HOME AGAIN — Catholic Central is back at home Saturday night hosting Bridgeport on homecoming night at Harding Stadium. It is the third of four in a row at home for the Crusaders. - Andrew Grimm

STEUBENVILLE — Catholic Central’s youthful squad finds itself above the .500 mark through the first three weeks.

They got their with a thrilling 52-45 victory over Bishop Rosecrans last week to get to 2-1, coming out on top with four defensive scores in a wild second half.

This week, they’ll look to make that mark 3-1 when they continue their home stand against the Bridgeport Bulldogs on homecoming night.

“The kids are excited,” Central head coach Eric Meek said. “It’s early in the season and with this being homecoming this week, everyone’s excited. There’s a lot of festivities planned and we certainly want to put our best foot forward and try to improve this week and get our third win.”

The Bulldogs come to town with a 1-2 mark.

They lost their opener on the road at Frontier in Week 1 and fell in their home opener last week against East Palestine.

Between those games, they knocked off Shenandoah on the road in a close game.

“We saw them in person last week and we’re very impressed with their quarterback and tailback,” Meek said. “They have outstanding speed, in particular running the ball. They’re a senior-dominated team, about half their roster are seniors. So, they have older kids. They have 17-18 year old kids starting on the line. So that’s going to be a challenge as well.”

Homecoming week always brings a lot of excitement everywhere, and Central is no exception as they have festivities planned throughout the week.

Winning the football game Saturday night, though, will make them all a little more fun.

“There’s a lot of festivities planned here at Catholic Central and it’s a big week,” Meek said. “We have the Hall of Fame banquet , which kicks things off (today) and activities Friday night, Saturday and even after the ballgame. So, we just want to take care of things on the football field Saturday night and then hopefully everyone has a great weekend.”

This week is Central’s third of four-straight games at Harding Stadium.

That means the back half of the schedule will have a lot of road games, so the Crusaders want to take advantage of playing at home while they can.

“Absolutely it’s important to take advantage of playing at home,” Meek said. “We have four in a row here early in the season and it was an exciting night last Saturday night at Harding Stadium and we’re hoping that we come out of there with another victory this week.”

The opening kick Saturday night is set for 7 p.m.