Week 6 football preview: Shaffer: ‘We will be ready to go this week’ vs. Peru

Moriarty notes Jimtown’s return to form prior to INSC showdown; Caston’s Ulerick warns of high-effort Culver; struggling NM offense to face Winamac defense coming off shutout; Pioneer to visit winless Satellites

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

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

The Rochester football team is 42-14 since the start of the 2021 season. Needless to say, a team does not win 75% of its games over a five-plus-year span by having their opponent rush for more than twice as many yards as they do.

Yet it was Lewis Cass who outrushed the Zebras 277-136 in Walton last Friday in earning a 28-8 win.

Lewis Cass scored the first 20 points and never trailed and forced Rochester to attempt a season-high 11 passes. Meanwhile, Lewis Cass attempted just three passes and completed just one, a 15-yarder from Cole Rush to Isaac Sellers for a touchdown on the first drive.

Rochester first-year coach Isaac Shaffer was harsh in his self-assessment.

“It falls on me,” Shaffer said. “I don't think our guys were ready to go on Friday night, and that’s my fault; that’s not theirs. They’re young – 15, 16, 17-year-old kids. So I didn’t have them prepared, so that’s something I have to do a better job of. We’re going into Week 6 now. Just like them, I’m no longer a rookie coach. I have to be ready to go every single week, so that’s on me that I didn’t do that.

“We will be ready to go this week, and we will get off to a fast start this week.”

Offensively, Kale Shotts ran for a team-high 96 yards, but the offense was not nearly as productive as the one that had 803 yards of offense in wins over Whitko and Clinton Prairie in its previous two games.

“Kale’s just put a lot of time in the weight room, and other than the Clinton Prairie game, a lot of these games where he’s rushing for all these yards, he’s not going more than a yard or two across the line of scrimmage before he’s getting hit,” Shaffer said. “He’s put a lot of time in the squat rack. He’s got really strong legs. And probably different from years past, he’s learning to play through physicality and run through tackles. I wouldn’t say he’s at the level of Brant Beck. I don’t know if anybody ever will. But as close as you can get to it, he’s getting there.”

Shaffer has also made some personnel changes to try and help backs like Shotts, Trenton Meadows and Grant Holloway out. Owen Lett, who has excelled at defensive end but who has seen less time on offense, will now start at offensive tackle. Aiden Wilson, who has been used at fullback but who did not have a carry against Lewis Cass, will see time at tight end.

How effective the Peru defense might be in stopping Rochester is up for interpretation. Peru has a 19-0 win over the same Lewis Cass team that handled Rochester last week. Their other win over Whitko was also by shutout.

But in their three losses to Logansport, Northwestern and Maconaquah, they have allowed just under 55 points per game. Maconaquah’s Marcel Sims scored seven touchdowns in a 63-42 win at Bengal Memorial Stadium last week.

Shaffer praised senior defensive lineman Brayden Samons for reading guards and making it hard to run trap, a key play to the Rochester playbook.

“If you can figure out the whole TRC this year, just let me know,” Shaffer said. “Because I’m watching the Peru-Cass game to kind of get an idea of what Peru’s going to do against us, and you watch our film (against Lewis Cass) and you watch them against Peru, and they look like two different teams. Peru’s just going to be very physical. They have two really physical inside backers that are going to fly to the football. They play (Kingston) Eldridge out at the defensive end position, so a lot of length like we have at defensive end. That causes problems for trying to reach him. It causes problems for us to be able to kick him out.” 

Offensively, Peru will rely on senior quarterback Aiden Sheets, who ran for 182 yards and three touchdowns and also threw for 159 yards and a touchdown against Maconaquah. But Sheets also threw three interceptions, and he will face a Zebra defense that has forced multiple turnovers in every game.

“Phenomenal athlete,” Shaffer said of Sheets. “Lots of speed. Great arm. We have so many good quarterbacks that probably overshadow him in the conference. Aiden Robinson (of Maconaquah) throws the ball really well. The (Colin) Cook kid for Northwestern. They’re going to light up the stat sheet. But Aiden Sheets, he lights up the stat sheet. I think he’s got close to 900 yards of total offense through the air and on the ground. He makes their offense go. He gets everybody lined up, and even when he’s not touching the ball, he does really well on his fakes and things. And because he runs the ball so well and throws it so well, he usually draws one or two guys to him with that fake. So even when he doesn’t have the ball in his hand, he influences the defensive line. I’ve really been impressed with him on film. He’s going to be a nightmare to stop on Friday.”

