Cedar set to battle top-rated team this week

In an age of a pandemic, the Cedar Catholic Trojans football team is trying to carve out its own piece of history.

Last week, the Trojans moved to 6-0 overall and 2-0 in district play with a solid 29-14 win over Crofton.

Now, they will be put to the test against the team that handed them their last defeat, Oakland-Craig, in the 2019 playoffs, on the road 7 p.m. Friday.

The Trojans got a 17-yard touchdown run by Tate Thoene, a two-yard bash dash by Ethan Becker and a 26-yard field goal by Blake Arens for a 16-6 halftime lead against Crofton.

Their rivals cut the lead to 16- 13 early in the third quarter but then the Trojans took control in the final 12 minutes.

A one-yard scoring run and a fumble recovery for a touchdown would give the Trojans the breathing room they needed to set up this week’s battle of the unbeatens.

“Playing against Crofton is always a big game for our entire school community, and it didn’t disappoint this season,” CCHS head coach Chad Cattau said. “It started to rain just before kickoff and so we had a drizzle and light rain to battle through the entire night. It seems that many of the times we play this rivalry, there is weather involved. It all really just adds to the great atmosphere of the game.

“After the first series, we did a great job overall of containing their offense. When you don’t see the double wing offense very often, it usually takes some time to adjust to the physicality and technique of it.”

The Trojans defensive linemen and linebackers slowly adjusted to what Crofton was doing and the tide slowly turned.

“We tried to give them slightly different looks throughout the night just so they didn’t get extremely comfortable in their offense,” Cattau said. “Offensively for us, we had great balance between running the ball and throwing it. We were able to have a lot of success through the air early in the game and that helped back the defense off a little bit and open up the run game. “We knew we would have to

“We knew we would have to have a good balance because Crofton plays so well on defense and our receivers really stepped up and caught the ball extremely well.”

Thoene finished 12-for-19 for 140 yards passing and ran for 105 yards on 12 carries while Becker finished with 125 yards on the ground via 25 totes.

Carter Arens caught 100 yards worth of passes.

Now can the Trojans break through against the toughest team they will face to date.

“Playing the No. 1 team in the state and returning state champions should really put some extra effort into our preparation,” Cattau said. “Oakland-Craig does a great job in all three aspects of the game so we will have a great challenge ahead of us, but our team has risen up to every challenge we have faced this year in terms of spending extra time getting ready each week, and I expect this to be the same.

“Oakland-Craig has a great balance between run and pass, so it will be a different challenge for us than facing a run dominant team like we did with Crofton.”

Needless to say, Cattau is hyped about the 2020 Trojans – COVID-19 be darned.

“I really like where this team has come up to this point,” Cattau said. “They really seem to play hard for each other, and they all really care about each other personally. When you get a group of kids that truly care about the other people on their team, they can really accomplish great things.

“This group has bought in to not caring who gets credit as long as they are all doing their jobs and making plays as a team. When you have unselfish teams like that, it really makes them fun to be around because you know they are all working for each other.”

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