Pioneer’s 3 strong backs, 4th down stops lead to regional win over LaVille

Val T.
6 days ago
6 min read

Berry earns 100th win; Next up: at South Adams in the semistate

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Noah VanMeter J.J. Solano

ROYAL CENTER — In small school football, there is always something more to give, Pioneer coach Adam Berry has said.

You might be playing offense, defense and special teams, and you might be exhausted, but it’s about “digging deep,” according to Berry.

“We talk about when you don’t think you can give any more, you have more,” Berry said.

Pioneer gave all of that and more and took away LaVille’s will in a Class 1A regional at The Panther Pit Friday, putting three running backs over 100 yards rushing and earning a wire-to-wire 34-14 win that advanced them to semistate for the first time since 2020.

Pioneer won their 11th straight game and improved to 12-1.

They will travel to South Adams for next Friday’s semistate. South Adams topped North Miami 25-22 in Denver to win their regional.

Brayden Schwitz threw touchdown passes of 41 yards and 39 yards to Cole Stafford on LaVille’s first two drives of the second half. Stafford finished with 53 yards rushing and 98 receiving.

LaVille had their six-game winning streak snapped in finishing 8-5.

The win was the 100th in coach Adam Berry’s 10-year coaching career. It was also his fourth regional. Berry noted that assistants Matt Vianco and Steve Berkshire have been with him during his entire tenure. He said he will remember this for the team accomplishment, not the personal accomplishment.

“Obviously, a great accomplishment, right?” Berry said. “But I’m celebrating this regional much more than the total number of wins that I have. We’re living in the moment. … It’s a credit to the players I’ve had over the years.”

Shiloh Rine ran for 184 yards and two touchdowns, Phillip McFatridge added 148 and a touchdown, and Noah VanMeter ran for 126 yards and two touchdowns in the second half for the Panthers.

Micah Rans, who has the top two single-game rushing efforts in school history, including a 325-yard game against North Miami back in September, did not have a carry and did not attempt a pass.

It was unclear whether Rans was playing through a nagging injury. Rine replaced Rans for the victory formation snaps under center to close out the game.

Regardless, the game was in good hands with Rans handing off to wingbacks Rine and McFatridge and fullback VanMeter and a defense that produced two important fourth down stops.

The first big defensive stop came from Rine, who knifed in and hit Stafford low on fourth-and-1 from the Pioneer 8 on LaVille’s first possession. Rine got help from Colten Long on the tackle.

The referee placed the ball, looked across the field at the sticks and did not even need to measure: Pioneer ball.

Pioneer defenders learned from film study that in short yardage situations, LaVille liked to run an iso play – in other words, Stafford running behind a lead blocker.

“We focused mostly on number four,” VanMeter said, identifying Stafford by uniform number. “We knew he was their dude. We just had to figure out their formations and what they like to run out of those formations, and our guys did really well with that this week.”

The other big defensive stop occurred with 11:10 left and Pioneer leading 28-14. Facing fourth-and-3 from the LaVille 46, Schwitz evaded Eli Guffey swooping low at his ankles in the pocket and then heaved a pass with two Pioneer defenders in his face.

Konnor Amor had a step on Gage Lakes, and Schwitz’s pass floated into and out of Amor’s hands for an incomplete pass. It was one of multiple Lancer dropped passes.

Amor hunched over in disbelief in the end zone while Pioneer celebrated a turnover on downs.

Pioneer then drove six plays covering 2:40. Rine showed both power and speed on a 24-yard run down to the 4, and VanMeter scored on the next play to complete the scoring.

“We had three backs over 100 yards,” Berry said. “Anytime you can do that, that means we had some ball control and are probably going to have some success. They were throwing out some different defenses at us as we were trying to make some adjustments, and I thought our line did a great job communicating, keeping their eyes up pre-snap, seeing what they were in and executing. We didn’t get the huge home run play, and that’s OK, especially when you’re going against a high-powered offense. It’s alright to keep the chains moving and control the clock as long as you’re punching it in.”

The Panthers drove 67 yards in 13 plays with the opening kickoff. McFatridge had five carries for 40 yards on the drive, and he capped it with a five-yard touchdown run around the right side on a rocket sweep.

Stafford had a 32-yard run around the left perimeter as LaVille went to their tempo offense from the first snap. The drive ended with Rine’s big tackle on Stafford on fourth down and came three plays after Berry had called a timeout.

“They threw us off a little bit going no-huddle,” Berry said. “We had some specific alignments that we want to do with their specific formations. When you’re going no-huddle, sometimes it’s hard for us to see. We’re trying to adjust on the fly, and they caught us a little bit. So that’s why we decided to take that timeout – to settle our guys down. And you know, what a response. What a response from our defense.”

McFatridge started with an eight-yard run, and VanMeter followed with runs of 12 and 17 yards. VanMeter converted a pair of third-and-1s, and Rine went off left tackle and cut back inside for a nine-yard touchdown to make it 14-0.

Rine fumbled on Pioneer’s third possession, and LaVille’s Amor recovered at the 17, but the Lancers had to punt again, and Pioneer followed with an 11-play, 69-yard drive. McFatridge had runs of 11 and 8 yards, and Rine then ran for 11.

A 16-yard Rine run on third-and-5 from the LaVille 25 gave Pioneer first-and-goal from the 9. Berry had a timeout but kept it in his back pocket. Stafford stopped McFatridge for no gain. Pioneer sprinted back to the line, and Rine cut inside the blocks from J.J. Solano and Mikaden Tolosa and scored again from the 9 on a jet sweep with 6.9 seconds left in the half to make it 21-0.

After accruing only two first downs in the first half, LaVille got two first downs within the first four plays of the second half on a Stafford seven-yard reception and an Amor 14-yard catch.

On the seventh play, Schwitz threw a pass to Stafford, running a square out route. Pioneer’s Eli Guffey dove for the deflection but missed, and Stafford caught it and headed towards the sideline, evading tackle attempts from Lakes, Rine and a hustling Guffey getting back into the play before bouncing off Cole Franklin and McFatridge and diving into the end zone.

But LaVille’s onside kick attempt went out of bounds, and Rine had a 19-yard run to get the ball to the LaVille 40. Six plays later, he added a 16-yard run to get to the 7. Two plays after that, VanMeter squeezed in from the 1 to make it 28-7.

“We ran a lot of buck sweep and a lot of cross block, a lot of down,” VanMeter said. “We were running a lot of the same plays all the time.”

LaVille returned the favor. A 13-yard pass from Schwitz to Stafford on third-and-12 extended the drive, and a double-reverse flea flicker ended with an 18-yard Noah Menis catch from Schwitz.

Two plays later, Stafford caught a scrambling Schwitz’s pass, ran around Guffey and inside of McFatridge and lunged over the goal line as Franklin got to him.

Rine ran 24 yards on the first play of the next drive, but it would end four plays later with LaVille’s Kaid Hernandez standing up McFatridge in the pile and yanking it out of his hands and falling on the fumble at the LaVille 24 with 53.7 seconds left.

A 15-yard run from Schwitz netted LaVille a first down as the third quarter expired.

Pioneer 34, LaVille 14

LaVille 0 0 14 0 – 14

Pioneer 7 14 7 6 – 34

First quarter

PIO – Phillip McFatridge 5 run (McFatridge kick)

Second quarter

PIO – Shiloh Rine 9 run (McFatridge kick)

PIO – Rine 9 run (McFatridge kick)

Third quarter

LV – Cole Stafford 41 pass from Brayden Schwitz (Caleb Skiles kick)

PIO – Noah VanMeter 1 run (McFatridge kick)