The NKyTribune will be offering focused coverage of NKY high school football throughout the season, thanks to support from St. Elizabeth Healthcare Sports Medicine. See all our pre-season features on each of NKY’s 21 high school football teams and follow our coverage, including roundups each week at Northern Kentucky High School Football.
By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
A three-game winning streak is something the seniors on the Bishop Brossart football team have never experienced until this year, and they want to keep the good times going. If the Mustangs win their next game against Trimble County on Friday, they’ll have plenty to celebrate at the Homecoming Dance on Saturday night.
“I’ve never been on a winning team here at Brossart, but it feels good to come out my senior year and help make it happen,” said quarterback Craig Pfefferman. “We’ve got a very good team and I feel like we can go a long way.”
After finishing the last three seasons with records of 1-9, 3-7 and 1-10, the Brossart program has turned a corner with its 3-0 start this year under second-year head coach Paul Wiggins and his staff.
At the team’s post-season banquet last year, Wiggins gave the returning players t-shirts that had “Expect More” printed on them. With the idea in mind, the players put in the work they needed during the off-season to become a more competitive team.
“I think everybody was confident that we were going to do better but at the same time a little unsure,” said senior Frank Cetrulo. “I think now we’re realizing our full potential.”
The Mustangs had to come from behind to win their last two games. The defense made a goal line stand late in the fourth quarter to seal a 26-22 win over Aiken (Ohio) two weeks ago. Last Saturday, Cetrulo kicked a 35-year field goal with less than four minutes left on the clock to give his team a 24-21 win at Bellevue.
Cetrulo said Brossart had never beaten Bellevue before, so that win boosted the Mustangs’ confidence to a new level.
“I think beating Bellevue really showed that we can keep this going,” Cetrulo said. “We showed up and played a great game against them and showed we’re as good as we look.”
In addition to kicking the game-winning field goal, Cetrulo rushed for 58 yards on 15 carries, caught five passes for 62 yards and kicked three extra-points in Saturday’s win. Pfefferman also had a big game. He scored all three of the Mustangs’ touchdowns and completed 11 of 20 passes for 208 yards.
“There was just something in the air and I knew we were going to win,” Pfefferman said. “When we got down 14-0, I knew we weren’t done. The second half was completely ours.”
Pfefferman was a wide receiver for the Mustangs the last two seasons. He won the starting quarterback position in pre-season practice. That was one of the few positions the coaching staff needed to fill in the lineup since most of the starters on last year’s 1-9 team were underclassmen.
The other reason behind the team’s 3-0 start is that the players got to work together throughout the off-season. Last year, the program’s future was in limbo until Wiggins was appointed head coach in late July.
“This year, we had the whole team showing up for weight lifting and running (in the off-season),” Cetrulo said. “We knew we were bigger and stronger and more conditioned than last year because we got to start at the beginning of the summer instead of waiting to see if we were even going to have a team.”
Coach Wiggins gives the seniors on this year’s roster much of the credit for the Mustangs’ return to respectability with their 3-0 start this season.
“We’ve got a lot of seniors who were sick of moral victories and they stepped up,” Wiggins said. “I’m pleased with them. I also reminded them that these are non-district games that we’ve won so we’ve got to keep the momentum going.”
Brossart moved back to Class 1A this season and will play its first district game against Nicholas County on Sept. 25. The Mustangs other three district games are against Bracken County (Oct. 9), Paris (Oct. 16) and Berea (Oct. 23).