Week 8 football preview: Shaffer: Zebras might match up well with spread teams

Coming off shutout, Valley to host struggling John Glenn; Caston to visit No. 3 N. Judson; Culver to host NM; No. 2 Pioneer to travel to Triton; Winamac to host winless S. Central

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Northwestern (4-3, 4-1 Three Rivers Conference) at Rochester (3-4, 2-3), 7 p.m.

Rochester football coach Isaac Shaffer has talked about adding new “wrinkles” to the offense, but it could be argued that coming out in a spread against Northfield last week with quarterback Mitchell Clark in a shotgun formation went beyond a mere wrinkle.

The Zebras punted after one possession in the spread, went back to their traditional wing-T and then went back to the spread when they were trailing late. The spread remains a subject for further consideration.

“Just wanted to see first of all how our kids would do with it and how Northfield would react,” Shaffer said. “Again, it was something that we’d practiced throughout the week and something that we’re going to continue to work on through the season, just to add something for other teams to think about. The more a team has to prepare for different things, the harder it is for them to just key in on our wing-T and things like that. We kind of went to it at the end of the game, and we saw some different things we liked. There was one play in particular where we had Trenton Meadows wide open on the sidelines. Just got to make the pass. That’s the first time we’ve ran that play in a game. We actually put that play in Wednesday and didn’t really practice it until Thursday. I thought the execution looked really good, and we talked to Mitchell. I told him we kind of want to get that to Trenton quickly. And so we want to put the ball on a line. And so he tried doing that, so it came up short. And so, just another key learning point for him. When a guy’s that wide open, just get him the ball somehow.”

Shaffer praised guards Derek Wortley and Gavin Pinder for their pull blocks and tackle Ethan Bailey for his down blocks. He also said Owen Lett is “coming along” after making his second start at offensive tackle and that center Cailab Tyler’s shotgun snaps improved as the game progressed.

“I thought o-line-wise, we did really well across the board,” Shaffer said.

Defensively, Shaffer praised Northfield quarterback Logan Holmes, who had 98 yards and two touchdowns rushing. Northfield had 282 total yards out of their option offense – 264 rushing, 18 passing.

“I thought our guys did fairly well,” Shaffer said. “Other than the Lewis Cass game, for Northfield this year, we let up the fewest amount of points Northfield’s scored all year. They’ve really put up a lot of points on people. So I thought the kids did really well with it. It’s just a hard offense to defend when teams are running it as well as they are. I thought we struggled … We had our stack backers, Grant Holloway and Gavin Fincher, struggled with making the in-game adjustment. They were kind of the assignment for that. Seeing it and having a scout JV offense run it in practice is a lot easier to defend than when you get to teams that have been running it all season and varsity guys, so that was difficult for them to adjust to. They kept fighting the whole night. We asked them to try different things. We switched up our defense and went to a 4-4. Guys responded well to that.

“I thought one guy that had a fantastic game was Mason Oliver in what we ask him to do. Because it was very difficult for him to just keep taking that pitch man. He made a few mistakes and probably in game, just your football instincts take over, and when no one’s there to take the quarterback, you almost just feel like you have to, and so he did, and then there were a couple of times they were able to pitch and get on the edge. It was a tough night for him, and he did a real good job of handling that.”

The Zebras must adjust their defense to the spread offenses that Northwestern and Maconaquah will feature in the final two regular season games. First up is Northwestern, where quarterback Colin Cook attempts 31 passes per game and averages 268 yards passing per game.

Cook spreads the ball around: No Tiger receiver has more than 33 receptions, but four receivers – Dewayne Perrigen, Bradyn Wilson, Jayden West and Braxton Schieffer – have at least 27 catches. Shaffer said the defense must make him uncomfortable.

“He slings it all over the yard,” Shaffer said. “And he’ll go to different people. He’s really good at going through his progressions and not panicking. He’s a guy that started last year and last year threw the ball close to 250 times, and he’s on pace to throw it 250 more. I told our guys the other day I think he has 219 passes this season. That’s probably more than Rochester’s thrown the ball in the last 10 years, and he’s done it in just seven games.”

Shaffer thinks the Zebra 4-2-5 defense will match up well with spread teams.

