CCHS back in the playoffs
Crusaders head to Fisher Catholic in Round 1
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LANCASTER -- The Catholic Central football team secured its fifth-straight playoff appearance early Saturday morning, and then the Crusaders went out and took care of business in their season finale.
Catholic Central raced out to an early 12-0 lead against Wellsville on Senior Night, and the Crusades pulled away to defeat the Tigers, 39-14, on Reno Saccoccia Field inside historic Harding Stadium Saturday night.
"It was just penalties and taking care of the football," first-year Catholic Central (7-3) head coach Greg Bahen said about his team's win against the Tigers. "We lost the one fumble. I think we had 12 penalties for 99 yards or something yet. We had almost 100 yards in penalties. If you look at our yardage, we had almost 420 yards of total offense. We were moving the football. We just shout ourselves in the foot. Penalties were the big thing. We have to clean things up. It is the playoffs. There are no re-dos and no next week."
The Blue-and-Gold ended up as the No. 9 seed in the Ohio Divison VII, Region 27 meaning Catholic Central will meet No. 8 seed Fisher Catholic at 7 p.m. Friday night out at Fulton Field in Lancaster.
"I wish we could have started that night," Bahen said asked how long after his team's win against Wellsville did it began preparing for the Irish. "We had to wait for the film exchange. We sent ours, but they did not respond until noon the next day. We got the film, and we started to break it down.
"We play on Saturday, so there is a shortened turnaround for us. Fortunately, we have done it multiple times this season. The kids and the coaches are used to the shorter turnaround. It is not something new.
"We are going to come up with a good gameplan. We want to execute it. We want to have a good week of practice. We want to keep everyone healthy. We want to execute in the game."
Like Catholic Central, the boys from Fairfield County also ended the season with a record of 7-3. Fisher Catholic ended the regular season by defeating Manchester, 35-7, last Friday night at home.
"They like to run the ball," Bahen said. "They run the Wing-T. They have a really-big left tackle No. 77 (Nick Harris). He's all of 6-5 300 pounds. They look to run the ball behind him. They have another big linemen in No. 73 (Jude Clum). He's their right guard. They look to pull him to 77's side. They run the Wing-T, so they have three or four guys in the backfield who run hard. They have a wide receiver that is you fall asleep on has big-play potential. They like to throw home run balls to him. The big key for us is we have to get lined up. We have to play physical, and we have to stop the run."
The Irish opened the regular season with two wins before dropping their first game of the season in Week 3. Fisher Catholic defeated Belpre, 28-19, in the season opener on the road before defeating Tuscarawas Central Catholic, 28-22, the following week in the team's home opener. Then, Notre Dame defeated Fisher Catholic, 7-0, in the road the following week.
Following the loss to the Titans, the Irish won their next four games to improve to 6-1 on the season. In that stretch, Fisher Catholic defeated Fairfield Christian Academy, 32-21, at home, Bishop Rosecrans, 45-13, on the road, Miller, 41-28, at home and finally Millersport, 34-8, on the road.
The team then lost its next two games – both of which were at home – to Berne Union, 23-7, and to Grove City Christian, 35-14.
"I think this is their coaches sixth or seventh year," Bahen said. "To me, that is a decent amount of time. He's well instilled with the Wing-T. That is what he does. My dad ran the Wing-T, and it is always in you. It is hard to defend. They have different guys in the backfield. They use different motions in the backfield. You have to read your keys. You can't stare into the backfield. I agree with Coach (Derrick) Stickles. Facing the Wing-T is a real challenge. You don't see it a whole lot anymore."
The Green-and-White also have plenty of size on their defensive line.
"Defensively, the two big guys on the offensive line are on their defensive line," Bahen said. "They are usually next two each other – one at defensive tackle and one at defensive end. They run a four-man front.
"It is going to be big for us to be able to block them. We want to run the football. We have been able to run the football because that opens everything else up. We have some good athletes we can get the ball to if team's load the box. We have Daveon (Thorn) and Michael Fabbro. They can make big plays. They are dangerous in space.
"They key is going to be upfront. They have the size advantage in some spots. We have gotten better on the line. We have been able to use our speed, our quickness and we have used angles. That has been a big key for us."
The Irish want to run the ball and control the clock preventing the Crusaders from having possession of the football.
"That's the worry," Bahen said. "We know they are going to try and possess the ball. They want to grind the clock. We saw that last week with Wellsville. We made some big plays in the first half, and then they were able to control the clock. They went some long drives. They did a really-good job.
"We didn't do a good job last week in the red zone. I have got to do a better job of calling plays down in the red zone. There were two or three times where we were inside their 30 and we did not score. We had been very efficient in the red zone, and we were scoring at a high clip when we got the ball down there. We are going to have to get back to capitalizing on our opportunities when we get down there.
"Teams have tried to do that to us this season. Southern tried to limit the number of possessions. They ran the ball. Wellsville did the same thing. Lucas ran the ball and did the same thing to us. We have seen that a few times this season. We have to make sure that when we get the ball down there, our drives end with a kick, hopefully an extra point."
The boys from Jefferson County have made it to the playoffs every year since 2002, however, the team is just 1-4 in playoff games during that stretch.
"We are going to have to be able to control our emotions," Bahen said. "Last week was Senior Night, and I think we lost control of our emotions. I think we got caught up in the moment. It was a little immaturity. We had been doing a good job with that. It was the little things. Little things lead to big things. We were too emotional. Things were happening in the piles and we responded, but it is always the second guy who gets caught. We have to control our emotions. We are going to have to grow. We are going to have to hone in on things. We had some pre-snap penalties. We had holding. We had some personal fouls.
"If they make a big play, we are going to have to stay focused on the rest of the drive. We are going to have to control our emotions. We are going to have to continue to play football. That is what we have been doing for the past six weeks. We have been playing winning football."
Catholic Central lost to Lowellville on the road in the first round in 2022 and in 2023. The Rockets won the games by scores of 54-14 and 34-0. In 2024, Catholic Central defeated River, 28-22, at home before falling in the next round to Miller, 36-20, at Harding Stadium. Last season, Danville shut out Catholic Central, 54-0, in the first round at Harding.
The Irish did not fare much better against the Blue Devils as Danville defeated Fisher Catholic, 59-8, the next week in Lancaster. Danville then defeated Waterford, 19-14, on the road before falling to Hillsdale, 25-20, in the regional final.