PREVIEW: With veteran leadership, Amherst Comets hope to take the next step in 2018

AMHERST, OHIO– With a new coach at the helm in 2017, the main goal for the Amherst Comets football program was changing the culture.

That goal was accomplished as the Comets finished with a 6-4 record, their first winning record since the 2010 season. Now, under second-year head coach Mike Passerrello, the Comets are looking to take the next step in 2018.

“We’ve been working the whole offseason to do it, and the kids have been talking about it throughout two-a-days,” Passerrello said during the 2018 WEOL Lorain County preview show. “The whole thing is we kept saying we want more. So 6-4 wasn’t enough and we want to move forward, and hopefully we can take the next step with the program.”

Last season, Passerrello put in new systems on both sides of the ball. This year, however, he says the key for his team will be concentrating on and mastering the little details that will help them improve and hopefully make a playoff push. They ended 2017 right on the cusp of Division II, Region 6 playoff contention after beating Westlake in their final game of the season.

“It was fun because they had never been there before,” Passerrello said. “There was no playoff talk, there was none of that, and they enjoyed every minute of it. Now comes step two, are we going to take the carrot?

“I think they learned how to play in a big game. They hadn’t played in a big game before. We had three big games last year, and we had opportunities to win those three big games. And at halftime when we came in it … was more of a learning process. It was more understanding that when you’re in a big game it’s no holds barred, let’s go. And that was what we needed to overcome, and that experience, I hope, happened last year.”

The key returner for Amherst on the offensive side of the ball is senior running back Khennedy Scagliozzo. Last year, Scagliozzo rushed for nearly 1800 yards and 21 touchdowns, But while he accounted for a majority of Amherst’s scores, Passerrello said that in order to take the next step the Comets can’t simply rely on their star back.

“Khennedy is a special player,” he said. “What I keep telling the team is it just can’t be Khennedy, that’s how we take the next step. We need more playmakers, we need more guys doing it whether we’re running the football, throwing the football. Everybody knows about Khennedy and they’re going to focus on him, so we need other guys to step up to open things up for Khennedy too.”

The Comets return 18 varsity letter winners from last season. Along with Scagliozzo, the Comets will look to Joe Tomaro at wide receiver and for Jared Prete to anchor the line at center. Last year’s starting quarterback Matt Fairchild is back for his senior year, but he will have competition from transfers Jimmy Schill (Elyria) and Johnathan Hice (Brookside) when it comes to who gets the start under center.

Defensively, the Comets will have veteran linebackers Christian Velez, Aidan Johnson and Nathan Soto. Soto earned All-SWC honors last season and amassed 91 tackles, while Johnson was close behind with 84.

As the Comets look to take the next step, they know that part of that will include knocking off a perennial Southwestern Conference favorite such as Avon or Olmsted Falls. But as Passerrello said, he’s trying to instill in his team that it isn’t enough to just talk about this as a goal– they’re eventually going to have to go out there and do it.

“As we move forward this year we have to put an emphasis that any play can be that play that wins us a ball game,” Passerrello said. “They know that it’s a tough conference and it’s a competitive conference, from top to bottom anybody can win any game. The big thing we talk about is everybody can say it’s our time, but they need to make it our time. It doesn’t matter whether we’re playing North Ridgeville, Avon, Olmsted Falls. You gotta come out and play football, there are no gimme games.”

***You can listen to Passerrello’s entire interview with WEOL here. Below is Amherst’s entire regular season schedule.

2018 Amherst Comets Schedule

8/24 @ Clearview

8/31 vs. Lakewood

9/7 @ North Ridgeville

9/14 vs. Midview

9/21 vs. Berea-Midpark

9/28 @ Olmsted Falls

10/5 vs. Avon Lake

10/12 @ North Olmsted

10/19 vs. Avon

10/26 @ Westlake