EMPORIUM — Cancelations and postponements have become commonplace during the pandemic.
However, the District 9 football schedule hadn’t suffered any revocations through three weeks. Tuesday changed that, however, as two local games were waived off — but for different reasons.
Cameron County (2-1) was set for a Friday matchup with Keystone (3-0) before COVID-19 concerns within Keystone’s program wiped the game off the Red Raiders’ schedule. CC coach Ryan Neyman said his team, which was short-handed in last week’s loss to Otto-Eldred, will use the time off to get healthy.
“It’s pretty simple: You game plan for a team, you get told on a Tuesday that you don’t have that game anymore, so now the preparation stops because you don’t even know what’s going to happen tomorrow,” Neyman said.
CC won’t search for a short-notice game to replace Keystone as several Red Raiders recuperate from injuries sustained over the last couple weeks. The team was without leading receiver Dylan Baney against O-E before losing Lathan Reed and Koby Shepard during the game.
“It’s tough when you have your game plan built around them,” Neyman said. “A couple guys are going to take a week or so (to get healthy), but we anticipate getting a few back before Sheffield.”
Two more local teams were left without a Friday contest, as Elk County Catholic’s game with Port Allegany was called off by ECC due to a lack of available players.
Injuries sustained during last week’s game against Redbank Valley, athletic director Aaron Straub confirmed to The Era, prompted low roster numbers and ECC’s cancelation. The team anticipates the resumption of its season in Week 5, when the Crusaders travel to Union/AC Valley on Sept. 24.
Before beginning preparation for Sept. 24’s home game against Sheffield, CC will use its now-ample practice time to work on fundamentals and conditioning.
“We’ve hit on some fundamentals and worked on some things that we wanted to practice in camp but ran out of time,” Neyman said. “We’ll take a couple days to condition, get our bodies ready and then begin prepping for Sheffield.”
