Providence ready for Catholic Blue slate

Updated: September 14, 2011 10:18AM

After postgame handshakes Friday with St. Laurence players, a few Providence football players shouted “Yeah, 3-0!” as they ran to gather with teammates and coaches.

The winning tradition that was sidetracked last year by injuries and a brutal early schedule has new life at Providence.

“That’s where we wanted to be, that’s where we needed to be,” Providence coach Mark Coglianese said. “I’ve been saying it all year long.”

In 2010, Providence lost its first four games, and two quarterbacks to injuries, and finished 2-7, its first losing record since 1980.

“Last year we lost a close one to Morgan Park and then JCA, we lost kind of a close one there,” Coglianese said. “Things just started to snowball in the wrong direction. Hopefully, this year we’ll get that snowball going the other way, in our direction.”

Momentum definitely is going in Providence’s direction after victories over Morgan Park, Minooka and St. Laurence, the last of those in the Celtics’ home opener.

Providence got its running game rolling against St. Laurence, piling up 347 yards. Sharing the load were running backs Andy Hoffmeister, a senior who went for 104 yards, and junior Brandon Price (106 yards), along with fullback Jack Klyczek (97 yards).

Defensively this season, linebackers Mike Valentino, Brian Fordon and Jack Fordon have been the leading tacklers behind a front that features Nick Cemeno, Mike Hryn and Vincent Ambrose.

Next for Providence is the start of the tough Catholic League Blue schedule, Friday against 3-0 Loyola, ranked No. 7 in the Sun-Times Super 25.

“Now it’s the big boys,” Coglianese said. “I know Loyola is a very good team, very talented. They’re big, they’re very well-coached. We’re going to have our hands full. But we took care of business up to this point.”

The Blue schedule continues Sept. 23 at St. Rita and Sept. 30 at home against Brother Rice. Non-league games against Lake Forest Academy and St. Ignatius precede the regular-season finale at Mount Carmel.

“Have we played our best every game and every quarter? No,” Coglianese said. “There’s still work that needs to be done. We need to and can get a lot better. I think the pieces are there. We think we can do big things.”

Southwest Prairie

Minooka, Plainfield East, Plainfield South and Oswego won their conference openers. Romeoville did not.

With six games to go and needing to win at least four of those to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2002, the time is now for the Spartans (1-2, 0-1).

“I don’t want to try to look too far into the rest of the season,” Romeoville coach Jeff Kuna said after a Week 2 victory over Joliet Central. “I look more at what do we have next week.”

That turned out to be a 25-14 loss to Oswego in which the Spartans led 14-13 in the third quarter. The offense needs production from both running back Perez Ford and quarterback James Rooks to be successful.

“Our expectation is we should score on two out of every three drives,” Kuna said. “That’s the kind of offensive output we’re expecting.”

Interstate Eight

Coming off losing seasons in 2010, Coal City and Plano are both 3-0 going into their Interstate Eight Large match-up Friday at Coal City. ... After a season-opening loss to Manteno, Wilmington appears to be back on track with shutouts over Peotone and Reed-Custer. ... Seneca earned its first victory Friday over Dwight and could make it two in a row against Reed-Custer.

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