Hilltoppers drop to 0-2 at Ozaukee

By Bud Milroy
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT
The Catholic Central High School football team has talent.
It’s just the matter of get-ting it to gel as a team, espe-cially after a 31-7 loss at Ozaukee Friday night.
“It’s disappointing,” said head coach Tom Aldrich. “I know we’re better than what we’re showing.
“We’ve got some decent players but we’re not a very good team yet.”
Hindering the Hilltoppers against Ozaukee was the lack of offense. The Warriors, a solid Division 6 team, pre-sented decent size up front that jammed the box – leav-ing little room for Catholic Central to rush the ball.
“Last week and again this week, our opponents have put 8-9 men in the box,” Aldrich pointed out. “And we weren’t able to take advantage of what that offers you offen-sively.”
The ’Toppers were further hindered by injuries. Grant Alderman, who rushed for 110 yards in the opener, and Adam Oehlers, were both sidelined, and fullback Kyle Kresken aggravated a nag-ging injury.
With those weapons not available, the Hilltoppers managed to gain just 53 yards on the ground in 23 attempts.
Despite the adversity, Catholic Central still battled and trailed just 7-0 at the half. Ozaukee added another score early in the third quar-ter, when Ethan Brouilette ran in from 16 yards out.
The lone turnover of the game followed shortly, as the ’Toppers coughed up the ball and Ozaukee took advantage. Aaron Susen capped off the short drive with a two-yard plunge for the score.
“Their third-quarter touchdown and the fumble that happened almost imme-diately after it that led to another score really put us in a hole that we could not bat-tle back from,” Aldrich said.
Ozaukee added a field goal and another touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. The lone CCHS score came in the fourth as well, as Car-son Meinholz connected with wide receiver Jake Surges on a 35-yard pass and run.
Spencer Wilker booted the extra point to make the final 31-7.
Despite the loss, Aldrich saw improvement.
“I thought our defense played pretty well, definitely an improvement from last week,” the coach said. “Overall, we’re still looking to put the pieces in the right places and I expect we’ll be a lot better.”
The schedule only gets tougher this week, as the Hilltoppers host Kenosha St. Joseph (2-0) at 6 p.m. Satur-day.
“They’re the real deal,” Aldrich said. “It will be a challenge to cover all their weapons.”