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Cedar, HNS will make their home debuts on Friday

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Battle Creek, Humphrey Lindsay Holy Family will come to town Friday

HARTINGTON — Call it a good ole’ slobberknocker between two quality teams.

Or, maybe it was just a typical battle between Cedar Catholic and O’Neill. Either way, Cedar Catholic will take the win.

The Trojans found a way to keep the lead and hold off the host Eagles Friday for a 19-16 win.

“I am really excited about how hard our kids played,” Cedar Catholic head coach Chad Cattau said. “We have been emphasizing some details that I felt we needed to improve on from last year, specifically some things in our offensive line, and I think the kids responded well to the new ideas.

The Cedar Catholic line did a good job, which was great to see, as there were quite a few firsttime starters in the trenches, Cattau said.

“We got off the ball really hard and quick for the most part, which really helped create some nice holes and opportunities for our backs,” he said.

Cedar’s offense was able to keep O’Neill off balance most of the night.

“We wanted to have some balance in our attack between rushing and passing and getting a variety of people touches on the ball,” he said. “We had at least eight different people get touches in our offense so that really allows us to keep people off balance.

“We feel we have some good playmakers so we need to continue to move the ball around.”

Some errors on offense cost the Trojans some points and a few crucial penalties and bad snaps didn’t help, according to Cattau, but he sees all those foibles as correctable.

Battle Creek invades Hartington at 3 p.m., Friday, for the Trojans home opener against an old nemesis.

“Battle Creek is a very fast and physical team and we will need to be ready to pin our ears back and really get after them on every snap,” Cattau said. “They will be very good fundamentally and they won’t make many mistakes, so we need to take advantage of the opportunities that we get. They like to run the ball and mix in play action, which they are very effective at, so we have to be prepared for what we will see from them.”

Hartington shows some new looks in opening win

Welcome to varsity football Riley Sudbeck. The freshman started at quarterback for the Hartington-Newcastle squad Friday as it traveled to Randolph in the season kickoff for both teams, and Sudbeck made a nice first impression as he completed 13-of-16 passes for 197 yards and six touchdown passes against one interception as the Wildcats ran off to a 66-36 win over the Cardinals.

Kobe Heitman also did his due diligence for the Wildcats as he gained 262 yards on 22 carries and added three touchdowns on the ground. He also added three via the air – to finish with six total scores – and Jake Pietz caught six passes, with half going for scores – and 144 yards.

They led 46-14 at the half and continued to roll from there.

The Wildcats now host Humphrey/ Lindsay Holy Family (0-1), 7 p.m., Friday, for their home opener. Humphrey was Uldrich’s prior coaching stop before coming to the Wildcats and he will be reunited with the Holy Family staff he worked with before leaving.

“We’re going to have a pretty good football team coming to town this Friday,” Uldrich said. “While they did lose 42-8 last week, that loss was to a Neligh-Oakdale team who is probably a top five team in our class. On top of that, they are coming up from the six-man ranks the last few years, so it was the first eight-man game any of those kids had ever played. I expect that they will make some adjustments with one game under their belt, and we’ll have our hands full with a lot of good athletes that they possess.”

Uldrich said now it’s about taking this Randolph win and making it about building from it.

“I want us to come out this Friday and be the more physical team, setting that tone early on and maintaining it throughout the game,” he said.

“I believe that we can control the lines of scrimmage, and if we do that, we’ll give ourselves a great shot at beating a really good football team.”

Wynot falls to the champs

Humphrey St. Francis reminded Wynot why they are the defending D2 champions with a 56-14 win in Humphrey.

It was the second straight year that St. Francis beat Wynot in the season opener.

“Offensively, we did some good things and moved the ball well at times against a top five team in the state,” Wynot coach Steve Heimes said. “In the second half, we had some bad shotgun snaps that set our offense back and we were not able to score.

“Defensively we needed to be more physical against St. Francis. St. Francis was a very polished team on both sides of the ball.”

Anthony Haberman finished with 147 yards rushing on 25 carries and was 3-for-5 passing with 46 yards. He finished with 279 total yards of offense.

Peyton Wieseler had 134 yards on three kickoff returns.

Now comes another state powerhouse in Bloomfield for the Blue Devils’ home opener, 7 p.m., Friday.

“Bloomfield is going to be a very physical game. They are a downhill running team,” Heimes said. “If they don’t have to pass the ball; they won’t pass it in the game.

“Defensively they get tight and play man-to-man defense and jam receivers. They blitz all the time on defense, so we will have to be on top of our game.”

LCC moves to 2-0

The Bears moved to 2-0 with a tough, 22-14 win over Wisner-Pilger Friday night.

LCC travels to Stanton (1-0), 7 p.m., Friday, in hopes of making it three-in-a-row to start the season.

“I expect Stanton to have good size and have good team speed,” LCC head coach Pat Arens said. “I expect them to be motivated and physical. They will be a very good challenge for us.

“I expect us to rise to the challenge and play a good game.”

Arens saw a lot of positives in a win that saw his boys rally from an early 14-0 halftime deficit at home.

“We came out in the second half focused and played a disciplined, aggressive, physical, game and came away with the win,” he said. “We need to be more consistent. Not just in games but in practice as well, with a focus on the little details.”

Cedar - Battle Creek Series

Friday’s game will mark the 14th time Cedar and Battle Creek have met on the football field.

The Braves own an 8-5 lead over Cedar in the series and have won the last two years in a row.

Three out of four of their most recent matchups were decided by eight points or less. The Braves biggest

The Braves biggest win over Cedar was in 2015 when they earned a 31-0 decision. Cedar’s biggest win came in 2012 when the Trojans took a 26-0 win.

The series started in 1995 when the Braves came to Hartington and handed Coach Terry Kathol’s team a 29-0 defeat.

Hartington and Humphrey

Friday’s game here will mark only the third time that the Wildcats and Humphrey will meet up on the gridiron.

The two teams first met up in 2012 when current Wildcat Coach Corey Uldrich was at the helm at Humphrey. Hartington won that game 33-14, which started a nine-game winning streak for the Wildcats. The Cats claimed their first ever playoff win that same year, too.

The two teams met again in 2013 with the Cats earning a hardfought 26-20 decision thanks to a fourth quarter Kolby Jueden to Tanner Fischer scoring strike to break a 20-20 tie.

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