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Valley to head to Jimtown; Culver to host Caston; Pioneer seeks to stay unbeaten in Hoosier North at South Central; Winamac heading to NM
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Peru (2-3, 2-2 Three Rivers Conference) at Rochester (4-1, 4-0), 7 p.m.
The Rochester offensive line improved as the game progressed in their 50-22 win over Lewis Cass last week, according to coach Ron Shaffer.
He said he gave the line a “C” for their first-half performance and a “B+” for the second half. Rochester finished with 394 yards of total offense. The 50 points were a season high, and it increased their season average to 38.
Shaffer said he pared down the playbook in the second half, focusing a lot on their Trojan sweep play. Brant Beck was especially productive on this play and finished with 230 yards rushing and three touchdowns.
“Probably the biggest one was our belly sweep play that we like to run,” Shaffer said. “They were reading really well. We weren’t blocking it very well. So it was just something we went away from. We didn’t run belly very well in the first half. We went back to it later in the game, but those two plays, we just couldn’t really get going very well. And trap also in the first half. We did make an adjustment at halftime on trap to be able to run it in the second half and a little bit of an adjustment on belly to be able to run it, but we just didn’t feel like we wanted to go back to our belly sweep play. So those were about three plays we just kind of nixed for the second half for the most part.”
Meanwhile, the defense forced four turnovers – an interception and three fumbles. Clarence Garrett’s interception in the third quarter came in a 14-14 tie and led to the go-ahead touchdown. Drew Bowers, Brant Beck and Mason Hisey added fumble recoveries.
“Every day we do tackling stations,” Shaffer said. “We have a station for strip drill – to strip the ball, recover the ball. And we preach that. So, yeah, we preach turnovers. We want people hawking to the ball on passes, and we talk to our guys about you create some of your own opportunities by hustling to the football and being around the ball. … Early in the year, we weren;t there. There were balls on the ground we didn’t recover. I think probably on Friday night, just about every ball that went on the ground that was considered a fumble, we came up with, which is good. I thought we had another one. I thought they blew another one dead that shouldn’t have been.”
Next up is Peru, the defending TRC champs and the team that handed the Zebras their only TRC loss last year. Peru has lost three games this year after losing only once last year. One of those losses was a 42-0 home loss to Maconaquah last week. Peru had 43 rushing attempts and just three passing attempts last week.
Running back Isaiah Korba was ejected from that game, and per IHSAA rules, he is suspended from this game.
Korba had 44 yards rushing against Maconaquah before his ejection, and that followed back-to-back 200-yard rushing games against Lewis Cass and Wabash. He is averaging 10.3 yards per carry.
That will likely put more responsibility on senior Tanner Boggs’ shoulders.
“Boggs is very similar to (2024 Peru grad) Alex Ross, if you remember Alex Ross from last year,” Shaffer said. “More of going to put his shoulder down and getting three or four yards running hard and low to the ground. The good thing is we don’t have to worry about Korba this week.”
Maconaquah achieved offensive balance against Peru – 173 yards and three touchdowns passing, 169 yards and three touchdowns rushing. It was the most points Peru has allowed in their last 14 conference games.
“They’re still in their 3-3 stack (defense),” Shaffer said. “And they adjust out of it different ways. They may shift to different defenses just a little bit. (Trevi) Hillman-Conley … he comes off that defense from last year. He’s a good player. Brantlee Edwards is going to be the inside backer, the stack over the nose. That’s a switch they made. They had him outside early. They put him back inside. The 3-3 stack is just designed to put a lot of guys in the box. We’re going to have to deal with blocking our rules and trying to create small creases to get through.”
Rochester is 3-5 against Peru since Peru joined the TRC in 2015.
Tippecanoe Valley (4-1, 1-1 Indiana Northern State Conference) at Jimtown (3-2, 2-0), 7 p.m.
Trailing 21-10 at one point in the third quarter, Valley relied on voluminous rushing efforts from Grady Moriarty and Wes Parker to come back in a 32-21 win over LaVille last week.
Those two combined for 310 yards rushing on 14 carries.
“The turnaround was not turning the ball over,” Valley coach Stephen Moriarty said. “Bobbled snaps, we had a few issues with that in the first half. And turnovers, we had the one turnover for a touchdown (an interception return by LaVille’s Cody Allen). And so in the second half, we started focusing on just running the ball, making sure that we were running north and south a little bit more. We adjusted some of our blocking scheme to pick up their middle linebacker. That tended to work, and then we were able to maximize or take advantage of some of their blitzes, which opened up some running lanes for us.”
The Valley defense also stifled LaVille’s rushing attack, holding the Lancers to 1.8 yards per carry last week.
“Defensively, we stuck to our guns a little bit,” coach Moriarty said. “It seemed like every time we were blitzing, we ended up in a situation where they had a big play, and we couldn’t get off the field on third down. So we stopped blitzing a little bit and just sitting back more in coverage. Running the ball-wise, we did OK. … It was the big plays that hurt us the most.”
The win puts Valley one game behind Knox and Jimtown for the INSC lead. While Valley already has lost to Knox, they have a chance to even things up with the Jimmies tonight.
