CENTERBURG — After suffering three straight nonconference losses to start the season, the Centerburg Trojans open their Mid-Buckeye Conference schedule against the always-tough Johnstown Johnnies on Friday night. Johnstown is off to a 1-2 start, and after tough losses to Granville and Heath, the Johnnies rolled over Lakewood, 42-6, last week.
“We’re not out of the woods yet, but we’ve had a good week of practice and we’re trying awfully hard,” said Centerburg coach Ken Kish. “Even last week, when things weren’t going well at all, (our players) went out there in the second half and moved the football and scored some points.”
How tough are the Johnnies? In 36 MBC matchups since 2004, they have only lost six times. They have only tasted defeat once in MBC play in the past three years. With two conference titles in the past three seasons, Johnstown will give Centerburg all it can handle. Even though the Johnnies lost nearly 20 seniors last year, Kish knows this is a real test for his Trojans.
“Even though they are 1-2, they are a big, strong, typical Johnstown team,” said Kish.
The Trojans have to stop Johnnies’ senior running back Brad Couts. They will have to do it with a defense that has given up 91 points in the past two weeks.
“They will probably give (Couts) the ball 30 times a game,” said Kish. “We have to tackle. We have to get off the blocks and get to (Couts.) I don’t think you bring him down with one guy. I think you have to have gang tackling.”
The Trojans’ defense will also need to take the ball away from the Johnnies and make a few opportunities for the offense.
“I’d like to see us get the ball back quicker,” said Kish. “I’d like to see us force some turnovers. We want to get turnovers and be real aggressive, but we haven’t done that yet. Maybe it’s the level of competition. The teams that we’ve played are 7-2 combined. All of those teams are mentioned in the top ten polls and that sort of thing.”
Luke Donaldson, who is among the area passing leaders, continues to successfully platoon with Drew Osborne as they lead the spread offense.
“Together (if you combine Donaldson and Osborne at quarterback) they are No. 2 or No. 3 in the area,” said Kish. “The platoon is working very well. We’re very happy. We think that our offense is an advantage for us in our league every week because nobody else has it. Utica runs it a little bit, but everyone else in our league is a power football team. We’ve kind of committed to the spread and, I think because of that, we give the other teams some problems. I know, in the past, Granville has given Johnstown problems with their spread offense. They will have to make some adjustments to our formations.”
The Trojans’ top receivers, T.T. Thompson (23 receptions) and Jason Ratliff, will need another good performance against a Johnnies’ team that only allowed a dozen yards on the ground last week. They don’t look to be generous to the Trojan ground game, either.
“We throw the ball pretty well,” said Kish. “Our problem is stopping the other team. We have a game plan on paper that looks pretty good. If our kids will go out there and execute the game plan, tackle, be in the right spot and recognize the formations that they run, then we can be in a good position to be competitive in the game.”
Despite getting Dustin Irvin back, after he missed the first three games with a broken hand, the Trojans are still dealing with the injury bug. Austin Allen, who broke his ankle in the Newark Catholic game, is out. Caleb White broke his ankle last week. Justin Keys is also out after breaking his hand identically to Irvin.
“I think we’re ready,” said Kish. “The kid’s attitudes are great. They’ve been working hard. I could never complain about that.”
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
