[9/14/01]St. Aloysius’ platoon quarterback system hit a snag this week as it prepared for its Region 4-1A opener at Mount Olive.

Dan Muirhead, who was splitting time with Chad Cox, left the team unexpectedly. Flashes’ coach Jim Taylor said he had not talked to the 5-foot-9 senior about his leaving the team.

“Chad will get most of the snaps now,” Taylor said. “The problem now is that the backup has probably played two plays on varsity.”

Cox, who has completed 2 of 6 passes for 38 yards in the run-happy offense, will be backed up by Drew Mazzanti. Muirhead was 2-of-5 for 50 yards in the young season.

“That’s a situation we’ll have to handle and we’ll handle it one way or another,” Taylor said.

What concerns the veteran coach is finding a way to get the Flashes’ lethargic offense on track and keeping a hungry Mount Olive team off the win column.

The Flashes (2-0) scored 12 in a win against St. Andrew’s and 14 in their opening win against Greenville-St. Joseph.

“That’s not real comfortable, especially when you are playing against a team that has a good quarterback and receivers,” Taylor said of his offensive woes coming into this game. “We went into halftime last week with a 6-0 lead and I told our kids that’s not a lead; that’s one play away.”

Having a lead has not been a common occurrence at Mount Olive, which won a state championship in 1989 with Steve McNair leading the way. The Pirates have fallen on hard times recently.

The Pirates finished 0-11 last year and have dropped their first two games this season. After watching film, Taylor said they appear to be one of the best teams to lose so many in a row he’s seen.

“They potentially have good athletes and on film, they do some good things,” Taylor said. “They play hard and have some good looking players.

“They haven’t won in a long time, and I don’t want that first victory to be us.”

Pirates’ coach Jake Kyzar could not be reached for comment.

Justin Williams leads the Flashes with 166 yards, while Michael Head has 109 yards on 32 carries.

Taylor said this game is very important if the Flashes look to make the playoffs. Unlike past years, the top four teams from each region in every classification make the playoffs as opposed to just the top two in the division system.

With the state’s No. 2 team, Mize, and preseason favorite Dexter lurking, Taylor knows this game is a springboard for the remainder of the year.

“If you lose to one of the two lowest rated teams in the division in the first game, you sort of have your back against the wall,” Taylor said.