Week 9 football preview: Rochester looks to keep up rushing attack against Mac defense

Valley seeks 2nd place in INSC vs. Bremen; Caston hopes to break 3-game skid at Winamac; Is Pioneer the upstart in Hoosier North title showdown vs. Judson?; Culver seeks offensive solutions vs. winless S. Central

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Rochester’s Jabez Yarber

Maconaquah (8-0, 7-0 Three Rivers Conference) at Rochester (7-1, 7-0), 7 p.m.

The Class 2A, No. 11 Rochester offensive line shoved around Northwestern last week, averaging 15.9 yards per carry and rushing for 444 yards and six touchdowns in a 49-7 win.

Rochester has scored 40 or more points six times this year. They are averaging 8.8 yards per carry as a team. They have gone three straight weeks without punting.

“I thought the focus was really good going into that week,” Rochester coach Ron Shaffer said. “And I thought the focus in the game was good. So you usually play how you practice, and I thought the focus was really good all week, and I thought the guys came out and executed really well early minus the fumble on the first drive. I thought (it was) a pretty good, flawless first half.”

Defensively, Rochester scuttled Northwestern’s rushing attack with star running back Sam Jones out, holding them to seven yards total and less than a yard per carry.

Rochester’s defensive scoring average of 4.3 points per game remains No. 2 in the state.

A similar defensive performance against Maconaquah at Barnhart Field Friday in the game that will decide the TRC title would be welcome.

Class 3A, No. 6 Maconaquah figures to be a different challenge, and that challenge might be summed up in two words: Marcell Sims. Sims ran for 149 yards and three touchdowns in a 29-28 win at Manchester last week. He has 1,137 yards rushing this season.

He was also a menace against Rochester last year, rushing for 90 yards and adding 43 yards receiving and a 93-yard punt return for a touchdown.

Already known for his speed, he has shown his strength at running between the tackles, according to Shaffer.

“He’s real patient,” Shaffer said of Sims. “He knows how to set up his blocks and really does a nice job of power-running too. He decides at certain points that he just has to turn on the jets, or he may have to take on a guy. He’s a very strong runner. I think probably the biggest improvement in his game is now what he’s doing in the receiving part of his game because he’s over 1,100 in rushing and he has around 500 yards receiving. Adding that to his game, a lot of the passes to him are just an extension of the run game. Just hitting him on a swing pass, getting guys out in front of him to run, and they’re trying to hit him more on screen plays. Really those stats are kind of like run plays but still go down in the receiving yards.”

As good as Sims is on the ground, Maconaquah would not appear to be one-dimensional. Quarterback Aiden Robinson has thrown for 2,474 yards and 24 touchdowns out of Maconaquah’s spread attack. He has gone over 200 yards passing seven times.

A junior, Robinson attempted 51 passes against Manchester last week as his team completed a comeback from a 28-0 halftime deficit.

Shaffer was asked if Robinson throwing 51 times Friday would be a good thing or a bad thing for the Zebras.

“I think it probably comes down to have we stopped the run?” Shaffer said. “If they’ve turned to a point to where he’s got to throw the ball 50-some times, it probably means you’re doing a pretty good job in the run game or you’ve got them behind the sticks or behind on the scoreboard. I would take it that it would be a good sign. I guess the biggest thing is what’s his completion percentage on those 51 attempts? You’ve got to get pressure on him. You’ve got to get in his face a little bit, and the biggest thing is you have to contest the catches.”

The game could also come down to whether Maconaquah can contain Rochester’s running game. Last year, Maconaquah held Rochester to 184 yards and shut the Zebras out over the final three quarters in registering a 30-14 win.

Last week, Maconaquah allowed 331 yards on 8.0 yards per carry against Manchester, but they also shut out the Squires in the second half. Maconaquah’s defensive scoring average has inflated from 8.4 ppg last year to 18 ppg this year.

Rochester will try to pierce the invincibility that Maconaquah coach Michael Fenters has shown. In his second season in Bunker Hill, his teams are 17-0 in regular season games.

Fenters was not around when Rochester ran wild in a three-year run they had against Maconaquah from 2021-23. In those years, Rochester beat Maconaquah by scores of 44-12, 38-14 and 36-14. Rochester had 339, 461 and 463 yards rushing in those games, respectively.

