The Gehlen Catholic football team picked up their first win of the season with a 28-7 district win over Alta-Aurelia on Friday night.
Gehlen Catholic fell 10-0 to Hinton in week one, and 34-27 to MMCRU in week two. The Jays feel like they should be better than 1-2 at this point, but head coach Jeremy Schindler says he is proud of the guys for staying engaged this season.
The gameplan going into the matchup was take away Alta-Aurelia’s ability to throw the ball downfield. The Warriors were held to less than 10 yards per completion thanks to an improved Jay defense. Coach Schindler says the guys executed the change in defensive schemes well.
Gehlen Catholic’s running game continues to be their money maker on offense. The Jays nearly eclipsed 300 yards on the ground with Kale Pearson recording 219 yards rushing and a pair of scores. Coach Schindler knows that a strong running attack is set up by hard work in the trenches.
The Jays had not been 0-2 since 2018, so this was some uncharted territory after the last few years of success. Coach Schindler says it feels good to get that first win out of the way, so they can continue to improve.
Gehlen rematches with Woodbury Central who they faced in the round of 16 last year and who ended their season. The Wildcats are ranked fourth in Class A after taking down Logan-Magnolia last week to improve to 3-0. Quarterback Drew Kluender is averaging over 200 yards per game passing while completing nearly 60% of his attempts. Coach Schindler has circled him as a priority in the gameplan this week.
Kickoff between the Jays and Wildcats is set for 7:00 PM on Friday night in Moville. KLEM will broadcast the game live on-air and online with a video stream on the KLEM Radio YouTube Channel.
