Week 4 preview: Zebras to host winless Wabash

Valley to try to slow down Knox’s McLaughlin; after shutting out Winamac, Pioneer will try to stop Caston; Winamac seeks first win vs. Culver

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Wabash (0-3, 0-2 Three Rivers Conference) at Rochester (2-1, 2-0), 7 p.m.

The Wabash football team might already be 0-3, but if there is an opponent they might be really dreading, it might be Rochester.

Wabash has not had a winning season or won a sectional game since 2020. That also happened to be the last year they did not play Rochester.

Before that, they did not play Rochester in 2016 and went 5-5. They also did not play Rochester in 2015 and went 7-3.

Every other year that they have been in the TRC since joining in 2006, they have played Rochester and lost to them, and every other year except for 2015, 2016 and 2020, they have gone on to have a losing record. Rochester has also shut them out six times, including a 42-0 win at Barnhart Field last year.

This year might not appear to be the chance to rewrite history. Wabash is 0-3, and they are allowing 52 points per game. And they are facing a Zebra team that declawed Whitko 47-0 last week and gained 392 yards of offense.

Rochester has two shutouts already this season and 12 in the Ron Shaffer era as coach. Senior defensive end Grant Clark said after the Whitko game that he wants the Zebra defense to be the best in school history.

“Those guys want to go down and be remembered for as many things down the line as possible,” Shaffer said. “One of those things is one of the best scoring defenses in school history. That number is pretty small. I believe it’s like 5.6 points a game giving up in school history. Right now, they’re on track. We’ve got some really tough teams coming up, but they have goals, and it’s good that it’s in the forefront of our leadership’s mind, and they’re relaying that to the other teammates.”

Wabash relies on the passing combination of quarterback Haiden McWhirt and wide receiver DaVon Osborn. Shaffer said Rochester must know where Osborn is lined up at all times.Osborn has 13 receptions through three games, four of which have gone for touchdowns. He averages nearly 15 yards per reception.

“They only list him at 6-2, but it’s obvious,” Shaffer said. “To me, he’s 6-4 or 6-5. Lanky, can go up and high-point a ball on you. Runs well after the catch. … He is definitely McWhirt’s number one target, so we’re going to treat him that way.”

Shaffer changed the defensive lineup last week, reinserting Jabez Yarber into the lineup as an inside linebacker after missing the Tippecanoe Valley game Aug. 29 due to a suspension. Sophomore Alex Chapman got the start at the safety spot that Yarber had manned in a Week 1 win over Southwood.

"I think for him it’s just where his eyes are focused,” Shaffer said of Yarber at linebacker. “The reads are a little bit different. At safety, they try to get an initial read, whether it’s run or pass and whether to get into your drop or your run fit. With linebacker, it’s always run first and even a greater eye discipline as far as being able to know what gap to have and do I get over the top of this block or am I under this block? But he does it really well. He has a good instinct for the position and just football overall. He has a very high football IQ, and he’s aggressive.”

As for Chapman, he also scored his first career touchdown against Whitko.

“He’s probably progressed faster on defense than he has on offense,” Shaffer said of Chapman. “Being able to move Alex into the lineup has given us flexibility to move a pretty good athlete forward. And when you can start moving guys that can play safety up to linebacker and they can physically handle it, you just get faster on defense. … His main role is defense. Right now, offense is secondary for him. He gets some reps when we need to give somebody a rest. We want to keep him up on the offense because you never know when you’re going to need a guy down the road. Defensively, he’s still a sophomore. He’s still going to make mistakes, but his speed and quickness make up for some of those mistakes, and he’s very conscious of watching film and knowing what the other team’s going to do. He wants to do the right thing, and that’s important.”

Knox (3-0, 0-0 Indiana Northern State Conference) at Tippecanoe Valley (2-1, 0-0), 7:30 p.m.

The Tippecanoe Valley football team allowed only five points total in season-opening wins over Plymouth and Rochester, but Hamilton Heights busted through the green and gold defensive wall for 35 points and 336 yards of total offense.

“I think communication is one of those things where it helps on all levels,” Valley coach Stephen Moriarty said. “They just played really well, and we had some times we played well and some times that we just kinda got mixed up on our communication a little bit. It’s something to work on going forward.”

Wes Parker is averaging 111 yards per game on the ground, and he also is quarterback Hunter Stage’s top target with seven total receptions. Grady Moriarty adds another 45 rushing yards per game.

Moriarty also leads the team with 8.7 tackles per game. Valley gets nearly 24 tackles per game from the linebacking group of Diego Gonsalez, Ty Kiser and Moriarty.

If they are that productive again Friday, it means they will be getting very acquainted with Knox senior quarterback Myles McLaughlin. According to MaxPreps.com, McLaughlin leads the nation with 1,057 rushing yards after back-to-back 400-yard games against Pioneer and Culver Academy the last two weeks. He is averaging 14.7 yards per carry for the season and 10.1 for his career. But the one time he faced Valley in 2024, he averaged just 6.1 yards per carry in a 26-3 Redskins win in Starke County.

McLaughlin, who set the Knox career rushing record as a sophomore, went over the 8,000 yard mark for his career in a 72-24 win over Culver Academy last week. He scored nine touchdowns last week, a new school record for a game, and has 119 for his career, two of which came against Valley last year.

