Central Catholic to begin the season at Class 2A Pine

Central Catholic High School will begin its 2017 season Friday with an approximately three-hour trip to eastern Louisiana where it will face Pine High School.
The Eagles, a Division IV semifinalist in 2016 who are replacing many starters from a year ago with youth this season, will be facing a Pine High School squad that returns 15 starters. Pine advanced to the regional round of the Class 2A postseason a year ago where it fell to Kinder, 51-0.
A week ago, Pine fell in its jamboree contest to Franklinton, 23-16. Franklinton scored the game-winning touchdown with 21 seconds remaining.
“The first thing is they’re a quality opponent. …. The first thing that jumps out at you on film is how big they are,” Central Catholic Coach Tommy Minton said of Pine. “I mean they’re huge on the offensive and defensive line, so that’s two factors we’re going to have to work to control.”
Central Catholic will face its third consecutive wing-t team this week after facing Covenant Christian in its preseason scrimmage and Centerville in the jamboree. The move to face three teams that run the same offense was by design.
“It’s to get ready for, No. 1 we’re going to see Pine, and then when we get into district we see three teams in our district that run the wing t, so that’s why you schedule like you do to get yourself familiar with it,” Minton said.
Defensively, Pine will run a 4-3 look, Minton said.
In last week’s inaugural Eagle Jamboree, presented by Taco Bell, Central Catholic rallied for a 20-12 win. Trailing 12-6 with 11:49 remaining in the contest, the Eagles scored touchdowns on two Chris Singleton runs in the last 9:22 to win the game.
Singleton led the Eagles with 12 carries for 132 yards and three scores, while Davidyione Bias had 10 carries for 122 yards.
Quarterback Ryan Miller completed 1 of 2 passes, with his lone reception going to wide receiver DeDe Gant.
Friday’s kickoff is set for 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast by KBZE 105.9 FM, with pregame beginning at 6:45 p.m.