Year one of the NJSFC got Pope John acclimated. Now, in year two, the goal is simple: Finish.
SPARTA – Year one of the NJSFC got Pope John acclimated. Now, in year two, the goal is simple: Finish.
"We didn’t come up here to be competitive, you know?" Pope John head coach Brian Carlson said. "We came up here to win.”
In its first season with a fully loaded schedule of former Big North United teams and other powerhouse programs, Pope John wasn't far off that goal. The 2016 Lions finished 6-5 and fell in the Non-Public, Group 3 semifinals by just three points to DePaul.
In fact, Pope John lost three of its four games against old Big North United teams by just a single score.
RELATED: Super Conference summer tour: An inside look at N.J.'s top teams
That was a major departure from just a few years ago, when Pope John struggled to hang with the state's best – like a 63-10 loss to Paramus Catholic in 2014.
But despite a couple of blowout losses, that season – the freshman year for this team's seniors – has become something of a turning point in Pope John's program history.
"That’s when we really started to pick things up and say, ‘You know, we really have to take our game to the next level.’" senior linebacker Nick DeNucci said. "And each year, we slowly have progressed, but now we’re almost at our peak."
That feeling of optimism runs throughout the Lions' roster as the new season approaches. After all, this year's squad is anchored by 24 seniors and has been bolstered by a handful of key transfers – like highly touted defensive lineman Ireland Burke – that will play key roles.
But in order to take that next step forward, Pope John will have to navigate an even more difficult road ahead than last year.
“You know, we’ve leapt the schedule again," Carlson said. "We’re playing a team, Lake Gibson, out of Florida. We’re playing Bishop McNamara out of Maryland. We’ve got (St. Joseph (Mont.)) now on our schedule. So our schedule is one of the best in the country.”
For the current seniors, seeing a slate like that is both exciting and a point of great pride. After all, they're arguably the class that's been most instrumental in transitioning Pope John from its old status as a Sussex County power to a more statewide – and to an extent, national – player.
“It’s a great feeling," senior safety Ty Hranicka said. "We all trusted Coach Carlson, we came in knowing he was saying this is what’s going to happen and we believed him. Just like he does, he came through."
Now, the goal for those 24 seniors and the rest of the Lions is to make the adjustments needed to keep that progress going and scoop up some wins – not to mention titles – against those top-flight opponents.
“It’s the little things," Carlson said. "Because they’re so well coached and they’ve got players that if you don’t play the way you’re supposed to on every play, it’s going to come back to beat you. Where in the past, we were the majority the better team and if we made a couple mistakes, we’d just overcome it and win, you can’t do it now.
"That’s why we talk about 'finish' and we talk about that in the drills and we’ve got to play 48 minutes. In the league we’re in, it’s a 48-minute game.”
Matt Stypulkoski may be reached at mstypulkoski@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @M_Stypulkoski. Like NJ.com High School Sports on Facebook.