Barlow and St. Joseph Square Off In Structured Scrimmage [Video]

Since Sunday and the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, the majority of the Joel Barlow football team has been without power, food, showers, sleep and practice.

Still, after missing the past four days of practice, the Falcons looked respectable Wednesday against a rebuilding St. Joseph team.

Barlow coach Rob Tynan was very concerned about his player’s health and the fact that some of the players' homes have been without electricity since Sunday.

“They have not been eating or sleeping well,” he said.

Those are things you need to combat the grueling first weeks of preseason football camp. After Wednesday's scrimmage, Tynan directed the team to eat some good food and be ready for practice the rest of the week.

St. Joseph is coming off its second straight CIAC Class S state championship, but the Cadets have only eight returning letterman, five of whom are seniors.

The biggest loss from last season was quarterback Joe Della Vecchia,  who broke the state record for touchdowns (85) and passing yardage (7,693) in a career.

This year’s squad has four QB candidates - juniors Brett Olayos and Patrick Boyle and sophmores Christian Federici and Jordan Vazzano.

When asked if he had found his starting signal-caller, St. Joseph coach Joe Della Vecchia was non–committal.

"They all got the job done today," He said. "If the season started today I would play all of them."

St. Joseph opens its season at home against Staples on Sept. 17 at 1:30 p.m. 

As for the Falcons, they are trying to get in the required 14 practices before they open their season at home on Sept. 16 against Newtown at 7 p.m.

As for the scrimmage itself, the two teams traded three touchdowns each.

St.Joseph presented a solid air attack while Barlow seemed to be perfecting a solid ground-and-pound game.

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