By MICHAEL KELLY

For the Express

BROADALBIN — Broadalbin-Perth Patriots football head coach Rick Snyder has two main objectives heading into the 2010 season — conditioning his precariously thin roster and patching together protection for his returning offensive stars, quarterback R.J. Pingatore and tailback Cody Menge.

“Our biggest challenge is we don’t return any offensive lineman,” Snyder said, entering his 14th year as the team’s head coach and coming off of a 3-6 season. “Our skill guys — our running back and receivers — are a bit more of our veterans.”

Some lineman have some varsity playing experience, such as senior Zach Hatcher, but Snyder said most of the team’s linemen are still green for the level they will need to play at once the team gets into its regular season. Working in Snyder’s favor is that several of his linemen have the requisite size to play the position.

“We definitely have some big guys,” he said. “The key is to get those big guys moving.”

Snyder said he put the team through extra conditioning drills to help make sure his line is in the shape it needs to be in for the team’s movement-intensive style of blocking he prefers, but also because the Patriots’ roster only contains 22 players — just enough for the team to scrimmage with full sides in practice.

“The guys have to really condition,” Snyder said, with several players expected to start on both offense and defense for the team.

Along with a couple more, Hatcher, Menge and Pingatore are all expected to start both ways for the Patriots.

“The trouble is some of those guys never come off the field on purpose,” Snyder said. “We can’t have them come off the field because they’re too good.”   

Snyder’s best on the field this year will be Menge, the hefty tailback/defensive tackle who rushed for approximately 1,000 yards last season. As good as he is on offense, Menge’s coach said he is even better on the defensive line.

“That’s really his college position,” Snyder said. “He’s the single kid, I think, that we have that could play at the next level.”

Menge will likely carry a heavier load this season on offense, with the team’s top returning receiver, Tyler Ruggeri, likely out for the season with a ribs/liver injury.

“[The wide receiver position] was going to be a huge luxury with Tyler,” Snyder lamenting, saying anything thrown in Ruggeri’s direction was a guaranteed catch. “That [injury] kills us.”

Ruggeri’s injury puts more pressure on the team’s refurbished offensive line, as Snyder expects the team will have to run a little bit more and set its throwing game up with play-action fakes.

“If we can pull the line together, we can be really good,” Hatcher said, who has taken on a leadership role with his unit as one of the scarce seniors on a team with 16 juniors. “You just try to push the young kids.”

Menge, who is counting on that line to make his running easier, said he thinks the team’s first-time varsity players have shown day-to-day improvement.

“They know what they’re doing and are really coming along,” Menge said. “We’ll be good.”

Though the team’s league games do not begin until the third week of B-P’s season — the Patriots play in the Section II Class B West Division — Snyder is eagerly awaiting his matchup with the Amsterdam Rugged Rams on Sept. 10. The two schools, though separated by less than 10 miles, have never played one another.

“It will be very exciting,” Snyder said. “We are building toward that game.”

The coach said he is excited to see his team, a Class C level competitor when he took over the team in the early 1990s, take on an upper echelon team.

“It’s been interesting for me to see the rise in competition [we play],” he said.

 Snyder’s players are also excited about the game against the local (bigger) school, but are still taking it game-by-game.

“We’re looking forward to that one,” Menge said, with his teammate Hatcher finishing for him, “But we still got Albany Academy [on Sept. 3] first.”

(See? That offensive line is already protecting Menge.)

The Patriots begin league play in their third week when they travel to take on Schalmont.

“Starting our third game, that’s when we really got to win,” Snyder said.

BROADALBIN-PERTH Football Schedule

Fri., Sept. 3

ALBANY ACADEMY, 7 p.m.

Fri., Sept. 10

at Amsterdam, 7 p.m.

Fri., Sept. 17

at Schalmont, 7 p.m.

Fri., Sept. 24

SCHUYLERVILLE, 7 p.m.

Fri., Oct. 1

JOHNSTOWN, 7 p.m.

Fri., Oct. 8

at Cobleskill, 7 p.m.

Fri., Oct. 15

HUDSON FALLS, 7 p.m.

Oct. 22-23

Playoffs/crossovers

Oct. 29-30

Playoffs/crossovers