Trojans hope defense can slow down Braves
Game of the Week
This Week
Battle Creek (6-1, 3-0) at
Cedar Catholic (4-3, 3-0)
7 p.m. Friday
Last week
Cedar beat Crofton, 13-7; Battle Creek beat Norfolk Catholic, 30-0.
It’s all about defense for the Trojans.
The first three games of district play have been a boon for that side of the ball as they have allowed a modest 14 points over 12 quarters, including a lone touchdown in last week’s slobber knocker win at Crofton.
Head coach Chad Cattau has seen his team recover from the first two games of the season where they gave up 88 points compared to the last five where the Trojans surrendered a mere 53 points since the beginning of week three.
“Early on we struggled, and we made some changes and moved some kids around,” Cattau said. “Kids have also brought-in a little more in terms of their effort and we are way better fundamentally. We are playing a lot more physically and tackling a lot better.
“We gave up a lot of big plays the first few games and we have shored that up a lot.”
The defense held up in another street fight with Crofton.
“It always is when we play,” Cattau said. “If you can make them throw the ball, you can do some good things on defense and you can put their backs up against the wall.”
Crofton scored on its first drive and from there were limited to watching the Trojans take over the game.
“Our kids started making plays early and we started doing some good things after that first drive,” Cattau said.
All this will come in handy against Battle Creek, as the two teams will play for the district title Friday. The winner assures itself of the crown, as these District co-leaders are two games ahead of the third-place team in district, thus rendering any challenge outside this pair moot.
“This is the kind of game that has been close and low scoring recently,” Cattau said. “We expect it to be the same way. They play the same way, lining up and trying to run it at you. They will take some shots deep. They play almost the same exact defense as we do.”
Last year, the hosts Battle Creek won this encounter 13-7.
“We need to be better on our offensive line,” Cattau said. “Watching our game on Friday, we were a block away from making a big play. We need to work to make that extra play.”
District D2-3 Hartington-Newcastle (4-2, 2-1)
at Wausa (1-5, 0-3),
3 p.m. Friday
Last week: Hartington-Newcastle beat Wynot, 40-20; Wausa lost to Allen, 52-26.
Outlook: The Wildcats are riding high off the win against their rivals, but they can’t take Wausa lightly as they are playing for their slim playoff lives this weekend.
“We are expecting to play a team that is in desperation so we will see everything they’ve got,” Hartington-Newcastle head coach Cory Uldrich said. “It’s a trap game for us and not because we are so much better, but because we have a really big one the next week against Bloomfield with District championship implications. It’s easy for kids to look ahead.
“We have to focus on Wausa, because they have one of the better players in our District in Ethan Baue. He’s a really good football player.”
Uldrich said that ball security is big against Wausa who will probably be doing whatever they can to make things happen.
But the Wildcats are riding high right now and could be locked and loaded.
“We are playing as well as we have all year,” Uldrich said. “Even in our lost to Allen and the week before against Randolph, we are getting more physical and tackling better and our offense is balanced. The thing we need to clean up is special teams. It would make our lives easier.”
Giving up kick returns for scores in recent games doesn’t help the Wildcats, while Wausa is looking to do whatever it takes and any opportunities the Wildcats provide, the Vikings will take advantage.
“Hartington-Newcastle looks a lot like us a couple of years ago,” Wausa head coach Adrian Alonso said. “They like to spread the ball out and they focus on two or three kids and they’ll try to get the ball to them.”
Wausa made Allen have to grind out a win, as it was more of a slow drip than a fast rush of dominance. The Vikings trailed 6-0 after one quarter and 28-12 at halftime.
“We had 45 offensive plays in the first half so that’s controlling the ball the way we needed to,” Alonso said. “We were doing all the right things we just needed to make more good plays. But we didn’t make things easy for ourselves.”
Alonso is also dealing with a lot of banged up bodies and has been able to only practice with 10-11 players most of the last week.
“We are struggling,” Alonso said. “Mentally we are still there, and the kids are still playing hard.”
District D1-5
Laurel-Concord-Coleridge
(4-2, 1-2) at Howells Dodge
(6-0, 3-0), 7 p.m. Friday
Last week: LCC lost at Lutheran NE, 42-16; Howells Dodge beat Elkhorn Valley, 50-8.
The Bears are really going to need to shake the doldrums following Friday’s big loss at Lutheran Northeast.
They better because the No. 1 team in the state is up and LCC head coach Pat Arens is ready for a big challenge this weekend.
They will need to fix things following the recent defeat.
“They took it right down the field on us on the first play of the game and we fumbled the following kickoff,” Arens said of the Lutheran Northeast loss. “We struggle with coming out and playing well in the first quarter. They are a good team, but we played nowhere near where we can. I expected a knockout, drag out game.”
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