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- Val T.
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
Valley to host Plymouth; Caston to play Whitko for first time since 1978; Culver begins series vs. C. Noble; NM seeks more rushing success vs. Northfield; Pioneer seeks 4th straight win over Lewis Cass; Winamac hopes to gain home momentum vs. W. Central
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Southwood at Rochester, 7 p.m.
The difference in coaching experience at Barnhart Field Friday is stark.
Southwood coach Larry "Bud" Wright is coaching in his 684th career game, and Rochester's Isaac Shaffer is coaching in his first.
Wright, 85, is taking over Southwood after a year as an assistant at North Miami. Prior to that, he won nine state titles in 59 years at Sheridan.
Wright is also Southwood's fourth coach in four years.
Part of his job may revolve around waking up Southwood's offense. They have not averaged more than 17 points a game at any time over the last three consecutive losing seasons. And against Rochester the last three years, they have been outscored 112-0.
Shaffer was the Zebra defensive coordinator the last three years that stifled Southwood, and he was bumped up to head coach following the resignation of his father Ron.
He is 57 years the junior of Wright, and Shaffer points out that Wright already had 30 years of coaching experience on the day he was born.
While Wright might be a familiar figure in Indiana high school football, his team is not. Southwood graduated their top four rushers from last year's 3-7 team, and Shaffer said he has looked at everything from last week's scrimmage film to Sheridan game film dating back to 2022 to try and grasp what Wright might do.
Shaffer praised Southwood quarterback Eli Shellhamer, saying he "gets everybody organized."
"So they're running more of an I-formation, what we would call a red-and-blue look where they have a fullback and a wing, but they're already motioning that guy, or he's what we would call pre-motion into the backfield, lined up at fullback depth but offset behind the tackle. We're reading things based off their formation, so it's a lot of formations we're throwing at our guys this week.
"We don't know what plays they're going to run out of these formations necessarily. We've had a few we've seen in the scrimmage film. It's more of can you read your keys, and if you read those, you're going to end up in the right spot to make a play."
Shaffer calls junior Tripper Schnepp Southwood's best player. He figures to be a primary ball carrier at fullback as well as a defensive end.
Shaffer said Wright's defensive scheme is simple but effective with no deep safety.
"I'm assuming it's cover zero," Shaffer said. "That's what coach Wright has done for years. Straight man to man. It will kind of look like a 4-4 look, but I guarantee every person, if it's a pass, they've got somebody that they're locked in and reading.... Bud does it, and he does it well.... For us, we block rules. So we're not necessarily worried about what's in front of us. We just stick to our rules and follow them, and we'll be just fine."
Plymouth at Tippecanoe Valley, 7 p.m.
Other than Owen Omondi, Valley has a new crew of running backs this year, and coach Stephen Moriarty liked what he saw from that group in the scrimmage at Fairfield last week.
"I thought they did a good job of being patient and waiting for things to develop, and then they ran hard," Moriarty said. "They refused to go down, and because there's going to be multiple different ball carriers, I think that pushes each other to get better to get a spot on the roster and get more carries. So I was very pleased to see the way that they ran the ball against Fairfield."
Valley is hosting a Plymouth team that has been through coaching upheaval since the end of last season. The school board fired Adam Handley after four seasons in December and later hired former Rochester coach Ron Shaffer a month later. But in May, Shaffer stepped down before ever coaching in a game, and defensive coordinator Brent Corbett was hired as the interim head coach for this season.
Corbett relies on a 3-4 scheme on defense. On offense, Plymouth is expected to give Ryder Goodman his first career start at quarterback. Moriarty praised Goodman for his accuracy and ability to throw the deep ball.
He also noticed another area of Plymouth's offense in their scrimmage against Maconaquah last week.
"It's pretty similar," Moriarty said of Plymouth's offensive and defensive systems. "I still think they have the same offensive and defensive coordinators is the way I understand it. Defensively, it's the same, and offensively, for the most part, it's the same. They looked good on film. They have a lot of returning offensive linemen, and for as big as they are, they move well."
Caston at Whitko, 7 p.m.
Caston’s first two games are against Whitko and North White. Those teams went a combined 3-17 last season.
This is the teams’ first meeting since Whitko beat Caston 28-0 on Aug. 25, 1978.
Caston has lost its season opener each of the last four years.
Whitko is 3-37 over the last five years.
Central Noble at Culver, 7:30 p.m.
This is the first ever meeting between the schools.
Central Noble averaged just 1.5 yards per carry as a team last year, but they passed for over 2,000 yards behind returning quarterback Treyton Fletcher.
This is Gabe Stuck’s coaching debut at Central Noble. The Cougars went a combined 1-19 the last two seasons.
Culver averaged 12 points per game last year. Central Noble allowed 48.7 points per game.
Northfield at North Miami, 7 p.m.
North Miami has won the last three meetings between the teams by a combined score of 126-28. North Miami also knocked Northfield out of last year’s sectional.
North Miami is 5-4 in season openers in the Joe Grant era.
North Miami had 774 yards rushing and scored 91 points in two games against Northfield last year.
Briggs Baker is the leading returning rusher for Northfield. He ran for 368 yards last year.
Pioneer at Lewis Cass, 7 p.m.
Pioneer is seeking to beat Lewis Cass for the fourth straight year.
This marks the 19th time in the last 20 seasons that Pioneer has opened the season with Lewis Cass. The only time in the last 20 years that Pioneer did not open the season with Lewis Cass was the COVID-marred season of 2021, when the Panthers opened with Indianapolis Scecina.
Colton Popejoy is the first freshman to start the season opener at quarterback for the Panthers since Caden Hill led Pioneer to a 44-0 win over Lewis Cass in 2020.
Lewis Cass went 8-4 last year. The eight wins were their most in a season since 2019.
West Central at Winamac, 7 p.m.
These teams have split their last four meetings. Prior to that, Winamac beat West Central 12 times in a row.
From 2015-21, West Central had seven straight losing seasons. Since 2022, they have had four straight winning seasons.
Winamac has lost seven straight home games. They have not won a home game since a 50-12 win over South Central (Union Mills) in 2024.
Winamac will try to slow down the running tandem of Connor Huber and Drea Villareal. They combined for 268 yards rushing in a 24-8 win over Winamac last year, and they are both back this year.
