CENTREVILLE — Practicing in the gym much of last week seemed to have an adverse effect on Centerville Academy in its opening game last Friday.

The Tigers fell to Oak Forest 14-6, and assistant coach Brian Stutzman pinned the loss on the players being out of shape.

“We weren’t blocking well, and our running backs aren’t hitting the correct holes. We gave up big plays because of defensive breakdowns in the secondary,” Stutzman said.

“We’re not doing the fundamental stuff we need to do to win. We had the opportunity to win, but beat ourselves. We didn’t get a lot of the conditioning work in because of the rain last week, and I think that resulted in our lack of good conditioning, but I’m not making any excuses.”

The heat also played a factor in his players cramping up often Friday night, Stutzman said.

“I’ve never seen us cramp up as much as we did. It was just a very hot, humid night. It was our skill players that were cramping,” Stutzman said.

But Stutzman said he expects things to be better this Friday, when Centreville hosts Parklane Academy.

“We had a good day of conditioning (Monday), and worked on some fundamental things for this week,” he said.

“Parklane has a young team compared to last year, when they had, I think, 22 seniors last year. I don’t know how many seniors they have this year, but they’re a scrappy team.”

Two quarterbacks that bring two different skill sets to the table is a major thing the Tigers will have to watch out for.

“One is a running quarterback. I guess you have to call him an option quarterback. They also have a young sophomore they’ve been rotating in between different series, and he’s more of a passing quarterback,” Stutzman said.

“They also have a good young tailback and a good receiver. They have a ton of skill people, and it’s going to be tough.

“These kids are hungry. They’ve been sitting behind their starters for a few years, and we beat them last year, so they’re going to come out mad at us.”

And the schedule doesn’t get any easier. After Parklane, the Tigers will travel to Trinity Episcopal Sept. 3.

“We’re just hoping to make it through this tough road injury free, and hopefully pick up some wins,” Stutzman said.

Kickoff at Centreville is at 7 Friday night.