8-1 Tampa Catholic will travel to 6-3 Jesuit tonight for the 47th meeting between the two private school rivals. Jesuit holds a 35-11 all time series advantage having won the last 13 straight meetings. Tampa Catholic’s last win was in 1999 by the score of 26-7.  The Crusaders are hoping they change history tonight and win this heated rivalry. Lets see if there is an advantage in this contest.

QB		Jesuit QB, Vincent Testaverde has been playing very well in the recent Jesuit wins.  However, Tampa Catholic QB Kyle Ploucher has been excellent this year. Ploucher has completed 63% of his passes and has thrown 18 TDs passes with only 2 interceptions the last 5 games.
RB		Jesuit RB, Kevin Newman has the potential to be special.  Natural RB with a strong lower body and physical between the tackles.  He is durable, fast and difficult to bring down.  If he gets going behind a big and athletic Jesuit offensive line, the Tigers could make this a long night for the Crusader defense.
OL		Jesuit is averaging 24 points per game this season.  But, 32 point average per game the last 5 games.  The Tigers are punishing teams with an effective run game and timely passing game.  A big part of their mid season success is the offensive line dominating upfront.  The big boys are opening up holes for the running backs to scamper through and passing lanes for the QB to hit the receivers.
WR		Tampa Catholic has 1168 receiving yards tied up between three receivers.  The Go To guy, Justin Motlow is a playmaker by nature; 44 catches, 689 yards and 7 TD. Isaiah Osby 21 catches, 335 receiving yards and 2 TDs. Tre Watson, 9 catches, 144 receiving yards and 1 receiving TD. Crusaders have at least 3 receivers that can do damage.
DL		Making the job easy for the linebackers, is 75% of the job for a defensive lineman. The Tiger font 3 (4) have done a good job with shooting gaps and building a wall, making it tough for opponents to run the ball.  As good as TC has been passing the ball, their run game as been just as effective and Jesuit has the ability to slow down their run game with the players they have up front on defense.
LB		It would be tough to find a more productive and aggressive linebacker group than the fellas at Tampa Catholic. The rotation of Watson, Endris, Koontz, Harrell, Rios and Towsend.  The group as a whole is very athletic, disciplined and fast.  They swarm to the football vs. the run and drop well into pass coverage.  Good group here.
DB		The Tampa Catholic secondary does not get much attention, but this group can cover and make plays. Willie Conley leads the secondary in the major statistical categories.  Expect TC to be very aggressive on passing downs vs. Jesuit tonight and the secondary to be very active in run support.
SP		Malik Davis and Kevin Newman provide two dynamic retuners for Jesuit. TC may have a slight advantage when punting the ball as Justin Motlow has a 40 yards average. However, if the game turns into a defensive battle or the game is close down the wire, Rhett Waldron, Jesuit K has the leg to connect from 40 yards out (or deeper).