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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Class 1A, Sectional 41 quarterfinal: Caston (2-7) at South Central (Union Mills) (4-3), 7:30 p.m. Eastern
Playing on a muddy field last week, Caston was held to 142 yards rushing in a 19-6 loss to Knox in their regular season finale.
The loss completed an 0-7 conference mark for Caston. Despite the loss, Caston coach Will Porter said it was one of the best outings of the season for Caston defensively.
The struggles though were on offense.
Porter often talks of the tough defenses in the Hoosier North, but the good news is that they are stepping out of conference for their sectional opener against South Central.
In nonconference games against West Central and North White, Caston averaged 39 points per game.
In seven conference games, Caston averaged 11 points per game.
“That’s one of the things I talked to our players about at the end of Friday’s game,” Porter said. “Here we are playing Knox, and yeah, they’re down this year, but Knox is still a tough opponent. I felt with the way that we played, if we just clean up some of our mental mistakes, we would be in a good spot for this week.
“I think our conference is so tough and really a stout defensive conference that it does do a good job of preparing us to play out-of-conference teams. I’m looking forward to this week and hopefully we can get another sectional win and move on to the second round.”
The challenge for the Caston defense this week is South Central running back Tony Guevara, who ran for 222 yards and five touchdowns in a 62-14 win over Hammond Noll last week. Porter said he’s not necessarily a tailback but not necessarily a fullback either.
“He is their back,” Porter said. “They run like a spread system, and he’s the tailback. 44 (Matt Mulligan) is much more their blocking back. He’s a solid running back. He’s got over 1,000 yards rushing on the year. He’s their guy. And I think in the last four games where they’ve started to win games, he’s been their workhorse. He’s not necessarily a burner, but he’s a solid, hard runner. … He’s kind of a tweener kind of guy.”
Jacob Oehmen is both South Central’s leading receiver, and he also led the defense in tackles from his outside linebacker spot against Hammond Noll.
Porter said 22 Comet players will dress.
(Winner plays South Newton-Culver winner in the semifinals on Oct. 29.)
