Throughout the 2009 season, the Juan Diego football program has produced "Madden" like numbers on the offensive side of the ball en route to its second straight championship game appearance. The Soaring Eagle will look to defend their crown Friday at Rice-Eccles Stadium against a familiar foe in Hurricane. Juan Diego narrowly escaped last year's contest with a 21-18 victory.

During the first thirteen games of the season, Juan Diego has averaged 35 points per game, in which it scored over 31 points in 10 contests. However, as impressive as the offensive has been thus far — its defense has stolen the sun, and outshined its counterpart.

The suffocating defense could best be described as the vicious fish that haunt South American Rivers, better known as piranhas. Piranhas travel in groups, swarming on victims with absolute abandon — chewing them to pieces. This same band of violent cohesiveness is not only intimidating — but effective.

"Defense has been important around here for a long time and I think these kids really buy into that. We kind of hang our hat on that," said Juan Diego coach John Colosimo, "We have athletic kids. They're fast and get to the ball; they have a nose for the ball. They're just savvy. It's real difficult to try to fool them."

Juan Diego has given up a measly 108 points this year, and only 26 points in region. Other than Rich in 1A, the point total is the fewest in the state per games played.

"They've really bought into what we want to do defensively. I think our defense has been outstanding the last couple of years," remarked Colosimo, "They just have a defensive mentality, we have kids that want to defend people and get into the game planning of special situations. They're smart kids and make adjustments during the week and on the fly in the game."

"Last week (against Wasatch) was a classic example," continued Colosimo, "(Wasatch) came out and did some things that we weren't quite prepared for and we made some adjustments and we're able to close Wasatch down."

The Soaring Eagle employs an unusual style of defense, for the majority they line up in a base 3-4 defense. During the game, however, the defense transforms and shifts into 4-4 fronts, and occasionally a 4-3 scheme depending on opposing offensive looks.

The ability to get pressure with a three man rush, allows a cushion of eight defenders in the secondary — it can be nothing short of a nightmare for high school quarterbacks.

Frankie Sutera has flourished with this type of morphing defense during his time at Juan Diego. The past two seasons, he's picked off a team high 12 passes. In 2008, at cornerback, he recorded 55 individual tackles. This year, after making the position switch to free safety, has upped his total to 77 tackles thus far.

"(I'll line up) 10 yards off the ball, take a read step, and watch the lineman. If (they) come off hard, I'll look into the backfield and see where the flow is going," said Sutera when asked to run through the motions of a typical play, "If (they're) back, I'll look at the quarterback and receivers. A lot of the time a high school quarterback will stare down his receiver."

"Frankie has been awesome for us at free safety. He leads us in tackles because he knows how to get to the ball," added Colosimo, "He'll always be up there in the mix, and yet he doesn't get beat deep. He's not a kid that takes chances, he makes good reads."

e-mail: tphibbs@desnews.com