NILES — Notre Dame’s Tyler Tsagalis stood in the shotgun against Benet. With seconds left in the first half, he dropped back and threw to the end zone. A Redwings defender undercut the ball, intercepted it and halted the Dons’ best drive of the game.
With a shrug, Tsagalis walked back to the sideline Friday.
“They had real big defensive ends,” Tsagalis said after a 23-0 loss. “They were getting up the field and it was getting a little hard to see. Their defensive backs break on the ball very well too, they did a great job.”
Tsagalis completed 8-of-21 passes for 75 yards and an interception. But through incompletions and dropped passes, there were flashes of the playmaker Tsagalis could be. And if the Dons continue to lean on the junior quarterback as much as they did against Benet, their offensive success this season could depend greatly on his play.
“He’s a talented kid,” Notre Dame coach Michael Hennessey said. “I’m glad he’s a junior because he’ll be back here next year. He can make some things happen. He was flushed out of the pocket a little too early too often, and there’s only so much you can do.”
Even on a tough night, Tsagalis’ play was important to the Dons. On nearly every drive, he extended plays with his legs. When no one was open, he ran, sometimes for big yardage. He led the team with 14 carries, though sacks dropped his rushing yards to nine. He also got everyone involved in the passing game, hitting six different receivers.
“It’s always not as good as it looks when you don’t put up points,” Tsagalis said. “But I just do what I think I need to do and try to do everything I can to help the team win. If it means making plays with my feet, if it means trying to extend plays, I try to do everything I can.”
And while the results weren’t ideal against Benet, Tsagalis has an experienced receiving corps. He has two seniors on the outside, Matt Curley and Bill Byrne. Those playmakers, along with Tsagalis, have the Dons aiming to repeat the success of last year’s team, which finished 7-4.
“Every team goes into the season expecting to score, win, make the playoffs, win the state championship, and that’s obviously still our goal,” Tsagalis said. “But we just have to go back to practice, get this loss out of us and just move on. We got a tough match-up against Marist [on Friday], but we got to move on and get better.”