“I looked down at the stats and the starting lineup from last year to this year, and there are not huge differences,” Shaffer said of Maconaquah’s defense. “I don’t know. I think they have the potential to stop and be a very tough defense. I think maybe they’re just trying to find their way in certain positions. Maybe they don’t have the confidence of having (Fuddy) Kile and (A.J.) Kelly behind them and knowing that they can take some chances and those two will make up for your mistakes. If you look at last year’s games, now too many times will Trenton Meadows ever break out on a run and be 10 yards ahead of everybody and get caught, and that’s what happened last year. He breaks out on the second run of the game, and A.J. Kelly runs him down and gives their defense another chance to stop us. I think they have the potential to be a dominant defense. Maybe they’re just figuring it out still. I don’t know.”

Shaffer said senior fullback-linebacker Brant Beck is a “little banged up,” but he expects him to be “fine.”

“I think our kids thrive in those competitive situations,” Shaffer said. “I think they’re excited to play an 8-0 team, a team that won a sectional last year. … And they haven’t lost a whole lot of pieces other than Kelly and Kile.”

Bremen (5-3, 3-1 Indiana Northern State Conference) at Tippecanoe Valley (6-2, 3-1), 7 PM

Tippecanoe Valley’s Wyatt Bradley

Tippecanoe Valley senior running back-outside linebacker Grady Moriarty might not be well known for his passing, but his 55-yard touchdown pass to Jamison Phillips in the first quarter set the tone in a 42-7 win over John Glenn last week.

His throw even caught coach Stephen Moriarty – “like … what?” coach Moriarty laughed when recalling his reaction – by surprise when Valley ran the trick play on the second play from scrimmage.

“I would say that it was, and the reason I’d say that is just because we took the momentum right off the bat,” coach Moriarty said when asked if it was the team’s best start to a game this season. “With Grady being able to throw that touchdown pass turned the tide, and then Wyatt Bradley recovered a fumble the very next play on their very first offensive series, and then we scored right again, I think that kind of set the tone for us, and I do think that’s one of the better starts we’ve had this year.”

Defensively, Valley blanked John Glenn until the fourth quarter, and by that point, they had a 42-point lead, and a running clock was in effect.

“Their quarterback (Archer Rust), he ran a lot,” coach Moriarty said. “He’s such a good athlete, and he has the ability to run option and containing him on the pass was a difficult challenge for us, but I think we were able to shut down the running game which led to them throwing the ball quite a bit, and I think we played good assignment football, and the secondary worked well together. We had good communication, and we kept the defense simple, which increased our speed a little bit. We’ve been doing better with that and keeping the kids comfortable with what they’re doing so they could just read, react and fly.”

Valley’s chances at winning the INSC ended last week after Knox beat Bremen 44-15 to complete a 5-0 run through the conference. As a result, their game at Smith-Bibler Memorial Field: Home of Death Valley Football will be for sole possession of second place.

Bremen senior quarterback Jack Wildauer has thrown for 407 yards and added another 371 yards rushing on 5.6 yards per carry. Wildauer even had a 56-yard reception on a pass from freshman Jake Rodriguez last week.

Wildauer’s two best running games of the season came in his last two games against Culver Academy and Knox, and his 163 yards rushing two weeks ago in a 40-24 win over Culver Academy were a career high.

Coach Moriarty compared Wildauer to Rust, the quarterback they faced last week.

“He reminds me exactly like John Glenn’s quarterback, especially the way he moves,” coach Moriarty said. “He’s a very talented runner. Being able to keep him in the pocket will be key for us this week to stop a very good Bremen team.”

Defensively, Bremen gave up 395 yards rushing and five touchdowns to Knox Mr. Football candidate Myles McLaughlin last week, but they also have four games in which they held their opponent to 14 points or fewer, and they also were stout in a 24-10 win over Valley last year.

Bremen coach Justin Bogunia is in his first season, but he has previous head coaching experience at John Glenn from 1998-2013. He won a sectional there in 2001 and a regional in 2004 and is the winningest coach in that school’s history.

“They run a 3-4, but at some point in time, it will look like a 5-2 almost the way they walk up their outside linebackers,” coach Moriarty said. “Their linebackers have a lot of speed to them, and they’ll play very aggressively. One of the things we’re going to have to do this week is learn to pick up a blitz because they like to blitz a lot. And even when they (try) a run-stopping blitz, we need to try to pick that up. I think overall, their linebackers are comparable to the best we’ve seen this year.”

Coach Moriarty said that Kolten Sisk will be back after missing last week’s game due to “issues.” Grady Moriarty is “questionable” with a foot injury, but coach Moriarty later added that he’ll “probably” play.

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

It would not appear time of possession was a factor in Caston’s 35-0 loss to North Judson last week.

Ashton Bowyer ran for 83 yards, and Caston had 65 offensive snaps as compared to North Judson’s 40.

