VanMeter, McFatridge, Rine shine as Pioneer breaks 5-year sectional drought

Val T.
7 minutes ago
6 min read

Next up: vs. LaVille in a Class 1A regional

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

The Pioneer football team celebrates with the sectional trophy following their 45-14 win over host Carroll (Flora) in the Class 1A, Sectional 42 final Friday. Pioneer (11-1) will host LaVille (8-4) next Friday in a regional.

FLORA — The Carroll football team remembered what Pioneer quarterback Micah Rans did to them in last year’s sectional.

They appeared determined not to let that happen again.

The problem for Carroll is that Pioneer is more than Micah Rans. It also has Noah VanMeter, Shiloh Rine and Phillip McFatridge.

Those three all crossed the 100-yard rushing barrier, and the Pioneer defense held Carroll without a first down in the first and third quarters in recording a wire-to-wire 45-14 win over the host Cougars in the Class 1A, Sectional 42 final Friday.

Pioneer won their 13th sectional title in school history but their first in five years. They improved to 11-1 and will host a regional against LaVille at the Panther Pit next Friday. LaVille rolled over West Central 49-6.

Carroll finished 7-4.

“One of our assistant coaches talks about you have to have three things,” Pioneer coach Adam Berry said. “You have to obviously have athletic ability, you have to have that team chemistry, and you have to have that will. Tonight, they showed they had that will to get the sectional championship. Hopefully, we can sustain that focus.”

The Panthers also beat Carroll 49-7 in last year’s sectional semifinals. Carroll adjusted by varying its defensive alignments. They would also make line adjustments just before the snap, often moving its stoutest defensive tackles to end to try to funnel Rans in the middle of the field.

Rans ran for 322 yards in last year’s game against Carroll. This time, he ran for just 10.

But VanMeter ran for 162 yards and a touchdown from his fullback spot, Rine rushed for 149 yards and two touchdowns, and McFatridge ran for 131 yards and a touchdown.

Rans and Cole Franklin also had touchdown runs. McFatridge made all six of his extra points and knocked through a 31-yard field goal.

“Very exciting,” a smiling McFatridge said. “Last year, it was very disappointing for us. We were all upset. And it took us a year, but we’re happy. We’re excited. This is what we’ve been working hard for all season, and it’s happened.”

The tone setter might have come from Rine less than four minutes in on a rocket sweep. In a full sprint in motion before the ball was snapped, he took a toss from Rans and turned the left corner and turned on the jets for a 70-yard touchdown.

“So I’m coming out, and I see Phillip McFatridge, and he’s pushing his guy outside, and then there’s a second linebacker scraping over, and he was overplaying it, so I saw the hole,” Rine said. “It was wide open. It was like 10 feet.”

Rans was asked about the emergence of Rine and McFatridge.

“I think that’s why we won this game,” Rans said. “Last year, they were able to key on me so much. This year, when you have four threats like that you’ve got to respect, there’s not a lot they can do. We’re a pretty potent offense, a potent backfield. If we can spread it out like that, we’re dangerous, I think.”

Berry was asked about the importance of Rine’s rocket sweep.

“Huge,” Berry said. “Last year, we hit in between the tackles a lot on them, so we had a feeling they’re going to try to obviously take that away. That’s a great coaching staff. They’ve had a lot of wins together. We knew they were going to have a game plan to try and take that away. We saw how they were lined up. We thought we could get a quick one, thought our edge guys sealed it well, came off the block when they needed to to not get that hold, and Shiloh’s been running extremely well and extremely hard, and he showed that again tonight.”

Pioneer forced another three-and-out and started their next possession on the Carroll 49 after a Rine punt return. That led to an eight-play, 31-yard drive that McFatridge capped with his field goal to make it 10-0.

And after another Carroll three-and-out, Pioneer took over on their 42. Berry called a counter. McFatridge took the misdirection handoff and exploded through the hole. Carroll had crowded the line. Once he made it through the hole, McFatridge was gone for a 58-yard touchdown. He added the extra point to make it 17-0.

“With that, teams are going to key on them because they’re big players,” McFatridge said of Rans and VanMeter. “They’re hard to take down. And they’re our key players, so they’re going to key on them, and it opens up me and Shiloh, and it’s wonderful.”

Carroll countered with a 14-play drive, and Cale Peters capped it with an 11-yard touchdown run.

But on the second play of the next drive, Pioneer called another counter, this time to the opposite of the field. A Carroll assistant coach could be heard yelling “Counter!” from the press box over his headset, but it was too late. Rine burst through the hole for a 43-yard gain to the Cougar 19.

VanMeter followed with a 14-yard run. Two plays later, Rans scored on a quarterback sneak to make it 24-7.

“That was part of it,” Rans said of Carroll’s defensive alignment and game plan. “I would hear them make a lot of checks and call the plays they thought was going to happen. … They did try to take me away, which is cool. That’s why we have other weapons.”

After a holding penalty and a Liam Rouch stop on Aiden Wiles for a two-yard loss, Peters punted 32 yards before it was downed on the Carroll 46 with 1:48 left.

Pioneer used their final two timeouts of the half on the ensuing drive. After their last timeout, facing third-and-2 from the Carroll 23, Rans rolled to his right and completed just his second pass in his last five games, finding Carter Mize for an 18-yard gain down to the 5.

Rans scored on the next play. Pioneer had executed its two-minute drill with 13 seconds to spare, and they led 31-7 at halftime.

Pioneer’s first two drives of the second half lasted 13 plays each. VanMeter chiseled away at the Cougar defense on the first, carrying the ball eight times for 47 yards on the drive alone. He had a 16-yard run to start the drive and finished it with a one-yard touchdown run. The lead was 38-7.

Peters threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Brody Ray on a fourth-and-9 play with 4:12 left to make it 38-14.

A 20-yard McFatridge run and a 51-yard VanMeter run in which he got caught at the 2-yard-line set up Franklin’s touchdown run to complete the scoring with 2:19 left.

After its win at Carroll last year, Pioneer lost the following week to Taylor 28-6 in the sectional final. Atoning for that loss created motivation for this season.

“It feels great,” Rine said. “We got to the sectional championship last year, but we couldn’t pull through against Taylor. This year, it feels really good.”

Said Rans: “It stung … so much to lose a game like that. When we finally get back to this position and get the job done, it feels awesome.”

In the bigger picture, the sectional title might signal that Pioneer is all the way back. From 2021-23, Pioneer lost three consecutive postseason games by a combined score of 123-20. When the current seniors were freshmen, the varsity went 2-8.

For one example, VanMeter has morphed from a 150-pound left guard into a 174-pound force at fullback and middle linebacker.

“For sure personally and, more importantly, for the program,” Berry said when asked how satisfied he felt. “Pioneer football means something to our community. … I don’t like getting the texts after some lean years like, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ That’s not what we do. You noticed I said, ‘That’s not what we do.’ The alumni who played through Pioneer, they still say ‘we’ because it is truly a football family. So extremely proud of our guys. They earned it. Obviously, we helped guide them there, but they have to do it on the field. It’s very satisfying for this group that has been through a lot the last four years and for our community and alums.”

Pioneer 45, Carroll (Flora) 14

Pioneer 17 14 7 7 – 45

Carroll 0 7 0 7 – 14

First quarter

PIO – Shiloh Rine 70 run (Phillip McFatridge kick)

PIO – McFatridge 31 FG

PIO – McFatridge 58 run (McFatridge kick)

Second quarter

CARR – Cale Peters 11 run (Riley Duff kick)

PIO – Micah Rans 1 run (McFatridge kick)

PIO – Rine 5 run (McFatridge kick)

Third quarter