‘Cats ready to push the reset button
HARTINGTON — Last year was a nightmare for a myriad of reasons for football fans and the world population alike.
The COVID-19 pandemic, at the time hitting its crescendo, played havoc with lives and football schedules and Hartington-Newcastle was definitely in the crossfire.
Head coach Corey Uldrich saw his Wildcats stumble to 1-5 overall, but that was partially due to a season that never got into rhythm with three COVID-19 related cancelled games. So, a young roster could never really find its way as the team missed on the postseason.
Uldrich will have plenty of faces back and none better than Jake Peitz, Riley Sudbeck, Carson Sudbeck and Lane Heimes.
Peitz led the team in receiving the last two years and in 2020 caught 27 balls for 650 yards and 10 touchdowns.
“The games that were the most winnable were the ones that got canceled and the games that we played didn’t go our way,” Peitz said of last year’s battles. “We weren’t as physical as the other teams. You couldn’t get any momentum built up (with the cancellations).”
This is a new year with new expectations, he said.
“Last year did stink, but we only lost two seniors so now we have a season of experience you can call it. They have enough under their belts, that they should be able to play well now,” he said.
Riley Sudbeck started under center as a freshman and threw for 1,063 yards and completed 55.7 percent of his passes with 16 touchdowns and five interceptions.
Carson Sudbeck spearheaded the Wildcats defense last fall with 49 tackles and “will be counted on to lead us on both sides of the ball,” Uldrich said.
Heimes added 40 tackles and is a “good tackler who will be the voice of our secondary on defense,” Uldrich said.
“I think that we will be a very competitive team this fall,” Uldrich added. “We play one of the more difficult schedules we’ve had in some time, so we know that it will take our best effort each week to win games. This is a group that I believe can get us back to the playoffs, but we’ll need to see some guys really step up their game from last season.”
The season starts 3 p.m. Friday against Randolph in Hartington.
“We’ll still employ a multiple formation spread offense,” Uldrich said. “We always want to run the ball first to set up our play action passing.”
Defensively, the team should be a little more comfortable in year two of Coach Mike Johnson’s defense.
“We’ll be an odd-front team that will be able to line up guys in different places to disguise what we’re trying to do,” Uldrich said.
Uldrich believes the return of a plethora of seniors and juniors can only help the Wildcats engineer the quick turnaround.
“These are guys who should know what it takes to win on Friday nights,” the coach said.
“We will have to juggle and adjust some players’ positions to best maximize and utilize our talent. That could give us a small learning curve early in the year.”
Uldrich said that he expects Laurel-Concord-Coleridge, Lutheran High Northeast and Wakefield to present some of the toughest challenges on the schedule this season.
“I see in the weight room that the younger guys are doing a lot better,” Peitz said. “You can tell by the way they talk that they know a lot more and are a lot more comfortable with everything. They didn’t like (losing).
“It should be fun to watch them play and watch us play together. I am pretty excited for the season.”
Omaha World Herald
1. Burwell 12-1
2. Cross County 11-1
3. Dundy Co-Strattn 12-0
4. Neligh-Oakdale 9-2
5. Howells-Dodge 7-3
6. Neb. City Lourdes 6-3
7. LCC 6-4
8. Tri County 10-1
9. Stanton 8-2
10. Arc-Loup City 6-4
Stay in the know!
To get news alerts on your cell phone, get the Cedar County News app in the ITunes store or in the Google Play Store.