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Fort Frye football team camp underway; players prepping for season

BEVERLY – Fort Frye High posted a 10-0 undefeated regular season on the gridiron last season.

So, what will the Cadets football team do for an encore this fall?

How ’bout, let’s do it again.

“Honestly, I don’t feel like we have pressure on us,” said FFHS senior running back Casey Lewis before the start of the team’s second contact day Tuesday night. “I feel like we have something to prove, to see if we can go 10-0 back-to-back.

“We’re shooting high this year and hopefully we can make it.”

Fort’s 6-foot-3, 280-pound senior right tackle Owen Matheny agreed and added, “We’re going to take it game by game and see what happens.”

After the top-seeded Cadets achieved their first perfect regular season in more than 40 years last season, they bowed out 13-0 to the eighth-seeded Fredericktown Freddies in an Ohio Division VI, Region 21 playoff game in Beverly.

So, it stands to reason that another Fort goal this upcoming football campaign would be a deeper postseason run.

“They have their goals and they know what they are,” said ninth-year FFHS head coach Eric Huck. “They definitely have some high expectations.

“We have about 15 seniors on the team. It’s a good group of seniors and a good group of younger players are coming up under them. They’re definitely excited and looking forward to accomplishing some stuff. They’re very excited about what they can do.”

Huck said that Fort Frye graduated 10 seniors from the 2015 team.

“About seven or eight of them played pretty consistently,” the Cadet boss added.

Huck paused.

“I don’t have exact numbers, yet, but I think we have around 42 or 43 out for the team this year,” he continued. “Last year, we had 48 on the roster.”

Along with 15 returning seniors, including fullback Lewis, OT Matheny, running back Clay Baker, left tackle Jordan Baker, wide receiver Garrett Lochary, RB Brady Carpenter, kicker Leithon Stewart, long snapper Colton Sampson, and lineman Levi Bickford to name but a few, the Fort also has its starting signal caller back in sophomore Tate Engle.

Engle, junior Tyler Bradford, and junior offensive guard Logan Isner were not present on Monday’s opening contact day as they were competing for the Beverly/Lowell Post 389/750 American Legion baseball team in the District 11, Region 8 tournament at Don Coss Field in Cambridge.

“As it looks right now, every spot is available for whoever wants its,” Huck said. “It’s definitely going to be a completely different team . We have some of the same pieces but it’s still going to be a different team and a different look to us.”

Fort is scheduled to play in a couple of 7-on-7 scrimmages next week against Morgan and South. The Cadets will then play those same two schools in exhibition games in August. Fort Frye is scheduled to be on the road for its first two games of the season, at Belpre Aug. 26. and at Newcomerstown Sept. 2. Kickoff times for all regular season games this year will be 7 p.m.

The Cadets will then be home for their next four opponents.

“It’s a tough schedule all the way through,” Huck said. “It’s the exact same schedule as last year. Only this year we’ll be playing six home games.”

Added the 5-11, 175-pound Lewis, “That’s nice, because we won’t have to travel a lot.”

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