The Archbishop Hannan Hawks and the Northlake Christian School Wolverines meet tonight to open the season with kickoff set for 7 p.m. at William Pitcher Junior High. The Lake 94.7 will broadcast the game with Jay Jay Richardson handling the play-by-play duties.

Hannan finished 4-5 last year winning its last two games of the season under head coach George Templet who enters his third season, while NCS opens under first-year head coach Tony Agresta. Northlake Christian moved up to Class 2A this year and will compete in District 8-2A.

Tonight’s Hannan-Northlake Christian encounter could shape up as a battle centered around two talented and gifted quarterbacks in the Hawks’ senior signal caller Andrew Arceneaux and the Wolverines’ sophomore Timmy Broussard.

Northlake Christian School wide receiver Michael Peck makes a reception in the scrimmage against Ascension Catholic. NCS hosts Archbishop Hannan in the season opener tonight at 7. (File Photo by Mike McCall)

Coach Agresta said there is a big spirit of anticipation around the program as his players look to another new season with all kinds of new opportunities.

Agresta described Arceneaux as a fine player and talented athlete.

“We will do our best to contain him. Hannan throws the ball quite a bit. Our players will have to realize that they are going to complete passes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are not executing defensively,” Agresta said.

Agresta said Hannan has several receivers that can make plays.

“We will have to account for their receivers as well as their quarterback. He seems to spread the ball out and appears to make offensive calls at the line of scrimmage.

He can make plays in the pocket as well as when he scrambles to the outside,” Agresta added.

Agresta said his defense would also have to account for the Hawks’ junior fullback Ryan Deffes (5-11, 205).

“We can’t afford to focus just on Arceneaux and their passing game. Their fullback (Deffes) is a strong player. We will have to play disciplined football and not put the ball on the ground. We also have to keep the penalties to a minimum,” Agresta added.

Coach Templet, like coach Agresta, said his defensive game plan is to stop the opposing quarterback (Broussard).

“He is the leader of their offense and he is what makes them go. We have to be concerned because he has the ball in his hands every play. We watched him on film from their scrimmage (Ascension Catholic) and you can see he is dangerous. Our defensive game plan is centered around stopping him,” Templet said.

Templet said if his defense is going to be successful they have to put Broussard under pressure to have him make quick decisions.

Meanwhile, Agresta said he and his coaching staff are looking for a good, sound team effort.

The first-year head coach said the Wolverines’ new look coaching staff coupled with some original coaches like Mark Robert, who started the program, have bonded and molded well together and are doing an outstanding job.

In last week’s jamboree victory over Thomas Jefferson, Broussard went 2-3 for 67 yards including a 47-yard TD toss to Michael Peck.

The Wolverines rushed for 190 yards led by Broussard with 64 yards on five carries including two touchdowns covering 8 and 12 yards. Junior Derek Williams carried five times for 61 yards.

Agresta said he was very pleased with the way his club ran the football.

NCS freshman strong safety Austin Cherry played a good defensive game in the secondary and also saw some time as the back up quarterback.

Hannan didn’t participate in a jamboree last week and had eight players out at various times with the flu.

“We won’t know how not playing in a jamboree will affect us until we get into the game. Not playing last week, we took it as an opportunity to rest up and get healthy.

We feel like we are a healthy football team going into the opener,” Templet said.

Hannan used the off-week as a fine-tuning process implementing some offensive and defensive changes.

“We are always striving to get better at everything we do. One of the things we continue to focus on is our tackling. We feel our passing and catching is going well along with our offensive line blocking,” Templet added.

Templet said his coaching staff made some adjustments following their scrimmage.

“We moved some people around on the offensive line and we feel we have become a better team with those adjustments.”

Templet said based on proximity and the likelihood his team may end up in the same district with NCS, it has the potential of becoming an intense rivalry.

“There are some former Hannan players that now attend Northlake. Our players know their players off the field. I think it will be a very good atmosphere especially to kick off the season,” Templet said.