Canfield Cardinals at Louisville Leopards 2015 Football Preview
Canfield Cardinals at Louisville Leopards
WHEN: Friday, August 28 at 7:30 PM
WHERE: Louisville Leopards Stadium
RADIO: None
TV: 11:00 PM on Friday on WIVM Channel 39.1, Time Warner Cable Digital 989 and Massillon Cable Channel 22 or 21.
HIGHLIGHTS: Will be available following the game late Friday night or early Saturday morning right here on louisvilleleopards.org.
SERIES
ALL-TIME SERIES: Louisville Leads the Series 3-2 after defeating Canfield in each of the past 3 seasons.
LAST MEETING: The Leopards won 24-7 at Canfield back on August 29, 2014.
View 2014 Video Highlights & Recap
LAST MEETING AT LOUISVILLE: The Leopards won 13-10 at Louisville back on September 2, 2013.
View 2013 Video Highlights & Recap
LAST CANFIELD WIN: Canfield won 7-0 in a DII Regional Championship Playoff Game on November 18, 2005.
View 2005 Video Highlights & Recap
Schedules:
| Louisville Schedule | Canfield Schedule | |||
| WK | Opponent | Result | Opponent | Result |
| 1 | Canfield | 8/28 | at Louisville | 8/28 |
| 2 | Hoover | 9/4 | Alliance | 9/4 |
| 3 | at Austintown Fitch | 9/11 | at Kenston | 9/11 |
| 4 | Salem | 9/18 | Lakeside | 9/18 |
| 5 | Carrollton | 9/25 | Struthers | 9/25 |
| 6 | at West Branch | 10/2 | at Boardman | 10/2 |
| 7 | at Minerva | 10/9 | Niles McKinley | 10/9 |
| 8 | Marlington | 10/16 | Youngstown Eaast | 10/16 |
| 9 | at Alliance | 10/23 | at Howland | 10/23 |
| 10 | at Canton South | 10/30 | at Poland Seminary | 10/30 |
PREVIEW
Believe it or not the 2015 Season is just days away! The Leopards and Cardinals renew their series with DIII, Region 7 playoff implications on the line. Can Louisville get off to another great start in hopes of a third straight run to the playoffs or will Canfield play spoiler? We will find out Friday!
LEOPARDS
Louisville brings back 27 returning lettermen from the 2014 Campaign which averaged 41 Points & 372 Yards (200 Rushing, 172 Passing) per game offensively, while surrendering an average of 15 Points & 223 Yards (120 Rushing, 94 Passing) defensively a season ago. The Leopards lost their top passer in Connor Zwick, top rusher in Walter Schrock, and leading receivers Ryan Lautner (in yards) & Kyle Woost (in receptions) all to graduation.
Louisville looks to reload with plenty of talent at the receiver position including returning starters Tyler Adams (17 Catches, 322 Yards 6 TDs) and Alec Jones (28 Catches, 388 Yards, 9 TDs). Finding these receivers will be Senior Quarterback Jake Adams (10 of 13 for 167 Yards, 4 TDs) who appears to be the frontrunner in the race to replace Zwick. He started both scrimmages with Junior Brody Hahn (16 Carries, 99 Yards, 1 TD) also taking snaps in later possessions. The Leopards return Maryland-bound Alex Hall (6’6, 266 lbs.) and Senior Terry Gooch (6’1, 282 lbs.) to the offensive line. They will look to pave the way for Timken Transfer Rahzul Young (8 Carries, 86 Yards, 2 TDs) who showed a strong ability in scrimmages to make defenders miss as well as bulldoze over would be tacklers at his runningback position.
While the Louisville offense is explosive, their biggest strength could be their defense which returns 9 starters. Defensive Lineman Tanner Brahler (22.5 Tackles, 2 Sacks, 1 FF, 1 FR), Daichi Castles (24 Tackles, 4 Sacks, 2 FF, 3 FR), and Cade Stertzbach (10.5 Tackles, 1 Sack, 2 FR) will look to continue creating havoc up front. The Leopards have an equally strong Linebacking Core that includes 2014 lead-tackler Kyle Ashcraft (56 Tackles, 1 Sack, 1 FF), 2014 leader in sacks Frankie Falcone (23.5 Tackles, 6 Sacks), and 2014 Takeaway leader Casey Nau (37.5 Tackles, 1 Sack, 2 FF, 4 FR, 1 INT). Dalton Deckerd (27 Tackles, 1 Sack) and Stephen Kerzan (38.5 Tackles, 1 FF, 1 FR, 1 INT) both return in the secondary as well. Brock Haren also had 2 interceptions on defense during the Intersquad Scrimmage and Cody Allgood intercepted a pass on the third play of the Lake scrimmage.
On Special Teams, the Leopards have brought in Boys Soccer Senior Trevor Burk to placekick. Burk is comfortable with his range inside 40 and did not miss in the scrimmage against Lake. Quarterback Jake Adams (5 Punts, 24.4 Avg., 32 Long) will also take on punting duties.
CARDINALS
The Cardinals enter the 2015 Campaign with 19 Returning Letter Winners and 12 Returning Starters (7 Offense, 5 Defense). Canfield averaged 29 points per game & 315 yards (257 Rushing, 58 Passing), while giving up 24 points per game a year ago.
Their Pro-I offense averaged 257 yards Rushing and 58 yards Passing a season ago and produced 29 
points per game. Most of that Cardinals offense came from Quarterback Aaron Jenkins (712 Yards Rushing, 469 Yards Passing, 13 Total TDs) and John French (16 Catches, 248 Yards, TDs) who were lost to graduation. The replacement for Jenkins at Quarterback is rumored to be Senior Kato Kim who was in a position battle with the versatile Junior Jake Cummings (102 Yards Passing, 120 Yards Rushing, 103 Yards Receiving, 12 Total TDs).
Senior C.J. Frost (34 Carries, 488 Yards) should see plenty of carries in Canfield’s run-heavy offense. Frost averaged 14.4 yards per carry a season ago. The Cards return four starters on the offensive line (Jaret Bunch, Matt Minenok, Jack Pallante) led by Guard Jacob Esarco (6’3, 237).
Esarco also led the team in tackles on defense in 2014 (96 Tackles, 6 for loss) and will anchor the defense at Middle Linebacker. Other key players at linebacker include Cody Holland (8 Tackles, 1 Fumble Recovery) and Andrew Hallof (28 Tackles). Strong Safety Troy Williams led the Secondary last year in stops (65 tackles) and also forced 3 fumbles. In the trenches, Defensive Lineman Bunch (25 Tackles) and Mason Giordano (29 Tackles, 2 Sacks) both return.
