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BRIDGEPORT -- The Catholic Central football team is on a roll, having won three-straight and played itself back into the thick of the playoff race.
The now 4-3 Crusaders, after a pair of big wins at home, now look to take the show on the road and keep the momentum going as they head down Ohio Route 7 to take on the Bridgeport Bulldogs.
"We're just trying to be consistent and build off a positive performance and kind of continue to learn from some mistakes in a win," Central head coach Greg Bahen said. "Our goal is to keep growing every week. I feel like the last few weeks we've taken a step forward.
"So the goal now is to stay locked in, just have good practices and just trying to be consistent.
"We've been getting a lot of pats on the back the last couple of weeks. We have to stay locked in and know we still have a lot of room to improve and be making sure we are improving and working towards our goals."
The Crusaders have climbed their way to No. 15 in the Division VII, Region 27 standings this week, with the top 12 set to make the post season.
It has been the both sides of the ball leading the charge up the standings as junior quarterback Matty Jones fired a career best five touchdown passes last week against Southern Local and has nine in his last two games. Daveon Thon and Rahim Mitchell have also been big play machines in the Central wins.
Defensively, the Crusaders have allowed single digits in three of the four wins and the lone exception, the St. Thomas Aquinas game, they did not allow a point in the fourth quarter to shut the door.
The trip down the river is the final road gme for Central in the regular season as their final two games will be at home inside Harding Stadium.
And, compared to some of the trips the team made in its four-game road swing earlier this season, being headed down to Bridgeport to face a local, OVAC opponent is a simpler logistical undertaking.
"We played Saturday so it's a short week for us, but we've done it before and kind of know the routine now," Bahen said. "It's definitely not like some of the other trips we made. Hopefully we've learned from going on the road before and are in a groove with that. It's our last one of the year, hopefully, until the playoffs if we're fortunate enough to make it.
"It's good to play another local school similar to our size, that's something I want to work towards doing more in the future. Bridgeport has been on and off the schedule in the past and it's good to play them again."
The Bulldogs enter the contest with a record of 2-5. They have one common opponent with the Crusaders as both teams have a win over Southern Local.
The Bulldogs enter the game scoring an average of 23.4 points per game and allowing an average of 40.7.
Central is scoring an average of 23.7 and allowing an average of 19.3 points against.
"They have some athletes," Bahen said. "They've got two tall receivers who are athletic and can catch the football. They've used a couple of different quarterbacks, so we're not sure which one we're facing, one throws the ball more and the other was more of like a wildcat, and they ran the ball more. We're not sure if it's an injury situation or what they're dealing with. We're prepping for both, whether they're going to push it down the field more or run the ball more and use more shorter stuff.
"We'll see what they do on Friday night be ready to try to stop both."