Ready for takeoff

CAMBRIDGE -- Before he could ask his team to elevate its game, Cambridge football coach Paul Gonnella knew he had to do the same with his coaching staff.

"I don't think we did a good job utilizing the talent we had last year," said Gonnella. "I don't think we did a good enough job understanding what our deficiencies were and using our talent to cover them. As a staff, we did a lot of work on analyzing ourselves and now we feel like we know what we have to do."

Bringing back 12 starters overall, including much of the team's skill position talent, the Falcons will get another chance to take flight this fall. With a juggernaut like Everett beside them in the Greater Boston League, it'd be easy for Cambridge to lower its goal set, but the Falcons remain convinced that they can hang with the region's top squads.

Cambridge, which slipped out of the Globe's Top 20 at season's end last fall after losing its final two games, checks in at No. 8 in this year's preseason rankings.

Much like last year, expectations are quite high, especially inside the confines of Russell Field. The Falcons are blessed with some of the top individual talent in the region, but must find a way to consistently play top-level football.

Gonnella and his staff pride themselves on an inventive playbook that features more wrinkles than a Chinese Shar Pei. Need an example? Click here to watch the Falcons' skip pass from last year's Thanksgiving Day battle with rival Everett in which receiver Josh Adams hurled a 50-yard touchdown pass to Jesse Sparks after corralling a backwards pass bounced off the turf by quarterback Ray Doucette.

What's easy to forget is that it was actually Cambridge's defense that carried the squad for much of the 2006 season. The Falcons allowed a mere 13.6 points per game last fall and that included a three-game shutout streak late in the year.

Following a 36-0 shellacking at the hands of Mansfield on Sept. 15, no team scored on Cambridge in the first half until a Nov. 10 loss to Waltham. During that stretch, the Falcons allowed a mere 18 points in six games.

Troubles lied on offense where the Falcons averaged 19.6 points per game, or roughly half of what league champion Everett posted on a nightly basis. Now averaging nearly three touchdowns per game is nothing to sneeze at, but in their three losses, the Falcons only scored eight second-half points and 32 points overall.

Gonnella put his VCR to the test during the offseason as, according to the third-year coach, he logged and watched nearly 1,000 hours of college football video.

"We're throwing some unbelievable stuff at these guys," said Gonnella. "This is pros to college stuff... Basically, we wanted to get these kids thinking. Once we get past what we taught them last year, this could be scary. We've got some great athletes and we're gong to use them."

Cambridge certainly boasts plenty of individual talent, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. Quarterback Ray Doucette enjoys the state's top receiving tandem in Sparks and Adams, while senior Vinson Givans will see an increased workload as the team's featured back.

Sparks is a track champion with breakaway speed. He hauled in 10 of Doucette's Division 1-best 20 touchdown tosses a year ago. Adams (4 TD receptions last year) is the college-coveted wide out who makes things happen every time he touches the ball. He's got the size (6 feet, 4 inches), speed (4.5 40-yard dash) and leaping ability (39-inch flat-foot vertical) that gives opposing defensive backs nightmares.

Already garnering interest from the nation's top programs (he visited offseason camps at Florida, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Boston College, North Carolina, and Maryland), Gonnella isn't bashful in saying that with another year of progress, "Josh could be the top-ranked receiver in the nation."

With that in mind, the Falcons will attempt to put the ball in his hands every chance they get. During preseason workouts, Adams logged a lot of time in the backfield as Cambridge outfitted him with the pigskin in every way imaginable. As that skip pass shows, he can throw a nice deep ball and that'll keep defenses honest when he gets the ball behind the line of scrimmage.

Ask him about this year's playbook and he can't hide a smile. Coaches view him in the mold of Florida's versatile Percy Harvin, the standout freshman wide receiver who helped the Gators to a national championship last season.

"It's going to be crazy," said Adams. "You look at a team like Florida. They have athletes, and we have athletes. They have smart players, and we have smarter players. I think we're going to be a lot of fun to watch. The way it's drawn up no the board, we should be able to put some points on the board this year."

Key to that will be the play of Cambridge's offensive line. Gonnella admits the team had protection problems during its final two games of the season -- losses to Waltham and Everett. The Falcons will lean on senior Jerard Warren -- a 6-foot-3, 225-pound lineman drawing Division 1 interest for his exploits at defensive end. There are other big bodies in the mix including senior center Hector Ortiz (6-1, 215) and senior tackle Julien Buck (6-3, 210).

Defensively, the Falcons need another big year from Warren, particularly against run-happy squads like Waltham and Everett. He'll receive help up front from fellow end Tyler Barnes (6-3, 210).

Gonnella is especially eager to develop depth. He wants players that can step right in when injuries occur, or guys that can spell starters during hurry-up formations.

To that extent, he happily points out a group of 16 wide receivers working out together during a recent practice.

"Ten of those guys will see quality minutes," said Gonnella. "Why 10? When we go empty, I want 10 guys who we can throw out there and know what they're doing. It's as simple as that. Again, we have these parts, we just have to utilize them correctly this year."

Adams, who served as the team's first-ever sophomore captain last year (a testament to his leadership abilities on and off the field), says it's all mental from there.

"For us to be successful, we just have to work harder than we did last year and be prepared for everything," said Adams. "We really have to focus. We can't be worried about individual guys on individual teams. Last year we got so worried about (Mansfield's) Corey Eason and about how big he was. We pretty much psyched ourselves out. We can't do that. We can only control what we do on the field."

Chris Forsberg can be reached at cforsberg@boston.com