker Willie Middleton. Galloway, in his sixth year at St. Francis, was a NEC first-team preseason pick.

Defensive backs Desmond Harrod and Lamar Frazier, linebackers Kesean Dyson and Joe Toepfer and 350-pound defensive tackle Gavin Thomas are back with experience. That accounts for any Red Flash defender that ranked among the team's top 18 in tackles.

It will be interesting to see if former Bedford standout Mercury Swaim, listed as a linebacker, cracks the rotation this season.

"I'm excited. I think we can win it again this season," Galloway said. "I feel like it's all starting to come together."

The Red Flash special teams were truly special in 2022 and stands to be very good again with all-conference return man McKinney and highly regarded long snapper Lucas Winters returning. Coach Villarrial will need to replace both his kicking specialists, but recruited one of the best legs in the Pennsylvania in all-state Ben Sosnowski, who both punted and kicked for Hollidaysburg.

"What we did last season's only motivated us," McKinney said, "to do even more."

"Hopefully we can come together and keep gelling and control what we control and be successful," Chris Villarrial said.