Coming into the season, Dan Kwait was known to be Calvert's top returning offensive weapon. McComb knew it, and they focused their defense on shutting him down in last week's season opener.
Kwiat was held to just 24 yards on 11 carries. However, the Senecas showed there are more weapons for opposing teams to worry about.
The pass-catch combination of Tyler Long to Nick Warnement struck for a pair of 68-yard touchdowns, and Long added a 71-yard scoring run.
"I'm really impressed with Tyler Long; he had a great game for us," Calvert coach Todd Fox said. "Going in we were questioning how he was going to perform, being a sophomore. He stepped up and did exactly what we expected. ... He's a super talent that we expect to be able to use throughout the season."
For Warnement, it was the first time he was on a football field since junior high. His performance perhaps made Fox wish he could've slapped a set of shoulder pads on him sooner.
"This is the first time he's played football since junior high. We know what kind of athletic ability he has," Fox said. "With a young team, a question was how they'd perform underneath the lights and he performed well. Obviously he's going to be in the mix more, too, because now you have to defend him too and that's going to open up our other great receivers."
Seeing what players such as Long and Warnement could do has enabled Fox to use a few more pages of the playbook when they travel to Norwalk St. Paul Saturday night.
"We didn't go into (the McComb game) really with our passing game (in the game plan)," Fox said. "We actually had a limited package available that we were going to use. ... We've opened it up a little bit this week, opened up the playbook a little bit more, gave Tyler some more options. We're excited about what we can bring to the table."
Facing a familiar foe in St. Paul, Fox knows what coach John Livengood and the Flyers will bring to the table.
"They're going to continue with what they do," Fox said. "Coach Livengood, he's one of my mentors and a close friend. He does a great job over there. They bring a solid power run game that keeps pounding at you. Then they can open up and pass here and there to. But his theory is 'You know what I'm going to do; you have to stop it.' It's a tough thing to stop so we're going to have to play four solid quarters."
The offensive attack St. Paul presents is a stark contrast to the one McComb presented a week ago. The one common thread though is that each team is very good at what it does.
"With the back-to-back games like this, with two great state powers, we basically get to see to extremes with our defense," Fox said. "We had (McComb) coach Alge's offense, which is wide open, and then coach Livengood's offense, which is pound it in your face."
Calvert allowed McComb 546 yards of offense last week, but Fox says he expects his defense to have a better performance against St. Paul.
"We're expecting a better defensive output then what we had last week, and we'll see if we can get it done," he said.
Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Norwalk.
