Central heads on the road to Strasburg
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STRASBURG -- The 2024 season for Catholic Central started with a hard-fought victory at home over an improving Wellsville squad.
Now the Crusaders will look to duplicate that success on the road against another Tigers team -- Strasburg.
The opening kick is set for 7 p.m. out in Tuscarawas County.
"It's always good start off 1-0, there have been times where I've been on the other side of it and it's a lot better to start off with a win after all the work that goes into getting ready for the season," Central head coach Eric Meek said. "I thought last week was a game in which both teams played very hard and it was a very physical opening game."
The Tigers, like Wellsville, Meek expects to be another tough challenge for his Crusaders team.
"I think they're scrappy, they run a 3-4, cover two slant defense we've got to be prepared for," Meek said. "They switched their offense up from last year, they we were a spread-pistol team last year and now they're still in the pistol but they run a tight wing and some unbalanced (lines) so they like to run the football and we've got to watch the play-action pass."
Strasburg is coming off a 35-22 loss in its season opener to Rittman out of the Akron area. Catholic Central won last season's meeting, 30-0, at Harding Stadium.
Another challenge the Crusaders will contend with is the heat. After a mild evening on Saturday for the opener, Friday's high is in the 90s.
"It's been a brutally hot week," Meek said. "It's a short week, too, playing Saturday and having a jayvee game Monday then turning right around to play Friday. We have been giving the kids a lot of water breaks and had a very physical practice Wednesday. We think we'll be up to the challenge."
Going on the road for the first time also presents its own challenges.
"It's an hour and five minute trip, it's not that far of a trip," Meek said. "We're going to get on the bus and treat it like a business trip. Their field is grass, but we practice on grass every day so that shouldn't be an issue.
"We want to come home healthy and 2-0."
In the Week 1 win over Wellsville, Central got 202 rushing yards as a team, led by 137 and a pair of scores from Jimmy Hernon. Hernon's 95-yard scoring run in the third quarter was a big turning point in the victory. Matthew Sprochi also threw a touchdown and did not turn the ball over in his debut as signal caller.
Meek is hoping to see everything, including his own playcalling, take a step forward in Week 2.
"A lot of the things offensively that need to improve on are things that we can absolutely improve on," Meek said. "There were some playcalls I made out of the wrong formation ... I need to be a little sharper. We can execute a little better. Defensively we gave up a few big plays, but if you take away those four or five plays we did pretty well. We still only gave up six points and only giving up six points gives you a very good chance to win the football game."