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CCHS has a 10th football game — again

STEUBENVILLE — There will be a Week 10 for the Catholic Central football team.

Steve Daley, the CCHS head football coach and athletic director, announced Monday his Crusaders have landed the Reigning Thunder, a club team from Columbus, as an opponent for the season finale.

The game will be start at 2:30 p.m. Saturday inside Harding Stadium. Daley has been scrambling for a Week 10 foe since Bellaire St. John’s announced it would be unable to field a team this season. Earlier, Daley scheduled the Southern Buckeye Warriors, another club team. Late last week, officials with the Warriors decided not to make the trip.

Tickets for Saturday’s contest will be sold at Central on Thursday from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. All tickets will be general admission, however season ticket holders will be able to sit in their seats. Central does not have school on Friday so no tickets will be available then.

Sterling Haywood is the founder and coach of the Reigning Thunder, a second-year club team that is an offshoot of Reigning Sports Academy. The Thunder is made up primarily of teens not playing at their respective high schools, for one reason or another.

The Thunder sports a 3-6 record. Haywood’s team started the seasons with victories over Fostoria St. Wendelin, Millersport and Landmark Christian. Since then, the Thunder has fallen to Kiski School, Hudson Western Reserve Academy, Columbus Centennial, the Columbus Crusaders, Dayton Ponitz Career Tech and Middletown Christian.

In 2015, the Thunder traveled to the Ohio Valley for a game at Martins Ferry. The Thunder was scheduled to close its season with a game this week against Columbus Bishop Hartley, the defending Division IV champion. However, an agreement was reached between the programs, paving the way for the Thunder to visit Steubenville.

“We’re glad to be able to have a 10th game, no matter how we had to get it,” Daley said Monday. “It’s just good that our seniors will get to play 10. It’s an extra week of preparation and experience for our younger kids. Plus it gives us a chance to definitively wrap up the 2016 season.”

Reigning Sports Academy bills itself as a Christian-based nonprofit with a mission to provide youth in Central Ohio with a positive and safe experience that develops individual skills, physical fitness, competitive spirit and sportsmanship through training and mentoring programs.

The academy is located on West Town Street in Columbus and the team practices at Hilltonia Park on West Mound Street.

Central improved to 4-5 with its Week 9 victory over Madonna. The Crusaders have won three straight.

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