NCAA football: Irish top Phoenix

By Bernie Puchalski - October 22, 2021

Pre-pandemic, Ethan Collee played a small role as a backup lineman with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish senior football team.

In 2021, he has found himself in a much bigger role with the defending Niagara Catholic Athletic Association champions. On Friday, the 18-year-old Welland resident had a sack and a fumble recovery to help the Irish improve to 3-0 with a 42-0 victory over the visiting Saint Francis Phoenix (0-3).

“He comes all the time, he has been working hard and he got bigger over the COVID stretch,” Notre Dame head coach Tim Bisci said. “He went from not really playing much to playing at D end and he plays some offensive line for us. He is one of those big versatile guys and today he just kept coming. He is a guy we have to count on.”

The 6-foot-1 255-pounder arrived at training camp a changed player.

“I came in with the mindset that I have to be better,” he said. “I wanted to play because this is my last year and I am trying to put the effort in every time I show up for practice.”

His motivation came from the last time Notre Dame played.

“Seeing how far the team went in 2019, I wanted to recreate that this year and be a driving force on our team.”

He continued to work out during the pandemic break and kept busy and active.

Collee agrees it is much more fun to be a starter than a backup.

“Back in 2019, I didn’t really contribute and I wanted to change that this year.”

After this year, he plans to study plumbing at college. He will miss football.

“It’s being in a group activity and it is a great time with all the guys to come out every day.”

Bisci liked some of the things he saw from his team Friday, especially its discipline.

“That was a big emphasis and we talked about it all week,” he said. “We told the guys that we can’t play an undisciplined game and if we can’t play for Notre Dame then we can’t play because it is going to go sour on us at some point in time.

“The kids bought in because they want to play.”

Bisci feels it was helpful to play against mobile and accurate Saint Francis quarterback Jackson Stewart.

“He was an athlete, he rolled out to buy himself some time and our line has to understand that we have to pursue it, the linebackers have to fill the voids and our DBs have to come up and cover guys,” he said. “It is something that we have to work on and it is good that it happened now so we can correct it.”

Phoenix head coach Carmine Provenzano saw some promising signs from his team despite the loss.

“I thought we moved the ball really well but we hurt ourselves,” he said, referring to a number of fumbles after catches. “They’re a real good team but I thought we did well and we held our own at least offensively. Defensively it was tough with some high tackles and missed tackles and that will catch up with you.”

He likes how his team has grown as the season has gone along.

“We like to have some games back and beat some of the teams that we lost to but we are progressing fairly well and we are pretty much on target. We have come a long way.”

STATS PACK

Fighting Irish 42 Phoenix 0

BPSN Player of the Game: Notre Dane running back Tal Ibrahim with three TDs.

For the Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Ibrahim, TD runs of 60, five and 14 yards;60-yard TD pass from Marshall McCray to Devear Buckmire; McCray, 80-yard TD pass to Adrian D’Gyves; 34-yard TD run by Justin Huggins; Ethan Collee, sack and fumble recovery; D’Gyves and Konner Little, fumble recoveries.

For the Saint Francis Phoenix: strong passing game by Jackson Stewart; fumble recovery by Daniel Dzugan.