Lodi football learning quickly to make up for inexperience | State of the Program

Lodi’s summer roster is filled with unfamiliar faces, but it’s an attentive group eager to transform all that learning into success.

“When we looked around in the summer and saw a lot of new faces, our initial reaction as a coaching staff, and mine definitely, was, ‘Boy, we’ve got a lot of work to do, a lot of teaching,’” veteran coach Mark Maggio said. “And we were talking to a group of young men that want to learn, because they know they’re going to be out there.”

Senior quarterback Evan Kuhl and junior receiver/running back Shane Bell are among the handful of seasoned veterans returning to a lineup that last season suffered through an injury-filled campaign and 1-9 record in the North Jersey Interscholastic Conference Colonial Division.

Bell was one the Rams who missed playing time last season, and the Rams plan to regularly put the ball in the hands of the first-team all-division standout.

Kuhl earned second-team all-division last season and is among the top returning quarterbacks in the small-school NJIC. The 6-foot-2 QB threw for 1,379 yards and 11 touchdowns as a junior, and his experience will be invaluable for a program whose summer roster of 34 players only features a handful of returning starters.

“We are excited for his senior year,” Maggio said. “Evan wants to play at the next level, and he can. He gets it. He knows what it takes. He knows what it takes to be a leader.”

The tradition

Lodi has won three sectional titles since the NJSIAA introduced sectional playoffs in 1974. The Rams won North 1, Group 2 in 1992 and 1998, and won North 2, Group 2 in 2005. Their last playoff appearance came in 2014.

Maggio was a senior lineman on the 1998 sectional championship team. He enters his eighth season with a record of 17-48.

The challenge

Lodi, like so many NJIC schools, needs to build a solid offensive line. Senior Bahri Xhaferi is the lone returning starting lineman to a team that last season averaged 10 points per game.

Kuhl and Bell give the spread offense a strong 1-2 combination, and a solid line will afford them and their teammates more time and space to succeed.

“With our skill kids, with Evan and Shane, we are most certainly a threat,” Maggio said. “And we have some young athletes who performed very well for us last year [on junior varsity] in key moments.”

Expectations

Lodi’s ability to register multiple wins while again competing in the Colonial Division hinges on its defense. Last season’s Rams allowed 33 points per game, a number that has to come down.

“I’m very pleased with what we’ve learned over the summer defensively,” Maggio said. “We feel that our defense is going to be able to put our offense in a really good position this year."

Schedule

Aug. 29: at Garfield

Sept. 7: vs. Lyndhurst

Sept. 21: vs. Elmwood Park

Sept. 27: at Palisades Park/Leonia

Oct. 4: at Cresskill

Oct. 11: vs. Becton

Oct. 18: TBD

Oct. 25: TBD

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Lodi football learning quickly to make up for inexperience | State of the Program