Countdown to Kickoff: Summit v. Voorhees

Summit plays their season opener on Saturday afternoon against Voorhees High School. This is the first regular season game the Hilltoppers will play since defeating Orange for the state title last season.

"The kids are working really hard," said head coach John Liberato.  "We had a great week of practice."

Voorhees went 0-10 in 2008, improved to 2-8 last season, and look to continue building under second-year coach Mark Priebracha. The Vikings are coming off a fairly strong start in their preseason scrimmages. One of their plans for success this season will be to run two completely separate units on the field.  In hopes of keeping fresh legs on the field no Vikings will be playing both sides of the ball.  Summit runs their team slightly differently.

"We have four or five kids who are going to play both sides of the ball," Liberato said.  "When you have kids who are going to play just one side, it is nice.  They probably have an advantage there."

The Hilltoppers may run into a problem with depth, as they do not have many back-ups this season without playing some boys on both sides. Still, Liberato believes that his team will be able to compensate for the fresh legs with talent and the extra conditioning the boys have put in.

"We're just going to do what we do," Liberato said.  "We'll run a no-huddle offense and then hopefully enjoy success."

The Hilltoppers' game plan has always been to take it one game at a time, and this one is no exception.  Liberato's final statement was a testament to the team mentality.

"Hopefully we'll be 1-0 after our game against Voorhees."

Summit has also named this year's team captain. Pete Badgley will be the team captain, and each game two more seniors will step up to be game captains.  Seniors Austin Jennings and Nick Oristanio will be representing the Hilltoppers alongside Badgley on Saturday.

Saturday's kick-off is at 1:00 p.m. at Tatlock.  Stay tuned to Patch for complete game coverage.