The 12th-ranked Central College football teams hosts Loras today as the Dutch begin defense of last year’s conference championship.

The Duhawks are 0-2 with losses to Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Benedictine, while Central is 2-0 with wins over St. Olaf and Eau Claire. In those two victories, however, the Dutch have run 135 plays to their opponents’ 175 – a difference of 20 per game. Coach Jeff McMartin says that they need to shrink that gap considerably, and it needs to happen on both sides of the ball.

“If you have them 3rd-and-15, you need to get off the field. You can’t give up a first down. Even 3rd-and-5 or 3rd-and-7, those are downs that you have to feel like you can make a play and not be looking at three more downs again and again”, McMartin said. “And then offensively, we have to get first downs and we can’t be going three and out.”

Another big key could be getting out to an early lead. Central has outscored its first two opponents 38-14 in the first half, while the Duhawks have been outscored 50-13 in the first 30 minutes of their first two games.

Kickoff today is at 1:00 at Ron and Joyce Schipper Stadium in Pella. Trevor Castle and Don DeWaard will call the action, beginning with pregame at 12:35, on 92.1 KRLS, the free KNIA/KRLS app and CentralDutchNetwork.com.