EF owns second half, shoots down Deer Lakes

By JEREMY TEPPER

For the MV Independent

Elizabeth Forward coach Mike Collodi didn’t yell at his team at halftime. In some cases a 7-0 deficit and a half rife with mistakes might be cause for a chewing out, but Collodi knew he had to talk positivity to his young players.

So that’s what he did. He assured them that things would change in the second half, and then cranked some rap music. The locker room got rocking and the Warriors came out accordingly, erasing a flat first half for a 15-7 win over Deer Lakes.

“I told them we were gonna be a completely different team in the second half and I thought we were,” Collodi said. “We just came out with a little bit of a fire in the second half. We woke up and started executing.”

Quite drastically, it was a tale of two halves for the Warriors. Almost nothing worked early. The defense was just all right, as Lancers’ quarterback Aris Hasley had a fair amount of success throwing the ball. The offense was bad, as Nico Mrvos struggled in his first start at quarterback, while the running game followed suit. At halftime, the Warriors were being outgained 150-32.

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