It’s homecoming for the 3-1 Crusaders
Trending
STEUBENVILLE -- The Crusaders have developed a flair for the dramatic the last two weeks.
After a one-point victory in the rain at Zanesville Rosecrans the week before, Catholic Central went to Ashtabula and scored with six seconds remaining for another one-score victory over St. John last Saturday afternoon to come home 3-1.
"It was a real interesting football game, both teams played extremely hard," Crusaders head coach Eric Meek said of the trip north. "I thought our conditioning and physicality is what put us over the top in the fourth quarter. It was a ball game where we gave up some yards, but our defense bent but didn't break.
"Our passing game showed some improvement, we had three passes brought back by penalties and Matthew (Sprochi) threw the ball well and the receivers ran good routes. There was a total of six possessions by each team in the whole game.
"Our defense played great and, while we need to start scoring more points, our offense got it done when we needed to get it done and we came out of there with a win."
This Saturday afternoon, the Crusaders host another team that Meek sees as much improved from a year ago when Fairport Harding comes to Harding Stadium on homecoming day.
"It will be nice to be back at home, it's homecoming and there are a lot of festivities planned," Meek said. "We certainly want to put our best effort on the field Saturday for all of our alumni and fans. We want to get to 4-1, we're at the halfway point. We tell our kids all the time, especially our seniors, that the clock is ticking on their time being Crusader football players so we want to do everything in our power to send them out through the second half of the season and hopefully beyond on a positive note."
The Skippers are 2-1 with wins over Leetonia and Collinwood sandwiched around a close loss to Buckeye Central.
The Crusaders won last year's meeting, 15-9, on the road.
"Fairport Harding is like everyone else we've played so far, every team we've played is better than they were a year ago," Meek said. "We played a lot of teams that were younger teams last year and they've all gotten better. This team in particular has tremendous skill and I'm impressed with their linebackers and secondary, they have quickness. They have a couple really fast players at the skill positions that can do a lot of damage in a hurry if you don't contain them."
Skippers QB Brady Lawson has thrown for five scores and ran for four more, while Yomar Castellano also has five total touchdowns for Fairport Harding. They have a balanced attack, rushing for an average of 163 yards while passing for 120.
Central, meanwhile, has had a ground-heavy attack led by Jimmy Hernon, who has six scores and averages 115 yards per game rushing.
On defense, Timmy Mihalyo is averaging nearly 10 tackles per game and Peyton Rauch already has six sacks.
The opening kick Saturday afternoon is set for 1 p.m.