Cedar Catholic needs win to have playoff shot

Cedar Catholic (4-4, 3-1) at Stanton (2-6, 1-3)

7 p.m. Thursday
Last week: Cedar Catholic lost to Battle Creek, 21-18; Stanton lost at Norfolk Catholic, 42-0.

For lack of a better term, the Trojans came away from a bummer of a defeat last week, losing a chance for a district title as they fell, 21-18, to rivals Battle Creek in Hartington.
Now Cedar Catholic has to head over to Stanton to cement its playoff fortunes and, hopefully, the best seeding the Trojans could have when the playoffs begin.
Cedar is currently 15th in NSAA Power Points. The top 16 teams advance to the playoffs in Class C2.

“Stanton is a team that always seems to play us tough,” Cedar Catholic head coach Chad Cattau said. “They are very well coached, and their kids will play hard.  We have a lot on the line this week since we must win to get into the playoffs.  I know our kids will prepare as well as they can, and we will go into the game ready to go. 
“We basically have to look at this game as our first round of the playoffs because if we don’t win it, we won’t get in, so that makes it a must win for us.  We will prepare hard though and be ready to go.”
It’s win or go home.
They will hopefully use the experience of the Battle Creek defeat to push forward, especially after trailing 21-0 early in the second half.
“A lot of teams would have folded at that point in time, but these kids kept battling and they played themselves back into it,” Cattau said. “We had an opportunity at the end of the game to get the ball back, being down 21-18, but Battle Creek recovered the onside kick and they ran the clock out.  It was a hard-fought battle by both teams and unfortunately, we came out on the short end of it when the clock ran out. 
“We had a lot of kids show great leadership during this game because a lot of things went against us early on, but the kids kept after each other and continued to stay positive.  It’s something that early in the year, we didn’t have at times, so it was great to see that leadership on display.”