FAIRPORT HARBOR — Catholic Central has shown an ability to bounce back from a loss this season, doing so twice already.

They’ll have a tall task to make it three times.

Coming off a tough loss up at 5-1 Oak Glen, Central now has perhaps it toughest challenge yet with a long trip to battle a state-ranked, undefeated Fairport Harbor Harding squad on Saturday night.

Central will be trying to put a 28-0 loss to the Golden Bears in the rear view.

“They’ve got a really good football team, a veteran team with some outstanding players,” Central head coach Eric Meek said of Oak Glen. “I thought the first half they really dominated, the second half I thought that we did a little better. I’m proud of the kids because they didn’t quit and they kept fighting and playing hard despite being down 20.”

As for the Skippers, who come into the meeting with a 6-0 mark and are ranked No.5 in Division VII in the latest Ohio Associated Press poll, Meek knows they’ll be a handful.

“They don’t have great size or great numbers but they have great speed and they’re physical and they run to the football very well,” Meek said of Fairport Harbor Harding. “That’s exactly why they’re undefeated at this point of the season.”

Senior quarterback Brady Lawson leads the Skippers with 1,472 yards, 25 touchdowns and just two interceptions on the season, completing more than 68 percent of his passes.

Sophomore Abraham Castellano leads the rushing attack with 443 yards and three scores, averaging 6.3 yards per carry.

Junior Yomar Castellano is a force at receiver with a team-high 34 catches for 619 yards and 11 touchdowns, averaging 18 yards per catch. The Skippers have had seven different players catch passes this season, six different players catch TD passes.

A trip north of Cleveland to Lake County, more than two hours away, is a challenge in itself.

“All these years, I tell the players just get on the bus and go and treat it like a business trip,” Meek said. “We did that well two weeks ago. We had a two-hour bus trip and it didn’t seem to affect us. Now we’ve got to do it again and get off the bus ready to go and play a really, really good football team.

“We played in that stadium two years ago, so some of our older kids remember the stadium.”

Central’s second half of the schedule, as it makes a push for a playoff spot in Region 27, is full of challenging foes.

The Crusaders are 11th in the Region 27 standings with three games to go. The top 12 make the playoffs this season.

“Honestly, going into the season I thought it might have been reversed where we had a tougher first half of the schedule, but some of the teams here in the second part of the season have really proved that they’re outstanding teams,” Meek said. “Our backs are kind of to the wall at 4-3. We want to get into the playoffs and we’ve got a tough road ahead of us. So we have to just take it one play at a time, one game at a time and hopefully we can play beyond Week 10.”

The opening kick Saturday is set for 7 p.m.