Rochester has won the last two meetings against Peru by a combined score of 88-6. They are 5-5 against Peru since becoming conference rivals with the Tigers in 2015. Shaffer said all team goals made prior to the start of the season can still be accomplished, including winning the TRC. He is calling it a “reflection week.”

“Are we doing everything that we can do for this team? Coaches, players, everybody,” Shaffer said. “We’re at a pivotal spot in our season where I think this week is going to tell a lot about how the rest of our season is going to go.”

Shaffer said that two-way lineman Camden Susaraba is likely to miss another game with an ankle injury. Gavin Fincher, who missed last week’s game due to illness, will return.

Tippecanoe Valley (4-1, 2-0 Indiana Northern State Conference) at Jimtown (3-2, 2-0), 7 p.m.

After a come-from-behind 21-18 win at Knox in Week 4, Valley cruised to a 40-3 win over LaVille in Week 5.

They held the Lancers to 58 yards of offense in a star-making performance for Mason Miller. He had a 46-yard interception return for a touchdown and also had a 52-yard touchdown run on offense. He is second on the team in tackles with 47 from his outside linebacker spot.

Meanwhile, middle linebacker Ty Kiser had 14 more tackles on defense.

“I thought we had a really good pass rush this week,” Valley coach Stephen Moriarty said. “We had quite a few sacks. I thought Ruger Benn and Ethan Drudge got in on some of those. And putting pressure on the quarterback and not giving him time to think and be able to scramble. We did a good job in our coverage, (which was) pretty outstanding this week, I thought in general too as well with Mason Miller having a pick and Owen Omondi having a knockdown. I was just impressed. … We got enough pressure on him, and we got some coverage sacks as well.”

Stopping Jimtown could be more of a task. The Jimmies are coming off a 44-22 win over Bremen, handing the Lions their first loss and knocking them out of the Class 2A rankings.

The win also gave Jimtown their third win, exceeding their win total from last year, when they went 2-8.

Asked to compare last year’s Jimtown team to this year’s team, Moriarty said they are “two different teams.”

Nash Hamby ran for 170 yards and three touchdowns for the Jimmies against Bremen.

“He refuses to go down,” Moriarty said. “He’s very elusive, first of all. He runs, he’s very patient, and then once he hits the hole, he hits it hard. He does pick up speed. They’re very fast, and he is a tough runner.”

Still, Jimtown is just 9-16 since the start of the 2024 season, which might be surprising to those who might remember the Jimmies for dominating the old Northern State Conference under coach Bill Sharpe.

Jimtown has won 22 sectional titles but none since 2014.

Moriarty believes third-year coach Cody Vincent is bringing Jimtown back to its cultural roots. They attempted only one pass against Bremen.

“They impress me a lot on film,” Moriarty said. “The way they beat Bremen was pretty handily. They ran the ball very, very well. It’s that old-school traditional offense with belly and power and trap. It’s the I-backfield here, and we’re coming after you sort of thing.”

Offensively, the Vikings churned out 260 yards rushing against LaVille despite the injury to running back Garrett Hart. That has meant extra carries for Hunter Paxton and quarterback Hunter Randall calling his own number more.

“With so many of them playing both ways, we tried to spread out the ball just a little bit more, plus it’s hard to defend when not knowing who’s getting the ball,” Moriarty said of his backs. “And I thought they all did great last week of contributing to the win multiple ways, like yardage and receiving.”

Meanwhile, the Jimtown defense has allowed more than 31 points per game since the start of the 2025 season. But they held Bremen, who came in averaging 54 points per game, to a season low.

Moriarty said Jimtown runs a 3-4 defense and has talented defensive ends.

“They do a good job of forcing turnovers,” Moriarty said.

Valley is 2-1 against Jimtown the last three years, but they have never beaten Jimtown on the road in their history.

Valley and Jimtown are the last two undefeated teams in the INSC.

“We’re doing OK,” Moriarty said. “We’re just trying to take it one game at a time. Our focus is we want to win the conference. Part of that is making sure we stay focused week by week. So I’d say in the locker room, we’ve been very focused these last couple weeks, and we have been confident, but we’re not too overconfident. There are still a lot of things to cure.”

Grant Paxton will return after missing the LaVille game due to illness. Ian Young and Hart remain out.

Caston (4-1, 2-1 Hoosier North) at Culver (1-4, 1-2), 7 p.m.

Caston has trimmed nearly 10 points off its defensive average from last year, going from 23.7 points per game allowed to 13.8 this year. They held South Central down in a 48-6 win last week, and South Central’s only points came after the running clock had started.

The 13.8 defensive average would be Caston’s lowest since 2004. Caston now has four wins, which exceeds last year’s win total.

