Cedar will face yet another state-rated foe on Friday

HARTINGTON - It is a battle between two 0-2 teams when Cedar Catholic travels to Aquinas Catholic this week.

Both teams have had a challenging start to the season. Cedar has lost to two rated opponents, BRLD and Oakland-Craig, and Aquinas lost a tough one to Scotus to start the season along with losing to Norfolk Catholic this past week.

In both games, Aquinas has shown balance, with senior running back Miles Eggleston leading the way. The senior is responsible for the Monarchs lone touchdown against Norfolk Catholic, and ran for over 100 yards against Scotus.

“Aquinas has a balanced team with a lot of good players,” said Cedar coach Chad Cattau They have some very big linemen that move well on both sides of the ball.  They also have some very good skill players that play hard and finish each play with a mentality that they are going to win that play.”

Both teams still sit at 0-2 though, and Cattau says both teams are looking to play well after a tough start.

“We need to continue to improve ourselves, and we need to play with more urgency and intensity.  Some of our younger kids need to play harder on each snap.  This is something that we need to make sure is happening in practice so it carries over into games.  We are going to play hard and give Aquinas our best effort.”

Last week, freshman Tate Thoene led the team in tackles. The safety was forced to provide run support often in a game where the Trojans gave up over 300 yards of rushing offense.

This week Cattau says the team needs to make the right reads and fill gaps.

“We must get better fundamentally on all three levels of our defense.  We have some steps to take so we can be better against the run.  I look for our coaches and players to really work hard at this during the week.  We've had two games now, and the mistakes that keep showing up on film need to be corrected. “

Defense is not the only thing Cattau wants to focus on. In the trenches on offense, he says there is still room for improvement as well.

“We need to get better up front at our hand and helmet placement.  We also need some of the guys to be more explosive getting off on the snap of the ball.  At times, we have a couple guys with their feet stuck in the ground and we need to eliminate that.  We also tend to play to high at times so that will be a big emphasis as well.  Our skill kids have some work to do for improvement as well.  We need to carry out fakes better, have better footwork, and throw and catch the ball better.  We were much improved from week one to week two and I look for us to take another step forward this week.”

Cedar travels to David City to face Aquinas Catholic on Friday night.