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Valley gets undefeated Garrett at home; Pioneer to travel to undefeated Carroll; Culver gets rematch with undefeated Judson
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Rochester (8-2) at Eastern (Greentown) (6-4), 7 p.m.
(Winner plays Tipton-Alexandria winner in Class 2A, Sectional 36 final)
Rochester exerted their running game in a 46-0 win over Elwood last week. They ran for 440 yards on eight yards per carry, and both Kale Shotts (158) and Brant Beck (135) ran for over 100 yards.
They won despite all six of Carson Paulik’s pass attempts landing incomplete. (Paulik did complete a two-point conversion pass to Trenton Meadows, but two-point conversions do not count in a player’s statistics.) Coaches have worked with Paulik this week on his footwork in the belief that will improve his accuracy.
“So technique is the big thing,” Shaffer said. “Little tweaks in the footwork. Our passing game off play-action, … some steps were off. Carson’s balance was a little off, where his first read, he’s not seeing it as fast. So we just shored up this week his footwork, I think, to improve that. I don’t think that it was anything necessarily that Elwood did. It was more of an internal thing that we needed to correct.”
Beck also led the defense with nine tackles against Elwood. He also had two tackles for loss, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. Eleven other Zebras had at least one tackle each.
Shaffer was asked if he was pleased with how the tackles were distributed.
“I think he did well,” Shaffer said, referring to Beck. “I think we did well. We put Brant at the field side inside backer. We felt like they were a field team. They’re going to run to the field. They’re going to throw to the field. So it was set up for him to have more tackles. It was a good game plan, and I think the run defense did well.”
While Rochester shut out an Elwood team that had already been shut out six times during the regular season, Eastern figures to be a different challenge. The Comets average 29 points per game, and they have averaged 34 during their current five-game winning streak.
Sophomore quarterback Gibson Eagle commands Eastern’s spread attack, and his three top receiving targets include senior Braylen Word, junior Kaleb Hurt and sophomore Bently Hullinger. Both Hurt and Hullinger went over 100 yards receiving in a 35-7 win over Blackford last week.
“He’s in the gun,” Shaffer said of Eagle. “He’s a pocket passer pretty much. He can extend plays. He doesn’t do it very often. He’s a little shorter guy – 5-8, 175 pounds. So he’s a little bit smaller quarterback than we’ve seen with some of these throwing quarterbacks but has a really nice arm. Throws the deep ball really well. Has a very strong arm with accuracy. His balls are on the receivers in a hurry. When he makes his read, he really rares back and throws the ball hard. … There will be four wide receivers, five wide receivers, some pro sets. So you will see as many formations as we’ve seen all year.”
Meanwhile, junior running back Isaiah Pickett has 1,189 yards for the season, and he has seven 100-yard rushing games in his last nine. That included 105 against Blackford last week.
“He’s sidecar and he’s pistol,” Shaffer said when asked where Pickett will line up in relation to Eagle. “He’ll do both. Typical stuff out of a shotgun team – inside zone, outside zone. On inside zone read, the quarterback will run the ball some, and they do run a few counter plays where they do like to kick guys out.”
Defensively, Eastern allows 21 points per game, but that number has been 10 per game during their winning streak. Sophomore linebacker Abe Edwards, son of coach Josh Edwards, leads the team with 154 tackles. No other Eastern player has half as many.
“He’s pretty much what makes them go around,” Shaffer said.
Neither Rochester nor Eastern has a win over a team with a winning record. However, Rochester has six wins over non-Class 1A teams while Eastern’s only win over a non-Class 1A team was the Blackford win last week.
“I see us as being a team that’s going to have to be physical to win,” Shaffer said. “They have a finesse offense. They’re not necessarily right at you. We feel like they’re a finesse offense. We feel like we’re a physical defense with guys that can run around. I think for us, we need to be patient on defense. They have to try to beat us with, to me, three yards, five yards, seven yards here. And we cannot let them have one-play drives or big, long scoring plays. For us, our reaction to them getting a 7-yard gain has to be, ‘OK, we can’t let them have much more after that.’ We just got to focus on each play. … It may be a seven-play drive, but they may lose their patience on offense with trying to do it a few yards at a time.
“Offensively, we just feel like we have to punch them in the mouth every play. And that’s just what we are.”
Shaffer said that Zakk Parks, who played sparingly against Elwood due to a lingering injury, has practiced this week and is “ready to roll.” Shaffer also said that Callen Ferverda’s status depends on the results of an MRI on his knee. If he can’t go, Matt Crossland will again play right guard with Liam Pinder slotting in at right tackle.
Rochester and Eastern will be meeting for the first time since a 46-14 win at Eastern in a 1997 sectional quarterfinal.
Rochester is 1-12 in their last 13 sectional semifinal games dating back to 2003.
If Rochester wins, they will host the sectional final against either Tipton or Alexandria.
Garrett (10-0) at Tippecanoe Valley (7-3), 7:30 p.m.
(Winner plays Fairfield-West Noble winner in Class 3A, Sectional 26 final)
Valley was already leading Woodlan 21-12 at halftime when they scored 23 unanswered points to start the third quarter. They cruised to a 51-25 win.
