WEST SENECA —  

Cardinal O’Hara head football coach Angelo Sciandra knew he had a inexperienced team entering the 2010 season and a Week 1 date with a highly-touted Canisius squad.

Saturday, the Hawks proved just that, surrendering five scores of more than 35 yards to fall to the Crusaders, 40-7, at the Robert J. Stransky Memorial Athletic Complex.

Sciandra said he expected a tough challenge against an explosive Canisius offense, which is led by standout quarterback Travis Eman. Although he said his Hawks matched up just fine in the hitting department, he was upset with the mental mistakes that were consistent throughout the game.

“Not taking the quarterback when you have the quarterback (in coverage) and being undisciplined, upsets me,” Sciandra said. “Physically, I thought we stood up to a big, strong, physical team. Mentally, we made too many mistakes.”

Canisius opened up the scoring with a three-yard run by Mercer Timmis, who had an outstanding day rushing the football. 

From that point on, it was big play after big play for the Crusaders.

Later in the first quarter, Eman took a 38-yard run to pay dirt before hooking up with receiver Trevor Jachimowicz for a 35-yard score and an 18-0 lead.

Timmis tacked on the longest play of the day early in the second stanza, scoring on a 58-yard run to strengthen the lead to 26-0.

Robert Davis, though, would give the Hawks some life on the ensuing O’Hara drive. On a third-and-4 at the Hawks 46, he appeared to be stuffed five yards behind the line of scrimmage by a wall of Crusaders defenders before breaking free to the left side and racing toward the end zone.

After a nearly-impossible extra point by Soo Young Park in 35 mph gusts, that was all Canisius would allow.

Eman added another 38-yard scramble to end the first half, while Timmis added an insurance marker in the third on a 41-yard run.

Sciandra said his sophomore quarterback, Anthony DiFrancesco, had quite the learning experience in his first start.

“We have a lot of kids that never player before out there today,” he said. “It was a tough opener, but it is what it is now. I just told the kids, we have two choices — we can sit here and we can blame each other, or we can come back and be even better.”

Davis led the Hawks with 14 carries for 86 yards and the score, while Brandon Lyles added five carries for 26 yards. On defense, Lyles contributed with 11 tackles, including a pair of sacks. Devon Rose added 10 tackles, while teammate Kyree Carter had seven and a forced fumble.

It doesn’t get much easier next at Xavier of New York City, Sciandra said, but he expects a vast improvement from the Black and Gold.

“I expect to win next week because (we) should get better,” he said. “The biggest improvement should come from Week 1 to Week 2 and it better happen this week. We better go from here to here. And I expect us to get a lot better by next week, not (only) physically, but mentally.”