Lloyd armed, ready to direct Eagles’ offense
Avella’s Mitch Macik catches the football during drills at an evening practice.
Avella defensive coach J.T. Mylan instructs the linemen during practice.
Avella’s Luke Lloyd throws the football during practice. Lloyd is a co-captain of the team.
Coach Ryan Cecchini watches a handoff to Dalton Simonelli during practice.
AVELLA – Luke Lloyd hopes one day to find a career as a welder. He’s studying the art of melding metals together by using heat from a flame. He is studying that process at the Western Area Vo-Tech School.
But Lloyd has been asked to do a different type of welding by Ryan Cecchini. The head coach at Avella High School wants Lloyd to bring the parts together that will make the Avella High School offense as seamlessly as a soldering project.
Lloyd will by the quarterback for the Eagles, stepping into the spot held by the graduated Santino Paris. The tall, strong-armed Paris led the Eagles to a 17-12 record over the past three seasons, two of which found the Eagles in the WPIAL Class A playoffs.
For a small school such as Avella, those were heady times. Lloyd wants to add to that success and, as a starting wide receiver on the catching end of Paris’ passes, he has a good idea how to accomplish that in what will be a pass-first, run-second offense.
“The last couple years, I’ve been the second-string quarterback,” said Lloyd. “I played half the game against Frazier and I played quarterback in youth league. I learned (proper) form from him. He has pretty good form and a lot of arm strength. He uses his hips to throw the ball. We did drills together and he showed me some stuff”
Paris, who is on the football team at Washington & Jefferson College, threw for 3,537 yards and 37 touchdowns over the last three seasons. Those numbers might be out of Lloyd’s reach but the 5-10, 141-pound senior understands that a five-win season could result in a third straight playoff appearance.
“I don’t think I have (Paris’) arm strength,” Lloyd said. “I’m smaller and faster, so I can get out of the pocket. I’m not just a pocket quarterback. If all my checks are covered, I know ho to get upfield rather than just throwing the ball away.”
And that would suit Cecchini’s plan on offense.
“We expect him to run more,” Cecchini said. “We can do more rollout passes. He can still throw, maybe not as strong as Santino, but he can throw. He reads defenses well, and at any other time before Santino he would have been the starting quarterback. To get him on the field, we moved him to wide receiver. We didn’t want to lose his athleticism by keeping him on the bench.”
Lloyd believes playing wide receiver the past few years gives him a better understanding of how to operate the passing game.
“I’ve helped the younger kids out running routes, so I know where they are going to be,” said Lloyd. “From playing wide receiver, I know how it feels to be on the receiving end, so I know where to put the ball.”
Senior Tyler Fraysier (5-8, 160), a dual threat last season with 22 catches for 374 yards and 415 yards on 24 carries, will return at wide receiver and be Lloyd’s main target.
Paris was one of 10 seniors who graduated, taking with them a huge chunk of the offense and most of the tackles on defense. Running back Nick Kusich, coming off a season in which he rushed for 1,112 yards and 18 touchdowns, is at Waynesburg University and C.J. Norman, who had 11 catches for 231 yards and four touchdowns, also is on W&J’s roster. Kusich was the first Avella running back to surpass 1,000 rushing yards since 1987.
“We had a heck of a class with Santino Paris, Nick Kusich and C.J. Norman,” said Cecchini. “What last year’s group did was bring a sense that we can win at Avella. Before that, we’d only won four or five games in eight or nine years. They really applied themselves over the summer. They never missed practice. They changed the culture.”
Cecchini is rotating three players at running back, including Steve Miller, a burly 5-11, 215-pound junior who can bash defensive fronts. Juniors Dalton Simonelli (5-11, 171) and Mitch Macik (5-9, 165) depend more on speed and quickness and can be effective running outside.
The line will have all underclassmen with only junior left tackle Shawn Willard (6-5, 260) and junior left guard John Mull (5-7, 162) returning from last year. Three other spots will be first-year starters.
With only 19 on the roster, the Eagles will have plenty of two-way players.
Cecchini sees the Tri-County South Conference as being more competitive.
“Beth-Center lost a lot of people,” he said. “Frazier lost their running back, who transferred. I think it could be wide open.”