“He runs hard,” Caston coach Chris Ulerick said of Bowyer. “When we give him a crease, there were a few times where he got into open space and was able to make hay, but against a team like North Judson, sometimes you’ve got to live with those three and four-yard grinds. And we get frustrated. I don’t think he necessarily gets frustrated with it, but we get frustrated with it, and we have one negative play, and we just can’t overcome some of those situations.”

But Caston fell behind 20-0 at halftime and eventually lost to reigning Class 1A state runner-up North Judson 35-0 in a game that had a running clock for the fourth quarter.

Winamac is coming off a 38-16 win over winless South Central to claim their second win in eight games. The 38 points and 493 yards rushing were season highs.

“First of all, we were able to get off the ball a little bit better than what we had in the past couple weeks,” Winamac coach Josh Burgess said of the productivity. “I thought our guys played a lot better. They were a lot more aggressive. And then, with two guys over 100 (yards rushing), we got a lot of guys involved. We had five guys right around 40 yards-plus. When we get guys like Tearson Wolford, Xavier Adriano, Ethan Burgess, Ivan Cardenas had some carries and Michael Shidler, so the more guys we can get involved in the run game, the better off it usually goes for us. So I thought up front we were a little bit better, and we were able to get a lot of different guys involved carrying the ball.”

Now a Caston defense that gave up 241 yards rushing on 8.0 yards per carry against North Judson will try to stop the running duo of running back Wolford and quarterback Adriano. Ulerick compared them to former Pittsburgh Steelers stars.

“It looks like him and the 8 kid, they’re just big, physical kids,” Ulerick said, referring to Wolford and then Adriano by uniform number. “Back in my day, it would be like Ben Roethlisberger and Jerome Bettis. They’re just big, tough kids, and you’re going to have to hit them hard and hit them low and make sure they don’t hit you with just their physical size and power.”

As for Winamac’s defense, they had to face pass-happy South Central last week and will have to face another capable passing attack with Caston’s brother duo of quarterback Gavin Mollenkopf and receiver Logan Mollenkopf.

However, Caston figures to be more balanced than South Central.

“He’s going to be a tough cover for us,” Burgess said. “He’s pretty athletic. He’s a pretty good sized kid for a sophomore, and obviously, with his brother throwing him the ball, they know each other pretty well, and I think his brother Gavin looks for him quite a bit in the passing game, so we’ll have to make sure if we get the run shut off, we can’t forget about their passing game because they’re more than capable of moving the ball through the air as well.”

Winamac has won the last 13 meetings in the series and has not lost to Caston since 2012.

“We’re going to have to match their speed and match their aggressiveness in order to have any sort of success at all,” Ulerick said.

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

Pioneer has cut their defensive scoring average from 21 points per game last year to just 10 this year. They have four shutouts and are coming off back-to-back blankings of Culver and Triton to put themselves in a position to play in a conference championship game at North Judson’s Liberty Field tonight.

“We wanted to get back to priding ourself on the defensive side of the ball, and when we have quality teams, our defense is the staple of our team, and I think our defense this year has continued to improve,” Pioneer coach Adam Berry said. “They’re playing as a team. They’re doing their job, and they’re playing fast, and I also have to credit our staff to be able to adjust to different styles of football and putting a great game plan in place, and our guys are believing.”

Offensively, Pioneer did not complete a pass against Triton in a 42-0 win last week. Given that the offense compiled 363 yards rushing on 8.4 yards per carry, the passing game was not needed.

Micah Rans, Noah VanMeter and Shiloh Rine have all led the team in rushing yards in a game at some point this season, and those three plus Phillip McFatridge have all had at least one 100-yard rushing game this season.

“Our goal is to always be balanced,” Berry said. “I think in my 10 years, this is the most balanced we’ve been going into Week 9. I do think it is hard for teams to prepare for us. If they want to take away maybe the outside plays with Rine and Phillip and Rans, then we have Noah going up the middle. If they want to try and take away the middle, we feel like we can possibly get to the outside with our other guys. So I do feel like we are balanced. Our passing game is coming along, even though we still are not passing a ton, it is coming along. So I do feel like we have that balanced offense that we were wanting going into a championship conference game and heading into sectionals.”

However, North Judson is allowing just 12 points per game, and they are coming off a 35-0 shutout win at Caston last week. They have allowed just 21 points in their last four games combined. Like Pioneer, their only loss was to Knox. They have won seven straight games since having to face national prep leading rusher Myles McLaughlin in a 38-6 loss to Knox in their season opener.

Brett Lambert has a 67-21 record in seven seasons as North Judson’s coach. In his last 30 games, his record is 27-3.

