As they prepare to host McLean County this week, Owensboro Catholic is looking for a quick start in the second round of the Class 2A football playoffs.
The Aces ran away with a 55-21 victory on the road in early October, handing the Cougars their only district loss this year. McLean County hasn’t lost since, while Catholic posted three dominant wins to counter a loss to Apollo down the stretch.
Though they’ve lit up the scoreboard more often than not, the Aces have been slow out of the gate in many of their games.
“Every week for us getting a quick start is important,” said Catholic head coach Jason Morris. “It’s kind of weird that we say that because we haven’t gotten off to quick starts. We’ve had to kind of fight back, which also shows some senior leadership.”
With the state’s leading quarterback in Drew Hartz, Catholic’s offense has proven difficult to slow down. Morris said they can go the the ground game if they need to, but the offense runs through Hartz and his plethora of receivers.
“As long as defenses aren’t just doing everything they can to take the pass away, we’re going to play through Drew,” Morris said. “Whenever defenses play to where we have to run the football or we’re not going to be successful, then we know we can do that. For us, balance isn’t about 50-50 run and pass, it’s about spreading our touches out.”
McLean County is a run-first team, as they’ve only attempted 29 passes all year. The Aces’ defense has struggled at times to stop the run, so Morris said they’ll have to stay focused.
“McLean County is very good at what they do,” he said. “They don’t run a lot of different plays, but they run a lot of formations. Our main thing is getting lined up on defense. They hit us for three big plays last game, and we know if we give them those big plays Friday they’ll hang around.”
The winner advances to the quarterfinals, though the next round opponent is uncertain at this time due to the new playoff format.
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2019 football coverage is presented in part by Drew Cunningham, agent at State Farm.