Both Wes Parker (154) and Brock Derf (132) had over 100 yards rushing, and Valley rushed for 410 yards as a team.
“I felt last week that’s probably the best we had played in a long time getting off the ball,” Valley coach Stephen Moriarty said. “I thought we sustained our blocks well, and I thought the backs read (them). ... I think they made great cuts being able to cut off the blockers, and I thought they did a good job of sustaining blocks, so I was pleased.”
Valley allowed 241 yards on the ground to Woodlan and their power-T, but outside linebacker Grady Moriarty starred with 13 tackles, and Derf added 12. Brandon Stiles added six tackles from the other outside linebacker spot.
Now they will face No. 4 Garrett and an offense that had three different 100-yard rushers in a 50-26 win over Lakeland last week. Senior Camden Ruble had 106 yards rushing, speedy sophomore Alex Guzman had 103, and senior quarterback Calder Hefty had 100.
Last year, Garrett’s season-high in points in a game was 35. This year, they are averaging 38 points per game. They already have more wins this season than the previous two seasons combined.
Coach Moriarty said Ruble’s running style is similar to Derf’s and that Guzman is a wingback who seeks out open running lanes. He also said that Hefty likes to pass after faking handoffs to any of the backs.
“He’s their main fullback, and he runs hard,” Moriarty said of Ruble. “He reminds me of Brock. He just lowers his head and gets what he can. They do a very good job of running out their fakes, so even when they don’t have the ball, you’re thinking they do, and you have to account for all three of them at the same time because they run such good fakes. And they do run play-action a lot off those fakes which can sometimes put you in a bind.”
This is the second undefeated regular season for coach Chris DePew, who also guided East Noble to such an accomplishment in 2003. That matches the two undefeated regular seasons Moriarty has had at Valley in 2021 and 2023.
Highlights of Garrett’s season included handing Adams Central their lone loss in Week 1 and handing West Noble their lone loss in Week 6.
But the last time they faced Valley, they lost 22-8 in a sectional quarterfinal in 2021 at Garrett.
Ruble and Guzman also star on defense along with senior linebacker Nate Wells and junior defensive end Chase Egly, but a key might be blocking disruptive defensive tackle Aiden Hunt.
“Their defense, they fly around,” Moriarty said. “Number 62 (Hunt), he’s a really good guard, and he’s also a great tackle. He plays very, very hard. I think what impressed us the most is the way that their d-line moved. And they’re taught correctly. They wrong-arm things. They like to spill things to the outside in a very traditional 4-3. And they’re going to master it, and they’ll be good at it.”
Game time was originally listed as 7 p.m. but later moved back to 7:30 p.m.
If Valley wins, they will play either Fairifield or West Noble on the road in the sectional final. Valley has not reached a sectional final since 1993.
Pioneer (7-3) at Carroll (Flora) (10-0), 7 p.m.
(Winner plays the Tri-County-Taylor winner in the Class 1A, Sectional 42 final)
Micah Rans starred for No. 11 Pioneer in a 20-7 win over Caston in last week’s quarterfinal, rushing for 200 yards and all three Panther touchdowns.
A key sequence might have occurred late in the first half: A Philip McFatridge interception set up one touchdown, and on the next Caston possession, a punt got inadvertently deflected at the line, setting up Pioneer inside the Caston 20.
Rans later ran for 19 yards down to the 1-yard-line on fourth-and-14. He scored on the next play on the final play of the half and later added a two-point conversion pass to Shiloh Rine to give Pioneer a 20-0 lead.
“The last couple minutes of the first half turned out to be absolutely huge,” Berry said. “We have a mistake on our end where we have a motion situation where a guy doesn’t go in motion, and we’re trying to figure that out, and in the meantime, we fumble, and on the very next play, Philip McFatridge intercepts the football to get us the ball back.
“So that little sequence was huge because it was only 6-0 at that point. Then we go down and score – two-possession game. Then I believe the (punt) hit the back of a Caston player. So I do not think we actually blocked it. That turned out to be huge as well.”
Defensively, Pioneer yielded 141 yards rushing, but it took Caston 42 carries to get that yardage. Caston had 79 yards passing, but 56 of those yards came on one pass play from Jabez Yarber to Logan Mollenkopf.
“Our defense did a tremendous job, held a much improved Caston offense in check,” Berry said. “We had one busted coverage where they got a huge 56-yard pass play to set up their score, but overall, I thought our defense did a great job of getting Caston off the field and to give our offense more opportunities.”
Pioneer will now take on undefeated and third-ranked Carroll, who is seeking their fourth straight sectional title. Carroll handed Frontier their first loss 49-21 to Chalmers last week in their quarterfinal. Frontier had given up only 42 points in their previous seven games combined.
Carroll relies on the running back tandem of Emery Deaton and Aiden Wiles.
“I’d say Wiles, he’s more their north-south runner,” Berry said. “He’s not the biggest running back, but he’s shifty, he hits the hole, and he fights for yards where Deaton’s more trying to get to the outside.”