“I could look like a fool this Friday and next Friday, but I’ve been telling our guys I think we match up with the next two teams we’re going to play better than the last three teams we’ve played, and the next two teams we’re going to play are at the top of the conference. But I think our guys fit what we do. We’re a 4-2-5 defense. We’ve had to do different defenses against everybody. Now we can line up in our base defense and what we know, so I’m excited to see how the guys perform. I think there’s a lot of teams in our sectional that are going to give the same look. So it’s perfect timing for us to face these next two opponents and roll right into the sectional with it.”

While Shaffer thinks his defense might match up well with Northwestern, Northwestern’s defense has matched up well with nobody. Two weeks ago, Maconaquah’s spread attack torched them for 550 yards in a 77-35 win. Last week, Oak Hill’s Dylan Archer ran for 238 yards and four touchdowns in a 54-35 win over the Tigers. Oak Hill finished with 462 yards of offense.

The Tigers are allowing 35 points per game. Counting this year, Northwestern’s defensive scoring average has been 33 points or higher in eight of the last nine years, and that is covering three different head coaches.

Rochester had 472 yards on just 31 offensive snaps in a 49-7 win last year at Northwestern.

“They line up in a 3-4, and they’re going to stay in a 3-4,” Shaffer said. “I think they were kind of searching – probably too quickly, I thought – for an answer. I thought they were doing a pretty good job of keeping Oak Hill bottled up for the most part to start the game. And then they started bringing guys down. I think they didn’t have a guy deeper than five yards off the ball by the end of that game against Oak Hill. When you do that, it’s feast or famine. You’re either going to make a tackle at the line of scrimmage, or if you don’t, it’s going to be out the gate for a touchdown.”

Shaffer said Jordan Gonzalez, Auggie Wells, Tanner Horn, Grayson Miller and Camden Hisey will see time on offense. Wortley and Bailey will both start on the offensive line but will rotate in on defense. 

Barrett Brown will start at offensive tackle with Lett playing defense only. Trevor Coplen will start at guard for Gavin Pinder, who will miss the game with a shoulder injury. 

“On senior night, we need some seniors to step up,” Shaffer said.

John Glenn (1-6, 0-4 Indiana Northern State Conference) at Tippecanoe Valley (6-1, 3-0), 7 p.m.

Valley’s defense continues to evolve into a cohesive unit, according to coach Stephen Moriarty. They held Woodlan to 49 yards of total offense in a 43-0 rout of Woodlan last week.

Led by the linebacking trio of Ty Kiser, Mason Miller and Grant Paxton, Valley is holding opponents to 11.9 points per game. If that number holds up, it would be the second lowest in the Moriarty era as coach. The 2021 Vikings allowed just 9.7 points per game.

“I think that they’re starting to work together and really starting to come together as a team when it comes defensively and just all the pieces were coming together nicely for Woodlan, and hopefully that continues,” Moriarty said.

Moriarty also said this is one of the better defensive lines he has coached with players like Ruger Benn, Colter Blackburn and Michael Samuels clogging the line. He said when they occupy opposing offensive lines, that allows Kiser, Miller and Paxton to make tackles.

“They’re getting hands on, and being able to occupy those linemen so the linebackers can flow over the top freely has been one of our bigger accomplishments or goals, I guess you would say,” Moriarty said. “So that the defense can move more smoothly. It seems like everybody’s got a role, and that’s part of their role.”

Meanwhile, Valley’s offense ran for 421 yards on 8.8 yards per carry against Woodlan. Moriarty also notices improvements in the passing game with quarterback Hunter Randall, who ran for 111 yards last week. Moriarty said Randall is good at improvisation.

“I think we’re throwing the ball more,” Moriarty said. “Even though it doesn’t look like it, but we’re running more, I guess, in a pass scenario. I wouldn’t say it’s an RPO (run-pass option), but Hunter, if there’s nobody open, he’s pulling down and running. And I think that’s been evident, and he’s done a good job of that in having over 100 yards rushing this week. Most of those yards actually were on pass plays where he just took off and ran because he didn’t see anybody open. I would say we’ve tried to eliminate the mistakes and simplify the passing game and use it more.”

This week, Valley will face a John Glenn team that has lost six straight since a season-opening win over Boone Grove. John Glenn is 4-23 in their last 27 games. They are 1-13 all-time in INSC games since the formation of the conference in 2024.

They are averaging just 11 points per game.

