Week 9 preview: Caston searches for conference win against Knox

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Knox (2-6, 1-4 Hoosier North) at Caston (2-6, 0-6), 7:30 p.m.

Caston fell to 0-6 in conference play with their 49-8 loss to conference and sectional rival Winamac last week. They have not won a conference game since September 2016.

Grant Hickle led with 111 yards rushing, and Landon Shafer had a touchdown run in the fourth quarter, but Caston could not keep up with the undefeated Warriors.

They also committed four turnovers.

“They did a really good job,” Caston coach Will Porter said. “Their fullback-slash-linebacker number 18 (Hayden Clark) did a really good job. They were moving well to our motion and really blitzing hard into gaps and just making it really difficult for us to really get things going. Plus, it was kind of a wet field, and guys were not getting good footing and things like that anyway.

“Not to make excuses. They’re definitely well coached, and Winamac played a very strong game, but it was just very difficult for us to get things going. We had a couple drives where we would start to get things moving a little bit, but we would do things to shoot ourselves in the foot.”

Caston’s home regular season finale is against a Knox team that is winless on the road. Knox broke a four-game losing streak with a 37-21 win over Triton last week. The 37 points were a season high. Junior quarterback Cohen Watson leads the offense, and the defense rebounded after a 34-14 loss to Pioneer two weeks ago.

“They’re definitely like any of the other conference teams,” Porter said. “We are in a physical conference, and all these teams play great defense. It’s one of those things that I’ve been talking to our kids about. Our conference does such a great job of preparing us for the sectionals. If we can get into this game and play hard for our seniors … and if we can come out with a win and play hard, it’s going to be great momentum for us to go into the sectionals with. From just playing with them, just like all these other teams, those defenses are hard hitting, and Knox is no stranger to that as well.”