“That’s most of it is the kids understand the system,” Caston coach Chris Ulerick said. “The kids play faster. When you’re playing fast and playing well, it’s a whole lot easier to keep teams out of the end zone, and we haven’t allowed big plays. The one week that we allowed big plays, we were well above that average. When we can do that and play fast, it’s a good thing to see. Credit to the kids. The kids play hard. The kids do what they need to do.”

The Comet defense will set its sights on the Culver running back duo of Brayen Bush and John Carr this week.

Ulerick said Culver’s effort is impressive, regardless of what the scoreboard indicated in a 43-7 loss to North Judson last week.

“The Culver kids are going to play hard,” Ulerick said. “They continue to get better. They get after it. You know they’re going to get after it. They’re going to come in, and they’re going to be hungry, and they’re going to play like it. They played Judson, and you don’t always see the scoreboard on that film stuff, but the Culver kids play hard. They play hard the whole time. That’s something they’ve always done well. Their coaches do a very good job about getting their kids fired up ready to play. If we don’t play well, they typically give us problems.”

Culver has dropped two straight games to Winamac and North Judson after a 34-0 win over Triton in Week 3.

Winamac and North Judson are physical, experienced teams facing a Culver team that starts eight sophomores both ways.

“Obviously, they’re two football teams that play physical and are physical,” Culver coach Austin Foust said. “I thought we handled it OK. I think obviously you can always want to be more physical. I think with physicality, we’ve been OK. We’ve just got to work on being more aggressive defensively. Sometimes we’re sat back on our heels, and that’s got us. So I think that’s maybe the big thing more than being physical.”

Foust did compliment quarterback Zac Zehner for his ball security and his ability to manage the offense and progress with his reads. Foust said he had his best passing game against North Judson.

Defensively, Culver’s job will be trying to reel in a bevy of Caston running backs, including tailbacks Ashton Bowyer and Landen Rigney and fullback London Herd.

“They do a really good job of spreading the wealth around,” Foust said. “Obviously, this is the class, the junior class, that they’ve been working on. This is everybody they’ve been looking at and looking forward to having as upperclassmen. They’re big up front, and they’ve got nice skill kids that run hard. And Mollenkopf is probably, if not their best athlete, he’s 1A or 1B kind of thing with the Bowyer kid, and he makes it tough because he has the ball every single play at quarterback. They do a really good job of taking what the defense gives you and challenging you that way. They do a good job of spreading it around.”

Ulerick said “we’ll see” regarding the health status of Tucker Woolever, who has been out with a knee injury but who has practiced some this week.

Foust said Culver is “somewhat for the most part healthy.”

Winamac (4-1, 2-1 Hoosier North) at North Miami (1-4, 0-3), 7 p.m.

• North Miami has been shut out in its last two games, losing by a combined score of 81-0 to Class 1A, No. 3 North Judson and Class 1A, No. 2 Pioneer. Meanwhile, Winamac is coming off a 40-0 shutout win over Triton. 

• Winamac has not had back-to-back shutouts since beating Culver 28-0 and West Central 35-0 in 2021.

• Winamac is also seeking its first three-game winning streak since 2023.

• Winamac quarterback Xavier Adriano was 3 for 3 for 123 yards passing against Triton. All three passes went to Louis Rugg III, two of which went for touchdowns. Rugg also led Winamac with 75 yards rushing. 

• North Miami is 2-0 against Winamac since they became conference rivals, including a 44-14 win at Roudebush Field last year.

• North Miami’s next three opponents are South Central, Culver and Triton. Those teams are a combined 2-13.

Pioneer (5-0, 3-0 Hoosier North) at South Central (Union Mills) (0-5, 0-3), 7:30 p.m.

• Pioneer is coming off a 35-0 win over North Miami. Of Pioneer coach Adam Berry’s 106 career wins, 38 of them have been by shutout. Pioneer’s defensive average is down to 11 points per game.

• Meanwhile, South Central is coming off a 48-6 road loss at Caston last week. South Central is averaging just 6.8 ppg. South Central has lost 16 consecutive games, and they have been held under 10 points in 12 of them.

• South Central is 2-26 in their last 28 games. Pioneer has outscored them 106-13 in two meetings since they joined the Hoosier North for football in 2024.

• Pioneer’s Shiloh Rine has scored 13 touchdowns for the season – four rushing, eight receiving and one on a kickoff return. Has 326 rushing yards and 409 receiving yards and leads Pioneer in both categories.

• Pioneer freshman quarterback Colton Popejoy has 662 yards passing in five games. He has thrown for over 100 yards in three straight games. By comparison, Jack Kiser had three consecutive 100-yard passing games just once in his career (2016 vs. Winamac, Triton, Caston).