NEW MANCHESTER — Two teams coming off of bounce back wins are set to clash on Friday night when Catholic Central heads north to take on Oak Glen at the Bears Den.

The Golden Bears are coming off a 17-0 triumph at Buckeye Local to get to 4-1, bouncing back from their first loss of the season to undefeated Toronto the week prior.

“It was real big for us, we had a tough test with Toronto the week before, and to get back on the winning side of things and play sound football was big,” Oak Glen head coach TJ Miller said. “Our line got it started for us. That whole game, we were able to grind out the running game and get, I believe, 350-plus rushing yards, so to get our running game going the way we did was great, and it was really, really good for the boys to get back on the right side of things.”

The Crusaders, meanwhile, are coming off a 51-18 victory on the road at Belpre, putting a loss the week prior to Wheeling Central behind them in a hurry to get to 4-2.

“Whenever you face defeat, you want to get that taste of success again,” Central head coach Eric Meek said. “It was obviously nice to get on a bus and drive two hours and 10 minutes and come home with a convincing win. And we came out of there healthy and everybody got to play. It was important just to get the spirits back up because we have four really tough football games ahead of us as we close out the regular season, starting with Oak Glen.”

While Central won last year’s meeting, the teams are quite different this time around. Oak Glen, while it has a lot of the same players back, also has players — most notably tailback Logan Murray — in the line up that were injured for most of last season.

“They’re a senior-dominated team,” Meek said of the Golden Bears. “They have a few really outstanding players. Their tailback (Murray) is tremendous. They have defensive linemen that we feel are very good as well. They’ve got a lot of experience on that team and they’ve had success this year. So we’re going to have to really play a good football game.

“They have pretty much everybody back and they actually have a few ball players that didn’t play against us last year for health reasons. We’ve seen them in person three times, and we have them on film. They have a veteran football team and we just need to come out and take care of ourselves and hopefully we can come out of there with a close win.”

Murray in particular is a big challenge, as he has racked up 701 rushing yards and 151 receiving yards with eight total touchdowns, averaging 11 yards per carry and 25.2 yards per catch.

The Golden Bears as a whole have rushed for more than 1,200 yards, more than 243 per game on average. When they do throw it, sophomore Maddox Bowen has tossed seven scores.

“I think we need to try to keep them from getting big plays and get them in third and long situations and try to win the battle on first down,” Meek said. “(Murray) is obviously a great player and having a great season, we have got to be able to slow him down.”

Central is also a team that likes to run the ball, in fact they do it on nearly 85 percent of their plays, having compiled more than 1,100 yards on the ground and an average of 190 a game.

QB Matthew Sprochi has a team-high 611 yards, better than 100 per game, and five TDs, while Kyran Busic and Ryan Holzworth also have made five trips to the end zone each.

“They’re very well coached, they’ve got a great coaching staff there, and they have some real nice athletes to work with,” Miller said of Central. “Their quarterback is a real nice player.

“He does a lot for them on offense, and they have multiple backs that can beat you, so they have some nice weapons to work with on offense. On defense, they get to the ball real well. We know they’re going to be pretty sound, and they’ll be another great test for us.”

The run defense has been a strength for the Bears, but Miller knows it’s going to be tested more than ever this week.

“We’re going to just get back to fundamental football, and so far, our run defense has been pretty solid,” Miller said. “I believe we held Buckeye Local to about 15 yards rushing. We had some success in previous games. We’re very confident with our run defense, and our guys flying to the football and sticking to their reads. A big point of emphasis this week has definitely been stopping the run and containing their athletes.

“I told the players, ‘You guys are gonna have to strap it up and get 11 guys to the football.’ It’s going to start in the trenches again this week, and we’re hoping we can get some big push on the D-line and make some things happen.”

It’s a big game in the playoff race for both teams as well. Central sits No. 9 in Ohio Division VII, Region 27 with the top 12 set to make the postseason and the top eight getting at least one home game.

The Golden Bears are No. 10 in West Virginia Class AA, with the top 16 set to qualify for the playoffs and the top eight in line to host the first round.

The opening kick Friday night is set for 7 p.m.