STEUBENVILLE — Second-year coach Anthony Agresta is dealing with a good news/bad news scenario as he prepares his Steubenville Catholic Central football team for the 2020 season.

“The good news is we are ahead of last year,” said Agresta, who became the Crusader grid boss in April 2019 and completed his move from Louisiana to Steubenville just in time for the start of summer camp. “The bad news is we’re not nearly where we need to be because of the situation we’re dealing with.

“We’re definitely not where we want to be, and I doubt there’s going to be a coach who says they are. We got a late start last summer. So, compared to that, we’re in a pretty good situation.”

Agresta guided Central to a 5-5 record in 2019. The Crusaders were in the hunt for a Division VII, Region 25 playoff spot until Week 10.

Fifteen seniors departed through graduation, including running back Jeffrey Dawson, defensive back Anthony LeFever and linebacker Anthony (Junior) Simmons. Those three were first-team All-Eastern Ohio and special mention All-Ohio choices.

Other contributors gone are Luke Anderson, Seth Fitzgerald, Alex Ialenti, Jayden Keeder (a second-team All-Eastern District pick), Daniel Kissinger, Nicholas Kissinger, Ryan Manneh, Chole Maragos, Indy Marcino, Connor Mort, Matt Orsay and Anthony Sprochi.

“Are those kids replaceable in person and character? No. On the flip side, we have a lot of quality guys coming back. We have a lot of young guys who started last year as freshmen and sophomores, guys like Tate McKenna, Jerome Coniker and Andrew Dorsey who got a full year of experience as freshmen. That is good news.”

Also returning is senior quarterback Ryan Gorman. In his first season of varsity football, Gorman threw for more than 700 yards and four touchdowns. He missed the final three games with an injury.

Junior Andrew Dorsey will serve as Gorman’s primary backup, with freshman Tyler Ialenti also looking to take some snaps.

In Agresta’s run-oriented offense, Dawson compiled 863 yards and found the end zone 14 times. Keeder added another 200 yards.

Junior Tim Lamantia is the leading candidate for the featured running back spot. Senior Isiah Mullins and sophomores Dashon Seditz also are pushing for time.

Senior Jack Rook may also get some carries, along with freshman Toby Rusciano.

Dorsey is ticketed to start at one tight end position. Rook and fellow senior Vince Carapellotti, who played as a freshman, are battling for the other spot.

Other tight end candidates include junior Matt Schmiesing, sophomore Nico Petrella and freshman Michael Grimm.

Rook also could see duty as a receiver. Others looking for playing time there are seniors Ruben Hilson and Michael Sollom, juniors Primo Toriscelli and Vince Barcalow, sophomore Tomasso Toriscelli and freshmen Daniel Bolster, B.J. Fallon and Aidan Hendricks.

McKenna and Coniker started along the offensive front as freshmen. Senior Michael Tizziani has been ticketed to anchor the line from his center spot.

“We are primarily a running team, and I’m encouraged by our offensive line,” Agresta said. “We have some returners there and some very solid candidates.”

Defensively, the Crusaders will utilize a 4-3 look.

“I brought the defensive scheme with me from Louisiana,” said Agresta, who serves as the dean of students at Central. “It’s not going to change. An assistant coach with the Cleveland Browns once said, ‘Same fiddle, different fiddler.’ We’ll have the same defense, but it may look a little different.”

Candidates for playing time at defensive end are Carapellotti, Rook, Schmiesing, Petrella and Grimm. Defensive tackle spots will be manned by Tizziani, McGinnis, Lathem, Lancia, Fulton, Rao, McKenna, Lesnefsky, Rauch and Carver.

Lamantia, Blake, Coniker, Dorsey, Seditz, Mullins, Ialenti and Fallon are in Agresta’s stable of linebackers.

The secondary will consist of senior Isaac Hough, Hilson, Sollom, P. Toriscelli, Barcalow, T. Toriscelli, Bolster, Rusciano and Hendricks.

Agresta said Rook will handle the kicking chores for his Crusaders.

As he prepares for his second season, Agresta admitted to feeling “a sense of urgency.”

“I never really felt uncomfortable last year,” he said. “I guess what I felt was a sense of urgency to get the team ready after we had a little bit of a late start. I think that same sense of urgency remains with everything that is gone on.

“One positive thing is our offensive and defensive schemes are the same.

“The kids who were with us last season know what we are trying to accomplish. I feel more comfortable with the kids knowing what we are trying to do instead of trying to figure things out as we went.”

Central has 33 players (five returning starters) on its roster, with 15 having earned letters in 2019.

“There definitely are more kids interested in playing football,” Agresta said. “There was a big transition last year with the coaching change. The kids did not know me coming in. With me being in the building every day, I’ve been able to forge some relationships. The kids are feeling good about playing. In a school our size, you cannot recruit the halls well one year, then have a bad year the next. I’m encouraged that our numbers are a little more balanced by grade level this season.”

“We were top heavy with seniors last year. Now, we are a little more evenly spread out among the classes. I hope that as we move forward, we’ll have 10-12 kids per grade level. That would get us to somewhere between 40 and 50 on the roster, and that would be goal number one. Goal two would involve moving beyond that.”