Javen Jackson had a 54-yard touchdown reception and an 80-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in Jimtown’s 36-7 win over Bremen last week.
Mason Armstrong added two touchdown runs in the second half.
Jimtown has won three straight since an 0-2 start under new coach Cody Vincent.
“I would say they’re passing more than they have in past years,” coach Moriarty said. “With their new coach, they’re still traditional Jimtown – split backs and they’re going to run belly and trap and have those heavy formations. But at the same time, they’re 70-30 (run-to-pass ratio), where they’re throwing the ball just a little bit more on play-action, and their success rate has been good on play-action as well. … So I think that’s helped them (diversify) their offense a little and make them harder to defend.”
Valley is making their first road trip to Baugo Township since a 53-0 loss in the 2015 sectional. Their 35-14 win at Smith-Bibler Memorial Stadium: Home of Death Valley Football last year was their first ever win over the Jimmies.
Caston (1-4, 1-2 Hoosier North) at Culver (1-4, 0-3), 7 p.m.
Caston had a season-high 342 rushing yards on a season-high 9.8 yards per carry in a 48-14 win over South Central (Union Mills) last week.
Jabez Yarber not only ran for two touchdowns, but he also returned the opening kickoff of the second half 83 yards for a touchdown.
“It was their best game,” Caston coach Chris Ulerick said of the offensive line. “They finally executed. We didn’t let guys slip off. We made our blocks. It was a completely different feel from what was going on, but we finally were able to push guys out of the way consistently and be the more physical team. … The kids played hard. The kids allowed success to happen.”
Meanwhile, Culver has lost four straight since a season-opening win over Attica. That included a 70-0 loss to North Judson last week.
“I think the most disappointing thing was just tackling,” Culver coach Austin Foust said. “Things we’ve talked about and really spent a lot of time on. We just didn’t tackle very well. We had a lot of plays where guys were there to make a play, and we just didn’t tackle. Those two five-yard gains that woulda shoulda been turned into 60, 70-yard touchdowns.”
While Caston gave up two touchdown passes last week to South Central, he said the key to this Culver team is fullback Ethan Binion.
“The Culver offense, they’re shotgun wing-T,” Ulerick said. “They’re going to try and run off-tackle. They’re going to get their fullback going. They’ve got some kids that can catch the ball in space. So you’ve got to defend that.”
Meanwhile, Foust is preaching that his team’s defense not get caught watching the ball. Caston relies on an offense in which any of Yarber, Gavin Mollenkopf or Ashton Bowyer can throw.
“It’s going to be the most unique we’ve seen for sure,” Foust said of Caston’s offense. “They do a good job of forcing you to have good eye discipline and making sure that you are actually reading your keys and not watching the ball. They do a really good job of whether it’s direct snapping it to Bowyer or snapping it to Mollenkopf and Mollenkopf hands it to Yarber and Yarber hands it to somebody else or Yarber throws the ball. They do a really good job of just changing a lot of things where if you’re just watching the ball, your heads’ kind of spinning, or they get the edge, or somebody goes past them deep. So it’s going to be unique for our kids.”
Caston beat Culver 49-14 last year. That remains the most points Caston has scored in a game since Ulerick’s second stint as coach began in 2022.
Prior to last year, Caston had been 0-8 against Culver since the schools became Hoosier North rivals in 2015.
Pioneer (4-1, 3-0 Hoosier North) at South Central (Union Mills) (1-4, 0-3), 7:30 p.m.
Pioneer ran the ball 35 times and passed it once in a 21-14 win over North Miami. Meanwhile, South Central allowed 342 rushing yards to Caston in a 48-14 loss last week. That same Caston team mustered only 115 ground yards against Pioneer the previous week.
Pioneer has won three straight since a Week 2 loss to Knox. South Central has lost four straight since a Week 1 win over winless Bowman Academy.
This marks the first time these teams have met since the 1991 sectional.
South Central quarterback Clayton Strauch threw two touchdown passes against Caston last week.
Winamac (2-2, 1-2 Hoosier North) at North Miami (3-2, 1-2), 7 p.m.
Winamac has been shut out in two of their last three games and in five of their last six halves. Meanwhile, the North Miami defense held Pioneer to 163 yards of offense in a 21-14 loss last week.
Triton ran the ball 44 times while passing it only nine in a 28-0 win at Winamac last week. Now the Winamac defense will have to be stout against the North Miami rushing attack led by quarterback Hartley Hoover, fullback Kody Whann and slotback Ryan Meredith.
This is the teams’ first meeting in at least 35 years.
This week’s rankings
The following Class 3A, Sectional 26 teams are ranked in this week’s USA Today media poll: No. 5 West Noble, No. 10 Garrett, No. 14 Valley.
Rochester is No. 17 in this week’s Class 2A USA Today media poll. They are the only Sectional 36 team to receive any poll votes.
Carroll (Flora) is No. 3, and Pioneer is No. 10 in this week’s Class 1A USA Today media poll. They are the only teams in Sectional 42 to receive poll recognition.
North Judson is No. 1 in this week’s Class 1A USA Today media poll. They are the only team in Sectional 41 to receive any poll votes. Other Hoosier North teams to receive votes include No. 6 Triton and No. 10 Pioneer.
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