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Valley’s Moriarty on Zebras: ‘They’re better than they were last year’
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Rochester (1-0) at Tippecanoe Valley (1-0), 7 p.m.
The 37th Battle for the Bell – and the second ever contested in August – features teams coming off shutout wins last week.
Rochester led 29-0 midway through the first quarter en route to a 42-0 rout of Wabash. Valley pasted Wawasee for the fourth straight year, building a 28-0 halftime lead and winning 44-0.
The USA Today media pollsters paid attention, bumping Valley up to No. 8 in Class 3A and giving the Zebras a boost from No. 21 to No. 13 in Class 2A.
Rochester lost 39-8 to Valley last year, moved Brant Beck from safety to linebacker the following week and has posted five shutouts in nine games since.
While stopping Nate Parker proved fruitless – he had 172 yards rushing in 2022 and 184 last year against Rochester and that’s not including a 47-yard touchdown catch in 2022 and two more dazzling touchdown grabs last year – he has graduated, and Valley has found two more big-play specialists in junior Wes Parker and sophomore Owen Omondi.
“He had a lot of those players that were playing ahead of him last year, so he concentrated basically on defense,” Valley coach Stephen Moriarty said. “So to be able to get an opportunity to show his skills, I think we were finally able to let him to do that, and I thought that it paid off on Friday.”
The first word that came to Shaffer’s mind when asked about Wes Parker was telling.
“Speed,” Shaffer said. “Nice, quick back. Most of his big runs are coming from the wingback position, and he does a real nice job on their counters. It seems like he’s patient in the counter game and doesn’t try to bounce it and stays on the correct back. Just a really nice, smooth runner.”
The win over Wawasee proved a successful debut for Valley quarterback Jamison Phillips in his first start.
The reward for Phillips and the rest of the team was some 6 a.m. practices this week to beat the heat.
Meanwhile, Rochester has practiced at night to try and avoid the sultry conditions.
While Beck’s role on defense changed last year, his role on offense has changed this year as he has moved from halfback to fullback. Moriarty is wary of Beck’s quickness in hitting the hole on the trap play, which netted a 58-yard touchdown run against Wabash.
“Rochester, I think, is a better team than they were last year, and they were good last year,” Moriarty said. “Being able just to slow them down, I think, is going to be key for us. Beck hits it so fast on trap and belly. We’re going to have to really play assignment football just to slow them down and not have the big plays that they’ve had against Winamac (in the scrimmage) and Wabash. … They have a very big offensive line, and they move well.”
Shaffer said that Beck, a junior who crossed the 2,000 career rushing yard barrier last week, is learning the details of playing fullback.
“The transition didn’t really happen until after summer,” Shaffer said. “We really kind of wanted to see what we had at the fullback position and what do we have at halfback. So we felt like our numbers were and depth was better at the halfback position, so we moved Brant to fullback. And he’ll still get halfback reps, but as far as that, he’s a fullback for us that now you have to defend him to both the left and right-hand side and up the middle. So we just felt like it made him a bigger threat to the defense.
“For him, it’s just learning those nuances of when we run trap is the angles: Where are your blockers coming from? … Where’s that angle on belly or down?”
But if players like Wes Parker and Beck might have the spotlight on them for their big-play potential, both teams had success in the trenches last week.
Rochester junior defensive end Grant Clark hit Wabash quarterback Haiden McWhirt’s arm as he was about to throw last week, which led to an interception and 46-yard return for a touchdown for Zakk Parks.
Mason Hisey manned the other end spot last week while Callen Ferverda paired with senior Xavier Vance at defensive tackle.
Valley has had to replace four graduated offensive linemen, including All-State player Dalton Alber, and Moriarty said the new starters on the line are “still learning.”
Rochester is also a year older in the secondary. In last year’s Bell game, Rochester often had sophomores covering experienced seniors like Nate Parker and Wade Jones. They have also added senior Drew Bowers, a football newcomer who starts at safety.
“Their secondary is a good secondary,” Moriarty said. “They cover the deep ball well. I thought that they also flew around quite a bit. Their linebacking crew, basically both starters are returning (Beck and Ethan Bailey) from last year, so they both fly around and do a good job. Their defensive speed is what impressed me the most overall.”
Meanwhile, Valley reworked their defensive line and held Wawasee to 110 yards of offense. A bigger concern might be senior linebacker Brock Derf, according to Shaffer. Derf, Grady Moriarty and Brandon Stiles anchor the Valley defense.
“What has impressed me is that back seven,” Shaffer said of Valley’s defense. “The three linebackers in their four-deep is really, really good. Brock Derf, he got to play behind that great, great defensive line from last year, and he gets to assert himself a little bit more as a veteran at the middle backer position. We are very concerned about him, a real good linebacker. Grady Moriarty’s a really nice weak side backer for them. So it’s going to be can we block those two along with handling the front that they’ll have. So they’re going to be in a 4-3, we believe, most times. If we go two tight (ends), we believe they might go to a five-man front. They’re so good in that back seven, they can afford to have a plethora of guys rotate in on that defensive line.”
Valley’s Gage Overbey has kicked nine career field goals; no player on Rochester’s roster has ever kicked a field goal.
Rochester has not won the Bell since 2017, and they have not won the Bell at Death Valley since 2014. Valley has won 18 consecutive regular season home games. Their last loss in a regular season home game was to Peru in September 2020.
No matter where they play, Rochester has been consistent under Shaffer. They are 11-4 on the road and 12-4 at home since he became coach in 2021.
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