Catasauqua’s football team continues to show that this season will be a process.

In their season opener against Mahanoy Area, the Rough Riders worked their way through a 47-34 victory, and they began to discover their endurance.

Last week at Wilson, the Roughies struggled through their share of mental and physical mistakes as well as eight penalties to overcome winless Wilson in a 34-14 victory. For Wilson, it was their 23rd consecutive loss.

Yet, Wilson was in striking range, trailing 20-6 midway through the third quarter. Catty quarterback Aiden Reilly scored on a third-yard push with over six minutes to play to give the Roughies a 27-6 advantage.

Running back Jordan Bradshaw scored on a 1-yard plunge in the fourth quarter to see the victory.

Catty raised its record to 2-0, and the Roughies will travel down Route 412 to winless Palisades (0-2) Friday.

Roughies’ head coach Joe Henrich saw the victory as another step forward.

“I thought we executed better against Wilson than in our first game,” said the first-year head coach. “We again learned how to deal with some adversity. We see that they are building confidence.

“We had some lack of focus and that led to being undisciplined. I wouldn’t say that it was a wake-up call, but there certainly were some teachable moments in regards to errors and attitude. We didn’t carry ourselves well in the first half, but I was proud of our response in the second half.”

Henrich isn’t taking Palisades’ 0-2 start lightly.

“Their record doesn’t show it, but Palisades is a solid team,” added Henrich. “They will be aggressive and physical.”

PREDICTION (Season record 2-0): The Roughies won last year’s contest, 42-7, but it was the last regular-season victory over Palisades since 2013 when they posted a 45-7 win. The Roughies downed the Pirates, 17-14 in a district playoff game in 2022 ... Catty began the 2021 season with a 4-0 record ... Reilly completed 11 of 16 passes for 185 yards with a pair of touchdowns against Wilson. Reilly also rushed for 63 yards with a score. Bradshaw rushed for a game-high 80 yards with a pair of touchdowns ... Catty’s Braden Bartholomew had nine tackles, and Chris Wellington and Taven Ying each had eight stops ... Palisades dropped a 35-14 decision to Saucon Valley last week after the Pirates opened the season with a 36-8 loss to Executive Education. Palisades’ quarterback Jack Trickel completed six of 17 passes for 114 yards with two touchdowns and four interceptions against Saucon Valley. Trickel also was the team’s leading rusher with 49 yards. Lead back John Haubert was held to 24 yards on 10 carries. Tobey Witt has 11 tackles for the Pirates. Palisades was 2-8 last season ... This tends to be a back-and blue contest between the two teams ... The Roughies seem to be ahead of the curve, while the Pirates need to sharpen their edge. Catty’s offense has been hitting on all cylinders, while its defense needs to close some gaps. However, the Roughies have responded well to Henrich and his staff ... This is sure to be a physical contest and Walter T. Rohrer Stadium with its Pirates’ ship can be a tough place to play, but the lean here is toward the Roughies ... Unless they suffer some major breakdowns or turnovers, Catty should be able to take control of the game with Reilly and Bradshaw on offense, and a group effort on defense to move to their first 3-0 start since 2021 ... Eric Snyder can stop on his way home in Easton at Jimmy’s Hot Dogs for me. I’ll take the usual three with everything ... ROUGHIES, 35-10.