After a tough loss to Owensboro, Owensboro Catholic will look to grab its first win of the season against Christian Academy-Louisville.
The Aces are coming off of a 35-7 loss to the Red Devils, in which they played well despite the score not being in their favor.
Owensboro Catholic had earned the first lead of the game last Friday thanks to play from its strongest offensive players in the game.
That would be senior quarterback Lincoln Clancy and do-it-all senior wide receiver Braden Mundy.
Clancy threw for 203 yards on 15-26 passing attempts while throwing an interception and a touchdown against Owensboro.
That lone touchdown pass from Clancy connected with Mundy, who had a total of 124 yards on seven catches to go along with his receiving touchdown.
Despite the score not being on their side in the previous two weeks, Head Coach Jason Morris feels like they continue to improve each week, especially after their matchups with Union County and Owensboro.
“Owensboro’s one of the top teams in the state and I felt like we battled them as well,” Morris said. “Our young guys just keep getting a little bit better every week, so that’s going to be our goal again.”
They’ll be facing a Centurions team that is coming off its first loss of the season, falling to Lexington Christian at home 37-14.
Despite struggling in its most recent loss, Christian Academy-Louisville’s offense has scored over 30 points twice in three games this season.
They are led by sophomore quarterback Cole Hodge who is throwing for around 130 yards per game and two touchdowns.
Senior wide receiver Easton Messer is Hodge’s primary target, averaging 83.7 yards per game as well as a touchdown a game.
Their ground game includes a myriad of running backs averaging 20-40 yards per game, with Hodge also rushing for about 40 yards per game as well.
Morris said they have improved defensively little by little, but that the ‘freshman and sophomore mistakes’ have to start becoming obsolete for them to really excel.
“We continue to get a little bit better at it, but we’re still not 100% with our alignments and just doing our assignment every single week on both sides of the ball,” Morris said. “It’s really hurting us… We’re starting to run out of time to continue to make freshman and sophomore mistakes.”
In order to rectify this and slow the Centurions offense down, Morris said they have to continue to improve communication on the field, get lined up and make sure everyone does their job individually defensively.
Defensively, Chrisitan Academy-Louisville allowed 37 points against Lexington Christian, but held teams to less than two touchdowns in the rest of its games.
Morris said that Christian Academy-Louisville isn’t a one-dimensional team where you can single out any one player or scheme, something that comes in large part due to their prestigious head coach.
“Louisville Christian is really tough to scout for because they have an NFL quarterback as their head coach in Hunter Cantwell,” Morris said. “He’s running a lot of stuff that you can tell he is bringing with him from playing at the University of Louisville along with everywhere that he’s been with coaching. So they run lots of different kinds of concepts.”
Morris said that the Centurions are one of the top teams in the state and they will have to force them to make mistakes to come away victorious.
“They’re a very solid well-coached football team that’s really good on both sides with the offensive and defensive lines,” Morris said. “They have really good skill players and they don’t do things to beat themselves.”
With the goal of playoff football and constant improvement still in mind, Morris hopes that by the end of the game Friday they come away victorious and gain more and more confidence going forward.
“We just want one more week of proving to our young guys that they belong and that no matter who the competition is we’re going to play to the best of our abilities,” Morris said. “We’ve proved that when we just line up and play to the best of our abilities and do our job that we can play with the top teams in the state.”
