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A month before last year’s spring football season, Steve Pricer had just been named the new head coach of Lely football.

This spring season, he had a bit more time to prepare his squad, and because most of them had a full season of experience under their belts with Pricer at the helm, the result was a 24-17 win over Clearwater-Countryside High School last week.

Lely was paced by an offense that featured a new quarterback, Dennis Marcelin, who is the heir-apparent to Mike O’Regan’s spot, as well as the play of running backs Darrien Hall and Frank Pugh, who will be expected to pick up the kind of yards Fortin Faustin did last season.

Against Countryside, Marcelin threw for his first touchdown pass as a starter as Hall and Pugh combined for nearly 200 yards rushing.

The win, however, was keyed by strong defense in the second half.

After struggling to contain the big-play in the first half, Lely linebacker Emmanuel Edouard tackled Countryside quarterback James Chmelik at the four-yard line to run out the clock and preserve the win.

“Kids like Emmanuel Edouard and Neil Keaney played well at linebacker, and so did Mike Snyder, who played a whale of a game,” Pricer said. “Errol Boyd played well at safety and had some pass breakups and reinforced the run real well too.”

Offensively, it’s easy to see why Pricer’s assessment of his new backfield was a positive one, after they came up with nearly 300 yards rushing.

Lely hopes spring game foretells future Marcelin completed only half his passes, but he didn’t have to do much more than that – the offensive MVP was the offensive line.

“He was a little shaken early by his first start and we played a physical team and they brought it to him he just needs some reps and he is athletic,” offensive coordinator John Principe said of his new quarterback. “I think that last year we were relegated to the fact we couldn’t establish a line of scrimmage and we knew we were going to be passing, but this season our goal going to Clearwater was to establish running the football and we’re satisfied with how we did against a well-coached, well-disciplined defense.”

That effort was made possible by the fact that the Trojans are returning their top six offensive linemen, including Catorey Seals, who is making a comeback after an ACL injury a year ago.

Now, with the spring game in the books, Pricer and company turn their attention to offseason camps. They have quite the itinerary planned.

Starting this weekend, the team will travel to the other coast to participate in Florida Atlantic University’s annual high school camp. Gulf Coast and Golden Gate are also planning to attend the camp, but the real value is playing against top teams from around the state, not just those in each other’s back yards.

Following FAU, the linemen and skill players go their separate ways for more unit-intensive camps and then return for conditioning before school starts again in August.

“We were happy because most of our kids are young or inexperienced. We were anticipating how they would play and were happy after we saw the game film,” Pricer said. “Now we’ll go to FAU this Sunday and we’ll hit some 7-on-7 camps. When it comes to those camps, John Principe or our returning defensive coordinator, Dave Miller, will be traveling with them.”

All in all, Lely seems to be off to as promising a start as it could have hoped for. Pricer hopes to use this spring as a momentum builder.

“Defensively we didn’t start real well and Countryside has one of the better tailbacks around – he had three or four carries he brought right down the field, but our defense bounced back and played a heck of a second half,” he said. “The thing that was most impressive with the kids is that they really got after the ball which is something we didn’t do as well last season.”