By Trevor Austin
LocalSportsJournal.com
MUSKEGON – Rain or shine, the Muskegon Catholic Central football team was determined to tally a Senior Night victory to close out the home portion of its regular-season schedule.
The Crusaders battled the elements, but found success on the ground and blanked Centreville, 20-0.
The action started slow with neither team finding the end zone in the first half. However, the Crusaders forced and recovered a fumble early in the second half that they capitalized on into the game’s first score.
With the wet playing conditions, the Crusaders elected to do damage from the backfield and rushed for a total of 153 yards and three scores.
“I thought the men played hard,” said Catholic coach Steve Czerwon. “It was wet and windy so we knew would have to keep it on the ground.”
The offensive line held strong and helped create opportunities in the run game.
Bryan Covertini took the majority of the workload with 15 carries for 75 yards and a touchdown, while Neil Szymanski returned from injury and went for 41 yards on eight carries with two scores.
Szymanski scored on runs of 11 and 6 yards. Convertini found the end zone from 1 yard out.
The Crusaders also leaned on a solid defensive performance to hold off Centreville.
“I know the weather didn’t quite cooperate with the type of offense Centreville had, but our defense did a nice job stopping the traps,” said Czerwon.
Will Gowin led the defense with 9 1/2 tackles and one sack, while Timmy Railing made 8 1/2 tackles. Easten Cook made seven tackles and Quinn McKenna added 6 1/2 tackles. Henry Rosema chipped in defensively with 5 1/2 tackles.
“Since I’ve been head coach this has been one of the toughest schedules we’ve had,” Czerwon said. “We’ve won some close ones, and lost a few, but I think it’s made us battle tested for the playoffs.”
Muskegon Catholic (5-3) will close out the regular season at Traverse City St. Francis next Saturday.
