The Cardinals were hit hard by graduation and with only one scrimmage to gather information on his opponent, Knights head coach Jim Penley was impressed nonetheless.

“They have a tremendous group of running backs led by Blake Foulk,” Penley said. “They are throwing the ball a little more than they did last year.”

While the Cardinals were hit heavily by graduation, the Knights return players at 18 out of 22 positions.

Offensively, the Knights will rely on senior tailback Benji Bauer, who led the Knights a year ago with 1,137 yards on the ground for a 6.7 yard-per-carry average, and added 13 touchdowns. Fellow senior running back Keegan Eckstrom is a threat to score every time he touches the ball, carrying 65 times for a 10.7 yard average and seven touchdowns last season.

Eisenhower will travel to Cochranton to take on the defending Region 1 champion Cardinals on Friday in both teams’ season openers. Times Observer File Photo

The Knights return junior Shawn Pascuzzi at quarterback. Pascuzzi threw for 512 yards and rushed for 330 yards last year.

He will have big targets back to throw to in 6-foot-2 senior Wyatt Lookenhouse (25 receptions, 476 yards, 19.0 average per catch and four touchdowns) and 6-foot-4 junior Kris Bunk, who has been impressive in camp and the scrimmage.

The Knights have experience up front in three-year starters: senior Mike Vanatta (5-foot-10, 240 pounds) at tackle, senior Caleb Penley (6-foot-1, 195 pounds) at guard and four-year starter Conner Younger (6-foot, 220 pounds) at center.

“Their defense is very physical and flies to the football,” Penley said of the Cardinals. “They are clearly carrying on the aggressive attitude that helped them win the region title last year.”

Defensively, the Knights have been very stingy the last three seasons only giving up 10 points per game on average to their opponent.

“Coach (Mike) Feleppa has obviously been able to reload his team with a new group of excited young men,” Penley said. “I think this will be a tremendous test for us to be able to try and run against. We must control the line of scrimmage and hopefully we can control their athletes on offense.”

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Cochranton Stadium, 105 Second St., in Cochranton.