Crawfordsville football is excited and ready to begin its 2023 season under second year head coach Brad Clark. Cville will welcome the Heritage Christian Eagles to CHS on Friday to open up the year on the gridiron. A season ago the Athenians won three games and started to show progress. A week ago the Athenians got their first real action of the season in their scrimmage at Sheridan. Clark was impressed with how his team performed and now is hoping that translates over into Friday.
“There’s always excitement surrounding week one especially when you get to do it at home,” Clark said. “Our kids and fans I think are both excited because they know that this one counts for real. In that scrimmage I was encouraged because both sides of the ball were making things happen. Our defense got some stops and our offense was moving the ball like we should. Going up against Sheridan and the legend that Bud Wright, he’s always going to give any team they play a test.”
The Eagles have built a winning tradition under coach Kyle Ray as they’ve yet to have a losing season in his seven years at the helm including a 7-4 record a year ago. The Eagles look to be a little younger coming into 2023 as they’ll have a new signal caller as Kyle Antoine graduated from last year. A season ago he threw for 2,260 yards and completed nearly 66% of his passes to go along with 27 touchdowns and just six interceptions. The top two rushers also graduated from a year ago for the Eagles and their top two receivers so it will likely be lots of new faces to step when they hit the field on Friday.
No matter who is out there Clark knows the challenge that Heritage Christian poises to his team as the Eagles began the season receiving votes in the Class 2A poll.
“Their offense looks pretty dynamic when we’ve watched them on film,” Clark said. “We think they’re going to come out and try to take some shots early against our defense. Defensively they’re running something similar to what we ran last year so that’s nothing new for us to prepare for. They’re going to try and pressure us so that’s what we’ve been prepping our offense for in practice this week .”
Last year, the Athenians were able to get out to a 2-0 start. While the task may be a little harder this season, the Athenians know the importance of getting off to a good start on the year and the momentum that can bring.
“A win here to begin the year would not only bring excitement to our kids and our staff, but the whole Cville community,” Clark said. “We saw that last year when we got out to a good start. Anytime you can find success early, it just build momentum into the rest of the school year and season. “
Kickoff between the Eagles and Athenians is set for 7 p.m. at CHS.