“I believe that he’s injured,” Moriarty said of John Glenn quarterback Archer Rust. “So he might not be playing this game. We’re not for sure. I would assume he is not.”

Moriarty said John Glenn ran the ball 78% of the time in a 21-8 loss to LaVille last week. They will run an I-back field with a tight end. They run an option and a counter off it, according to Moriarty. They will try to throw the ball to the running back out of the backfield.

Defensively, John Glenn will run an odd-man front and put their outside linebackers on the edge.

“It’s going to look more like a 5-2, it looks like,” Moriarty said. “They have some excellent linebackers, and their d-line is very, very big. They’re hard to move off the ball. … We’re going to have to really make sure that we’re doing well on our double teams and get some movement to get to those linebackers because they’re awful big.”

Moriarty said Garrett Hart will “probably” be out for the season and that Ian Young remains out.

Caston (6-1, 4-1 Hoosier North) at North Judson (7-0, 5-0), 7:30 p.m.

• Caston routed Triton 40-8 last week. Triton’s only points came in the fourth quarter after the running clock started, per the IHSAA Mercy Rule. Five of Caston’s wins have ended with a running clock. From the inception of the Mercy Rule in 2019 through 2025, Caston had only five Mercy Rule wins in those seven seasons combined. Meanwhile, North Judson has won all seven of their games by the Mercy Rule, including a 35-0 win at home over Winamac last week.

• Caston is 6-1 for the first time in school history. North Judson is 7-0 for the third time in the last five years.

• Caston has won their last three games by a combined score of 130-21.

• Only two Caston opponents – Pioneer and North Miami – have run for over 100 yards against the Comets. North Judson averages 268 yards rushing per game, and Caston linebacker London Herd suffered a leg injury last week against Triton.

• Caston has never beaten North Judson in football.

North Miami (2-5, 1-4 Hoosier North) at Culver (1-6, 1-4), 7 p.m.

• North Miami is coming in off a 47-0 blanking of South Central (Union Mills) last week. Culver’s 62-14 loss to Pioneer last week was their fourth straight. 

• “Dude, where’s my Carr?:” Culver relies on junior running back John Carr while North Miami has sophomore Jension Carr as a big contributor to its ground attack. The Carrs are not related.

• North Miami is 2-0 against Culver since they became conference rivals in 2024, including a 37-0 win in Denver last year. Culver has not beaten North Miami since a 32-14 win in the 2016 sectional quarterfinal.

• Culver has lost five straight home games.

Pioneer (7-0, 5-0 Hoosier North) at Triton (1-6, 1-4), 7 p.m.

• Pioneer had two interception returns for touchdowns – one each by Archie Blickenstaff and Blu Rosen-Jacks – as part of a 62-point first-half onslaught in a 62-14 win over Culver last week. Triton managed a score in the final minute against Caston last week but lost 40-8 and has lost three straight since their only win over South Central in Week 4.

• This is Adam Berry’s 11th season as Pioneer coach. During Berry’s tenure, Pioneer has never lost a game to a team that finished the season with a losing record. In 2020, Pioneer lost to New Haven, and New Haven finished 5-5. Every other loss has been to a team that finished with a winning record.

• Shiloh Rine leads Pioneer with 588 rushing yards and 505 receiving yards. He is averaging 13.4 yards per carry and 29.7 yards per reception. Meanwhile, the Triton defense is allowing 36 points per game.

• Pioneer’s 42-0 win over Triton last year ended a three-year losing streak to the Trojans.

South Central (Union Mills) (0-7, 0-5 Hoosier North) at Winamac (5-2, 3-2), 7:30 p.m.

• Winamac lost 35-0 to Class 1A, No. 3 North Judson last week in Bryant Galbreath’s first start at quarterback in place of the injured Xavier Adriano. South Central lost 47-0 to North Miami to extend their losing streak to 18 dating back to the 2024 season.

• Of the 30 players listed on South Central’s roster, 19 of them are freshmen or sophomores, per MaxPreps.com.

• Winamac has cut their defensive average from 36.3 last year to 20.4 this year. Meanwhile, South Central has scored 40 points total in seven games.

• Winamac is 2-0 against South Central since South Central joined the Hoosier North for football in 2024. Winamac has won the last five meetings. South Central has not beaten Winamac since a 52-0 win in the 2010 sectional.