Tonight is his first game at Smith-Bibler Memorial Stadium Home of Death Valley Football.

“That’s the difficult thing about it,” coach Moriarty said. “You look at Knox and the success that they’ve had running the ball and type of offense that coach (Russ) Radtke runs, and you … have to break away from what your normal defense is and basically install a brand new defense in one week to try to top them. Because it’s an offense in a phone booth. They have everybody packed in together there, and you can’t just run your normal base defense to stop them. You have to be creative.”

Caston (1-2, 0-1 Hoosier North) at Pioneer (2-1, 1-0), 7 p.m.

Caston quarterback Gavin Mollenkopf had over 100 yards of passing and two touchdown passes – one to Landen Rigney, one to Logan Mollenkopf – in the first quarter of last week’s game against North Miami, but Caston did not score after the first quarter and eventually lost 28-13.

Caston will seek more consistent passing success when they travel to the Panther Pit this week, but it might not be easy. Pioneer allowed only three yards passing in a 50-0 win over Winamac last week.

Pioneer coach Adam Berry acknowledges Gavin Mollenkopf’s experience and skills under center and Logan Mollenkopf’s talents at receiver.

“The quarterback Mollenkopf, he’s a great player,” Berry said. “He has some experience back there. He throws a great ball. You can just tell he commands the offense. Brother out wide is a pretty good receiver as well, and so they’re able to hit some big plays on North Miami. After that, I think North Miami was able to get some pressure on the quarterback. They were able to throw off the receivers’ timing a little bit, and that can be disruptive to an offense.”

As for the Caston defense, they will face a Pioneer ground attack that would figure to be well-rested: No Pioneer player had more than seven carries against Winamac. Still, there did not appear to be much drop off. Pioneer averaged 8.7 yards per carry as a team while nine different players had at least one carry.

Pioneer beat Caston twice at the Comet Crater last year, winning 63-6 in the regular season and 20-7 in the sectional quarterfinals. Pioneer averaged 19.3 yards per carry in the regular season meeting, but the Caston defense cut that down to a more manageable 6.1 per carry in their postseason meeting.

North Miami had 56 offensive snaps last week – 53 rushes, three passes. They averaged 6.5 yards per carry when they did run.

“They can play defense,” Caston coach Chris Ulerick said of his players. “We just have to make sure that we keep reading our keys. Doing the little things correctly goes a long, long way, especially in the game of football. All 11 have to be on the same page. There’s a lot of times where they are – don’t get me wrong – but the few times that there aren’t, the other teams have been able to make some big plays on us and capitalize. That’s kind of been the story here through the first three games. Carroll ripped off some big runs. North Miami ripped off some big runs. … Against North Miami, offensively, we were able to get some big plays ourselves. We were not against Carroll. Things are coming along nicely. We just have to continue to get better and continue to be physical.”

Caston has lost its last 34 meetings with Pioneer, They have not beaten the Panthers since 1996. 

“Just knowing coach Ulerick, he’s going to throw in some wrinkles that we haven’t seen yet this year, and he’s going to have a great game plan for us,” Berry said.

Berry reports no injuries.

Ulerick said that tight end Brayden Unger has participated in practices this week after missing the North Miami game with an ankle injury. London Herd, a sophomore tight end, has also been “limited a little bit” in practice, according to Ulerick, but he hopes he will be ready by game time.

Winamac (0-3, 0-1 Hoosier North) at Culver (1-2, 0-1), 7 p.m.

Winamac fell behind 7-0 after a minute and 21-0 after a quarter before eventually falling 50-0 to Pioneer at Roudebush Field last week.

The Winamac defense is giving up over 330 rushing yards per game against West Central, Frontier and Pioneer, who are a combined 8-1. Coach Josh Burgess said that players are in position to make tackles but that tackling needs to improve.

Culver might provide a unique look. Quarterback Jonas McCuen is in his third year as a starting quarterback, and Culver might rely on the pass more than Winamac’s previous opponents. Caleb McCuen, Jonas’ twin brother, is a top receiving target. Sophomore John Carr is likely to get the bulk of the carries when Culver runs.

“Any time you face a spread team, you have to get the run stopped first,” Burgess said. “Because if you can’t get the run stopped and they can throw when they want, it’s kind of a mess to defend. So Coach Foust and his staff, they do a nice job of putting their kids in position to make plays. So we’re going to see another spread team, but I think Culver appears to be more of a pass-first team whereas Frontier was more of a run-first team out of their spread.”

Meanwhile, the Culver defense sunk Attica’s ground attack for -10 yards in a 26-7 win in Week 1, but West Central and Triton averaged over 420 yards rushing per game the last two weeks in losses.

Culver coach Austin Foust said Winamac junior Tearson Wolford is a key factor on both sides of the ball. Wolford ran for a team-high 45 yards against Pioneer.

“He’s a bigger type kid,” Foust said. “He runs really hard at their fullback position, where they try to give him the ball on iso. He runs the toss really well. Again, he’s a big kid out there that runs hard. He’s one of those guys that we’ve got to be able to tackle low. We’ve got to be able to get into him and try to get him before he starts going. And another thing too we’ve got to do is be able to block him because he’s a good inside backer as well.”