Salmen’s Spartans head to Tad Gormley Stadium to take on the Holy Cross Tigers in a District 9-4A game tonight that begins at 7:30.

Salmen (3-2) enters the game after winning its district opener, 32-15, over Franklinton. Holy Cross (1-4) fell to Riverdale 31-14.

The Tigers won last year’s game, 31-23.

Salmen defenders, including Claude Schick (54), converge on a Sarah T. Reed ball carrier during a game held earlier this season at Salmen. (File Photo by James Elorriaga)

Salmen will be facing a club that has just five returning starters (four defense; one offense) from last year’s 4A quarterfinal team.

Holy Cross coach Barry Wilson talked about the upcoming match up.

“It’s a big game,” Wilson said. “Salmen’s a good team. We’re a real young football team. We’ve got a lot of young kids and we’re rebuilding.”

Salmen runs a spread offense with quarterback Julien Troullier leading the charge. Last week, he accounted for five touchdowns, three on the ground and two through the air. Four of the scores came in the second half.

His first one came on a 12-yard pass to wide receiver George Williams in the second quarter. His second one came on a four-yard TD run in the third period. Troullier also had a 7-yard run in third quarter. The final score he helped with was a 27-yard pass to senior wide receiver Isiah Tate.

The Spartans’ offense will be facing a Holy Cross defense that bases out of the 4-3, but will vary it depending on the situation. The unit has four returning starters, all seniors, including left end Cody DeCuir, safeties Blake Toups and Vick Corso along with cornerback Jeremy Gray.

Coach Wilson said his standout players are DeCuir, Corso and senior outside linebacker Bradley Brunet.

Offensively, Holy Cross runs a spread. The Tigers have just one retuning starter on this side of the ball in left tackle Colin Kitto.

The Tigers will rotate quarterbacks senior Bryce Ellzey and sophomore Ryan Deemes.

This season, Ellzey has thrown for 353 yards and three touchdowns with one interception, while Deemes has 285 passing yards to go with a pair of scores.

When the two look to throw, their main targets are Toups and senior Cameron Merrill

The running back is junior Devin Smith.

Toups leads the Tigers with 15 receptions and three touchdowns. His 216-receiving yards put him second to Merrill, who has 245. Merrill has 10 catches, two for TDs.

The main running backs are junior Devin Smith and sophomore Brenton Bowman.

Smith tops Holy Cross with 145 yards rushing and he has a touchdown. Bowman has gone for 139 yards on 22 carries and a score. Toups has seen time at running back and has made the most of his opportunity. He’s gained 107 yards on seven carries (32.5 yards a tote) with a TD.

Defensively, Salmen runs a 3-3 defense. Last week, the unit recovered a fumble that set up a touchdown by Troullier.