Sacred Heart opens district play on the road at Catholic, PC

To say there is a lot on the line for the Sacred Heart Trojans tomorrow night is an understatement.
Not only is Sacred Heart (2-0) looking to remain undefeated on the season, but the Trojans are also opening up District 5-1A competition when they take to the road to battle the Catholic of Pointe Coupee Hornets.
Game time for the showdown between the Trojans and the Hornets is set for 7 p.m.
“Catholic is a very good football team,” stated Sacred Heart head coach Josh Harper. “They were the Division IV state runner-up last season, so that goes to show you how good their program has been the last few years. No, dout, we are going to have to come ready to play this week.”
The Hornets come into the game with an overall record of 1-2 after losing to Episcopal this past Thursday night. However, Harper knows despite Catholic’s overall record, the Hornets will be ready from the opening kickoff.
“For the most part, a lot of the stuff that we as coaches have been calling has worked,” said Harper. “But, I know that is not going to be the case all the time. When you start playing teams like Catholic, things may not go the way you want them too.”
“They are coming to hit us in the mouth,” Harper continued. “We just have to be able to strap it up and do the same.”
One of the areas of focus for Harper and his coaching staff this week has been the play of his offensive and defensive lines.
“Against Mamou, I thought we got lucky on some of the plays we ran just because they did not execute well on the other side of the ball. For us, there were some issues both in our physical approach and the way we communicated. We are going to have to clean up those mistakes up very quickly because Catholic lives and dies by what goes on inside the box.”
Those mistakes up front did not seem to phase Sacred Heart offensively this past Thursday night. The Trojan offense racked up over 475 yards, including 302 yards through the air, with starting quarterback Ethan Karonika contributing 246 yards of his own.
The ground game also flourished. Running back Alex McElwee accounted for 135 yards on five carries, while Gabe Fontenot added 45 yards on six carries.
“We did a good job of running the ball against Mamou, I just didn’t think we did a great job,” commented Harper. “There were times when we did not finish blocks and the defender would peel off and make the tackle. We cannot do those things against Catholic. It is important that we can run the ball against them and keep it out of the hands of their offense. We cannot go into the game thinking that we are going to throw the ball all over the field. ”