BROOKHAVEN – Again, the new Sacred Heart Athletic Facilities saved the day. Sacred Heart was schedule to play a jamboree at Bogue Chitto last Friday night, but the weather forced the teams to relocate the game to Sacred Heart.
Crusaders’ coach Lonny Schraeder was very happy his team was able to play, because he wanted to see what he needed to fix. He was quick to point his team has only been practicing for two weeks, because blocking assignments and alignment were the biggest issues Friday night.
“I’m glad we had a jamboree, because we have a lot of things to clean up,” he said. “We were really sloppy, the blocking assignments and things like that. It was a good time to have scrimmage to find out all of these things. We watched the film, and we looked a lot better in practice Monday because of it. We learned from it, so it was good.”
It was the first live action junior quarterback Zach Weatherell has seen since injuring his throwing arm last season. He was having a productive sophomore campaign when the injury occurred, too.
Schraeder said it he did ‘OK,’ but that is typical for a quarterback in his first game back from an injury, especially in a jamboree. The missed blocking assignments didn’t help either.
“I know he wants to do better,” Schraeder said. “Just like everybody else, he missed some reads and stuff. Of course, when you’re missing people on the line and you don’t have a lot of time, and that makes a big difference, too. Overall, I thought he did OK, but he’s just like everybody else. We have a long way to go.”
The Crusaders’ opponent this week, Loyd Star, is a team Sacred Heart played last year, but it looks completely different. Statistically wise, the top two quarterbacks, top two rushing leaders the second leading receiver are gone. Junior James Beard and senior Patrick Price are the only returners with at least 200 offensive yards in any category.
Beard caught 27 passes for 719 yards and 10 touchdowns last season, and Price rushed for 337 yards and four touchdowns on 42 carries. Beard lit up the scoreboard when Sacred Heart and Loyd Star met on the field last season. He caught seven passes for 286 yards and three touchdowns, and he had one rushing attempt for 48 yards and a touchdown. Price rushed the ball three times for 28 yards and a touchdown, too.
Based off what Schraeder said saw on Loyd Star’s jamboree film, his defense has a lot to prepare for.
“They’re multiple,” he said. “They have good size, but we just have to go, compete and get after them. That’s the main thing. We have to worry about ourselves, because we don’t know a lot about them. They graduated a lot of people, so they don’t have a lot back. We’re just going to have to make sure that we know what we’re doing to take care of what we do.”
Defensively, the Hornets lost a lot there, too, as six of the top eight tacklers have graduated.
“They’re big and physical,” Schraeder said. “They’re going to get after you, and they might be young, but they still have some good size. We’re going to have to go and be prepared to play. You have to worry about yourself sometimes rather than somebody else.”
Sacred Heart travels to Loyd Star for a 7 p.m. kickoff Friday night.