“The first thing you can just tell is they’re strong,” Berry said of the Blue Jay defense. “They get to the ball, and it’s hard to move some of their guys. I feel like our offensive line is playing well right now. I think we had our best offensive line game last week, and I think it’s going to have to be even better this week. You know, because they’re well-disciplined, and you know they’re going to be well-coached. Coach Lambert knows what we like to do, and we just have to execute a little bit better than them this week.”

Quarterback Ayson Harper has inherited the offensive reins after the graduation of Jesiah McDaniel, and he will be handing off to fellow sophomore Aiden McGowen and junior Logan Pradke among others on an offense where carries seem to be spread around.

“We feel like we’re pretty balanced offensively, but looking at North Judson and breaking their film down and looking at their MaxPreps stats, they are just as balanced,” Berry said. “On the flip side of things, it is hard to prepare for. They run a similar offense with different verbiage. They run a lot of plays where a quarterback can keep it, he can give, and he can pitch. As a sophomore, I feel like he’s running the offense as well. I think he gained a lot of knowledge playing behind that great team last year, and that quarterback is just carrying it on this year, and they have their offense rolling.”

Pioneer has lost their last four meetings with North Judson, including a 60-18 loss at the Panther Pit last year. Prior to that, Pioneer defeated North Judson 14 straight times from 2009-21.

That might suggest a new role: A team that went 30-0 over two seasons from 2017-18 and a team that had 26 consecutive winning seasons from 1996-2021 might just be the upstart team in the rivalry, and Pioneer’s opponent – and not the Panthers themselves – is the team trying to maintain its place atop the conference hierarchy.

“A lot of guys that are senior starters, they were starting as freshmen as well,” Berry said. “So they have just continued to gain that Friday night knowledge. They definitely are more physically mature. We had our senior night dinner. The parents always put on a slide show, and I was thinking, ‘Wow, those kids were freshmen in those photos playing varsity football.’ So they have definitely matured physically. They have gotten stronger. And … the mental side of the game. We threw them into the fire as young players and learning on the fly. They’ve retained that knowledge. They’ve made those adjustments, and now as seniors, we're just fine-tuning some things. They already know expectations of our base stuff, and they’re able to make in-game adjustments and adjust on the fly.”

Berry said his team is “100 percent healthy.”

South Central (Union Mills) (0-8, 0-6 Hoosier North) at Culver (2-6, 1-5), 7:30 p.m.

Culver lost to North Miami 37-0 last week, marking the third shutout loss in their last four games.

“The biggest thing obviously is just not having enough consistency,” Culver coach Austin Foust said. “So we’ve been really working with our guys on being more consistent up front and not getting off our blocks too early and making sure we’re running good routes. I felt like (against) North Miami, we took a step forward offensively as far as running the ball. We had probably one of our better running days we’ve had here in the last couple weeks. Obviously, North Miami is a good, physical team too, so just focusing on really ourselves and just getting better at the little things so we can hopefully put points on the board Friday.”

After facing running-oriented teams in North Miami and Pioneer the last two weeks, Culver will take on pass-happy South Central and quarterback Rylon Rondo this week.

“I think we have for sure,” Foust said when asked if the team has improved its run defense since the start of the season. “We found what probably gets our best personnel on the field is a 5-3, which some of the things with a 5-3, you’re obviously loaded up in the box, and you give teams the ability to get outside, so that’s something that we’ve really had to work at stopping, and I felt like we’ve done a better job at making teams earn it and being able to stop the run and not giving them a lot of easy things, and once our kids did that, and we did it with being able to get better at tackling, that made us a lot better. We just got to get the offense to go along with it.”

Culver and South Central split their two meetings last year with South Central winning the regular season meeting and Culver the sectional meeting. Culver has eliminated South Central from the sectional each of the last four years. If they were to meet this year, it would occur in the sectional final.

South Central senior quarterback Rylon Rondo has thrown for 930 yards and also leads the team with 276 yards rushing. But the Satellites have only managed 2.3 yards per carry, and opponents have picked off Rondo 14 times on top of that.

“He’s an athletic kid,” Foust said. “He’s got a good arm. He’s started some games last year as well, so he showed what he’s capable of doing. They’ve struggled a little some offensively this year, but … he had some big passing numbers last year, and he’s a good quarterback, and he’s capable of hurting you if we allow him to with his feet and arm.”

Culver averaged 33 points per game in two meetings last year against South Central. The Satellites are allowing 48.5 points per game this year, and both Tearson Wolford and Xavier Adriano ran for over 100 yards against them in a 38-16 loss to Winamac last week.

“I think they’re just young and still trying to figure out this conference,” Foust said.