Central Scarlet Dragons face another challenge in Bishop Guilfoyle
Muthler
Wheeler
Muthler
Wheeler
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Central entered the high school football season picked to finish fourth out of five teams in its section of the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference after a 4-6 season and missing the 2025 postseason.
The Scarlet Dragons have surprised even themselves by starting 4-0 with wins over Philipsburg-Osceola, Tyrone and Bellwood-Antis. Those three teams are a combined 9-3 with their only losses coming to Central.
Saturday at Mansion Park at 7 p.m., the Dragons may face their biggest challenge yet -- a Bishop Guilfoyle Academy team that despite losing a close game to Richland is outscoring its opponents, 139-35, this year.
"Their starters are outstanding," Central coach Jerry Albright said. "They run the ball well. (QB Justin) Wheeler can do a lot of things -- run, pass, catch balls. Every week, it seems like they get better and better. Defensively, they play multiple fronts. They have great cover guys man-to-man. I thought last week (against Bellwood-Antis) was going to be a tough week, but this week is even more daunting."
Central used two interceptions returned for a touchdown and a fumble recovery to help it defeat the Blue Devils, 28-26, last week and would love to get an early turnover Saturday.
"It would be absolutely huge," Albright said. "Any time you get a turnover for a touchdown, that gives you so much momentum to start a game. We didn't just get one. We got two, and that gave the kids the confidence they needed to sustain that kind of play for the whole game. If we're going to have any chance of beating BG, we're going to have to force turnovers. The ball has to roll our way."
It's something Central has worked on during the offseason.
"We changed our tackling this year a little bit to add trying to force fumbles and punching at the ball," Albright said. "We have tried to work on punching through and wrapping up and the next man trying to strip the ball out. We didn't get many turnovers at all last year. To have success this year, we knew we had to create more. We worked on that a lot in our offseason and summer routines."
Since its 21-16 loss to Richland, Bishop Guilfoyle has been working on becoming a more balanced offensive team and did that in Friday's 42-0 win over Huntingdon.
The Marauders threw for 181 yards and rushed for 172 yards.
"I thought we did a great job with that," BG coach Justin Wheeler said. "I think we threw for more yards than we rushed for. We were pretty accurate, and I thought we did a good job with that. It makes us a more well-rounded team. We threw with two different quarterbacks, which we're still working on. Landon (Shellenberger) had a big touchdown pass. I was really happy with our performance."
Wheeler appreciates the balance his opponent Saturday has shown.
"They are talented," Wheeler said. "The (Jesse) Muthler kid makes plays. They run some wildcat stuff with (Carter) Schenk. He runs hard. They are balanced. They are statistically almost 50-50 run-pass and do both things well. It's going to be difficult. They have been scoring a ton of points. Last week, not many people picked them to win, but that's a team that believes it can win any week."
Central's success this season makes the Dragons a more dangerous team than the one BG defeated 49-7 last year in this game.
"We know we have to match that confidence, especially at the beginning," Wheeler said. "Central believes they can win. If we let them have some big plays early and let their energy stay up, I think it's going to be difficult for us. We have to come out and play aggressive and good, sound football."
Defensively, the Marauders haven't given up a point since the third quarter of the Richland game three weeks ago.
"We have a couple different guys at every level that are playing well," Wheeler said. "It starts with our defensive line. We have been able to lighten the box and play more players in coverage, because the front four or five have been so good. Rocco Cacciotti has been good for years, and Declan Peterson is healthy now and good inside. Enzo Lascoli has been getting better playing at nose, and Monroe Gates was lights out on Friday night. It starts with our front group, and we have just as much skills among our DBs."
Win or lose, Central is using Saturday's game to identify how the Dragons should approach the second half of the season and what they need to focus on -- good or bad.
"We really define what our best traits are as a team," Albright said. "We always try to use BG to gauge where we're at. They have been so successful and so dominant over the years, we like to try and see how we stack up in different areas of the game against them. The players know it's a big challenge this week."