You know how fathers can be on occasion, as in a shade overbearing. The son can almost be heard muttering, "Please. I love you, but just go sit in the stands."
Never will those words pass through Junior's lips.
"I love having him down here," he said. "He gives me great motivation. And he can notice things, too. Gives me good pointers. I can always hear him, and it's always a help. Not just for me. For all of us."
Vittorio "Vito" Goggins, a 6-foot, 225-pound senior, spoke late Thursday afternoon, following Bok's 30-6 Public AAA triumph over Benjamin Franklin. Therein, Goggins blocked like a madman at fullback and was even more impressive at defensive end.
Then, as you can probably guess, he was asked to address the origin of his first name.
"My grandmom [Renee Broomer] always said to keep it a secret, not to tell anybody," Vito Jr. said, smiling. "But . . . Here we go. She said Vittorio was some Indian guy on an old TV show and she liked that name so much, she gave it to my dad.
"It gets messed up a lot. When I hear the teachers trying to say it and stuttering with it, I just speak right up and say it for them. I've heard some goofy [mess-ups]. I guess the worst was Victoria."
Now that would have been a sensational story, if a girl had played as well as Goggins did against the Electrons.
With star wideout Antoine Whitney unavailable becauseof a personal matter, Bok relied almost exclusively on tailback Larry Pelzer. His production featured 182 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries, along with two catches for 18 yards and five returns for 79 (279 total).
Goggins was thrown a three-carry bone. He netted six yards and a 1-yard score.
On defense, he recorded two sacks and one other tackle for loss, made two tackles for no gain, and recovered a bad snap, after assorted follies, 34 yards behind the line.
"I've always liked defense better, but now I'm getting confused about that choice," Goggins said. "They're giving me some carries - when you're running, you can still hit people, so that's cool - and it's easy to block for Larry.
"We have calls of 'block in' or 'block out.' I always ask Larry which way he wants me to take dudes. He always says, 'Just do your thing. Put somebody down for me.' You get satisfaction from making good blocks. I think I had three pancakes."
Of his defensive heroics, Goggins said, "When you get the sacks and TFLs, that betters your chances of getting their offense off the field and your offense on."
Bok's other TD went to Michael Riley on a 15-yard keeper. Like always, the Wildcats heavily favored the left side behind guard Dimonte Powell and tackle Marcus Owens. Sometimes, right guard Mark "Spider" Webb flip-flopped to create an unbalanced line and make the grunts' surge even more impressive. The other linemen were center Tahree Snead, tackle Nafis Davis and tight end Dylan Edmonds-Carty.
With 11 tackles and a fumble recovery (serious hit by Riley!), Marquez "Kwez" Walker was a gamelong terror at linebacker.
Late in the third quarter, Franklin got on the board with a 20-yard pass from Michael Edwards to Emmanuel Young (7-90).
After splitting the ninth grade between Charles Audenried (not far from his home on New Hope Street near 29th) and Germantown, Goggins transferred to Bok for 10th. He was hoping to major in culinary arts, but those classes were filled, so he settled for computer networking.
"I've gotten pretty good at fixing them," he said. "My teacher says you can make nice money with that."
When he does step up to a stove . . .
"I make good spaghetti," he said.
When asked whether there was anything else he liked to do concerning food, he laughed and shot back, "Eat it."
Contact Ted Silary at silaryt@phillynews.com. High school coverage online at www.philly.com/rally.