Meanwhile, quarterback Luke Tanner has two receiving weapons in Cayson Fellows and Eli Falkenberg.
Indiana Football Hall of Famer John Hendryx, who was the Winamac head coach in 2020-21, is Carroll’s offensive coordinator.
“First, we’re going to have a great pass rush,” Berry said. “I would say a great pass rush is the best pass defense, and then our linebackers are going to have to have a great week in coverage.”
Defensively, Carroll notched four shutouts during the regular season, and they have 15 shutouts since Blake Betzner became Carroll coach in 2021. Betzner, a former North Miami athletic director, is Hendryx’s son-in-law.
“I believe Coach calls the defense and lets his father-in-law call the offense,” Berry said. “But you can tell they pride themselves in stopping the other team’s best stuff. They have great size upfront. They do a great job of taking on the blockers to let their inside linebackers run free. They do a great job of reading their keys. You’ll see on film where all of a sudden, you’ll see just a flash shoot through the line and drop the other team for a loss, and generally, that’s their inside linebackers. So I’d say those two guys in the middle are definitely the strength of their defense.”
Berry said he thought his team “took a little step back” in regards to their offensive line play, but he also credited Caston’s defense.
“But over the course of the year, I feel like our offensive line has been a strength of ours as a whole team,” Berry said. “So an emphasis of pad level this week. If we try to be on the same level as their big d-linemen, it’s going to be a long night. We’re not going to be able to move them around. So staying low, firing out low and having great double teams is going to be a huge emphasis for us this week from an offensive line standpoint.”
Pioneer has not lost to Carroll since a 35-21 loss in the 1996 sectional quarterfinals. They knocked Carroll out of the 1997, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017 and 2018 sectionals, and the wins in 1997, 2017 and 2018 spurred the Panthers onto state titles.
If Pioneer wins, they will host either Tri-County or Taylor in the sectional final.
North Judson (10-0) at Culver (2-8), 7:30 p.m.
(Winner plays North Newton-LaVille winner in Class 1A, Sectional 41 final)
Culver quarterback Jonas McCuen accounted for five touchdowns – four passing and one rushing – in a 44-15 win over South Central in the quarterfinals last week.
That marked the fourth straight year Culver has knocked South Central out of the sectional.
Many of McCuen’s big pass plays were on crossing and post routes in which receivers like David Hite and Caleb McCuen ran free down the middle of the field.
“Just the way they were playing with two high safeties, they were giving us the middle of the field,” Culver coach Austin Foust explained. “We’ve been able to do some nice things and take advantage of that with some other teams and what they do, and then we’ve got two good receivers in David and Caleb that can understand spatial awareness and where guys are, and we’ve got somebody in Jonas McCuen who has the arm talent to be able to look somebody off and make those reads.”
Culver also benefited from two key special teams plays in the second quarter – Tony Sommers’ 85-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and Hite recovering a surprise onside kick immediately thereafter. That led to 14 Culver points that pushed the gap from 16-8 to 30-8.
Foust credited assistant coach Kyle Klinge for setting up Sommers’ kickoff return.
“We wanted to do a sideline return based on how they did it, and that was probably the play of the game,” Foust said. “16-8, you look at our kids, and they almost had that moment of a here-we-go-again thing, and we blocked it well. The kicker, he’s got a really nice boot. He almost outkicked his coverage and allowed our guys to get a hat on a hat. Tony Sommers has the speed and vision, and he put it right up the sideline for an 85-yard touchdown, and you could see based on how much we celebrated in the end zone, that was that sigh of relief that we needed. … Then on the very next play, we get a two-point conversion. And then David Hite recovers an onside kick. He kind of pulls the (former Indianapolis Colt punter) Pat McAfee kick-it-to-yourself-right-in-front-of-you and recover it at 11 yards, and we were able to put the ball in on a touchdown pass to him as well. So it went from 24-8 with us kicking off to 30-8 right before the half, which was huge.”
Culver will try to subdue a North Judson offense that beat South Newton 71-20 last week in their quarterfinal and Culver 70-0 on Sept. 20 in their regular season meeting.
Quarterback Jesiah McDaniel presides over an option attack with Kole Wilcox and Brock Benson as his top running back threats.
“Brock Benson’s a little more power and will run it at right at you,” Foust said. “He’s not going to really make you miss; he’s just going to run through you. He’s for the most part an A-to-B-gap-type runner, so he’s coming downhill right at you. Kole Wilcox, he’s a little bit different. He’s thunder and lightning combined. He has the ability to run over you, and he’s really hard to bring down, but then he also too has the speed to outrun you. It’s really tough to prepare for because it’s not one of those things where I don’t think you can say, ‘We can take away both.’ It’s kind of like, OK, who’s the guy that we’re going to try and make beat us, and then who’s the guy, OK, can we stop him in doing that too as well? And their quarterback, the McDaniel kid, is athletic as well, and he can take it to the house on any play.”
North Judson has won the last 11 meetings between the teams. Culver’s last win over the Blue Jays came on Aug. 18, 2017.
If Culver wins, they will play North Newton or LaVille on the road in the sectional final.
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