The Gehlen Catholic football team picked up one of its biggest wins of the last few years on Friday with a 22-21 victory over top-ranked Woodbury Central.
The Jays have had their fair share of Woodbury Central the last couple of years. The two met in the playoffs in 2022 and in the regular season in 2023. The Wildcats took both those meetings by a combined score of 91-21. Gehlen Catholic head coach Jeremy Schindler says last year’s loss gave them the confidence that they could right the ship this year.
Gehlen Catholic was the dominant party in the first half outscoring the Wildcats 16-7 after initially trailing 7-0. Coach Schindler says the gameplan was to spread the Wildcat defense out to then attack the middle of the field.
Woodbury Central’s passing attack was one of the top attacks in Class A football heading into the contest. The Jays held them to just seven points on their first drive of the game and limited their scoring opportunities to just two for the rest of the night. Coach Schindler credits the secondary with adapting to a tougher coverage scheme that later led to the game-sealing interception by Wyatt Konz.
Gehlen Catholic will take a 3-1 overall and 2-0 district record into the second half of the season. The rest of the matchups are district games for the Jays who are on track to potentially win the district. That starts with an 0-4 Akron-Westfield team that the Jays are not going to overlook. Coach Schindler says his guys will be just as ready for a fight from the Westerners as they were from the Wildcats.
Kickoff is set for 7:00 PM in Akron for the Westerners’ homecoming week. KLEM Radio will bring you the game on-air and on a video stream with coverage beginning at 6:15 PM on Friday, September 27.
