Local High School Previews For Week 4
September 8, 2021 at 11:31 p.m.
By Anthony Anderson & Steve Krah-
When: Friday, 7 p.m., Steele Stadium, Mishawaka.
Series (last 35 years): Warsaw, 1-0.
John Harrell’s prediction: Mishawaka, 35-21.
Last meeting: Sept. 11, 2020, Warsaw, 40-32.
About Warsaw: Coach Bart Curtis’ Tigers beat visiting Plymouth 43-14 in Week 3 … Warsaw led 36-0 at halftime … German Flores-Ortega (10 carries for 81 yards and one touchdown), Leyton Isbell (three carries for 59 yards) and Julius Jones (three carries for 53 yards and one TD) led the Tiger rushing attack … On the season, Curtis Tucker (3-of-8 for 56 yards) leads in passing, Jones (19 carries for 297 yards and five touchdowns), Tucker (39 carries for 242 yards and two TDs) and Flores-Ortega (48 carries for 238 yards and four TDs) in rushing and Jones (two catches for 44 yards) and Flores-Ortega (one catch for 12 yards) in receiving … As a team, Warsaw averages 7.7 yards per rush and all but two of 29 first downs have come on the ground … Total tackle pacesetters are Aiden Binkerd (14 with two sacks), Theo Katris (13.5), Jonney Burritt (13.5) and Nicholas Katris (13.5).
Per Warsaw coach Bart Curtis:
On Mishawaka — They are seasoned. They are well-schooled in all phases of the game. They play awfully darn hard. We’re going to have to meet or exceed the manner in which they play the game … Defensively, they are far better than they were a year ago. Offensively, they are extremely efficient … They utilize their personnel well … There’s a lot at stake. They’re playing for a conference championship every Friday night. We’re playing for a conference championship every Friday night …They’re going to honor (former defensive coordinator) Greg Smith (who died in March) prior to kickoff. It’s going to be such an emotional evening for so many. We miss him everyday.
Area of improvement — Our kick coverage Friday was better than the prior 35 games I’ve been able to coach here. Our kicker put the ball in the right spots. We stay in our lanes until its not time to be in their lanes. They enjoy contact and really want to bring the ball carrier down … (Special teams coach) Cole Richards works awful hard at it and he’s into it.
On Plymouth game — We came out and played like we’re interested which is always important. We were able to strike early and often … Our varsity defense had a shutout. The JV’s gave up a score on defense and offense in the second half.
About Mishawaka: Coach Keith Kinder’s Cavemen topped Goshen 36-7 in Week 3 … Mishawaka gained 405 yards on the ground … When starting quarterback Justin Fisher went off with a leg injury his brother — Brady Fisher — came on and passed for one touchdown and ran for another in the second half for the Cavemen. He rushed 12 times for 99 yards … On a night when Mishawaka produced 455 yards of total offense, Chase Gooden ran 23 times for 127 yards and one TD while Chaz Hardy had four carries for 76 yards and one TD.
Manchester (1-1 overall, 1-0 TRC) at Tippecanoe Valley (3-0, 2-0)
When: Friday, 7 p.m, Smith-Bibler Memorial Field.
Series: Valley leads 40-7.
Last meeting: Valley won 48-18, Oct. 9, 2020.
Last Manchester win: 27-20, Sept. 6, 2014.
John Harrell’s prediction: Valley, 42-17.
About Manchester: The Squires, after having their Week 2 game canceled by virtue of contact tracing numbers, returned to action last week with a first-ever meeting against Winamac. The Class 1A No. 6-rated Warriors (3-0) won 35-18. … Manchester led 6-0 through one quarter and trailed just 28-18 after three periods. … Senior Braxton Ream rushed for 160 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries for the Squires, while junior Brock Casper was 9-of-25 throwing for 140 yards, two TDs and one interception. Senior Seth Gaerte caught three passes for 98 yards, including a 72-yard score. … Over two games, including the Squires’ season-opening 42-6 win at North Miami, Casper has fired seven TD passes, including three to Gaerte. … Defensively, Dominic Lincoln and Dylan Stroud have been in on 23 and 22 tackles, respectively, while fellow senior Trevor Dill has forced three fumbles.
About Valley: The Vikings’ 3-0 start is their best since 6-0 in 2007. Their three straight wins by at least 30 points marks the second straight season they’ve compiled such a streak, but it’s also just the second time in the last 10 years. … Senior wingback Jamasyn Virgil rushed for four TDs and 119 yards on 12 carries in last week’s 45-9 victory at Peru. He’s up to 257 yards on just 25 carries with five TDs on the season. … Senior quarterback Branson McBrier hit on 8-of-9 passes against the Tigers to push his season totals to 17-of-23 for 270 yards with two TDs and no interceptions. … Sophomore safety Wade Jones intercepted a pass for the third straight game — giving him six picks in 12 career varsity contests. … Sophomore defensive end Dalton Alber leads Valley with 18 solo tackles. Junior Karl Parker leads in tackles for loss with seven. … As a team, the Vikings have 14 takeaways to two giveaways.
Manchester coach Alyx Brandewie:
On last week: “After not finding out our opponent until Tuesday afternoon, our kids went out and competed their butts off. They really did. We have plenty to fix, plenty to clean up, but I challenge anybody to say our kids didn’t give a max effort. We were really proud of that. We didn’t do some technical and schematic things as well as we would’ve liked, but we’ll keep working. It was an awesome opportunity for our guys against a great, disciplined program.”
On Valley: “I told my AD, yeah, just throw us into the meat grinder. We go from one hard, physical contest against a great program to another one this week, and then we’ve got (Northfield and Southwood the next two weeks). (Valley’s) very talented. Coach Moriarty’s got some really good football players up and down that roster. Virgil’s a stud on both sides, fast, physical, aggressive, and then (tailback Braden) Shepherd and (receiver Rex) Kirchenstien, those are darn good athletes, and then you have (lineman Wade) Melanson moving the way 350-pound guys are not suppose to be able to move. He creates some real issues.”
On Ream: “One thing I would mention is that Braxton Ream had four carries of 25 or more yards, but unfortunately for us, we were in a position where we were trailing most of the night, so we didn’t feel like we could run more, but we were really happy to see him get going the way he can.”
Valley coach Steve Moriarty:
On last week: “I thought the first half we came out a little shaky (Valley trailed for the first time this season, 2-0, but scored the next 22 points). We got some things ironed out at halftime and ended up being OK. I thought the offensive line did a good job picking up blitzes and I thought our defense played really well overall.”
On Manchester: “Ream at tailback and their wide receiver, Gaerte, are very explosive athletes. With both of them on the field at the same time, we gotta try to shut down one and still play good man-up on the other one. I think this will be the most explosive offense we’ve faced so far.”
On middle linebacker: DJ Estep stepped up there (after the likely season-ending shoulder injury to Joel Cisneros the week before), and Noah Prater as well. Both of them will see some time there, probably Estep the majority of it. Coming from the defensive line, he knows where everybody should be lined up. He hadn’t played (MLB) before and he did OK.”
Bremen (1-2) at Triton (2-1)
When: Friday, 7 p.m., Trojan Field, Bourbon.
Last meeting: Sept. 11, 2020, Bremen, 41-0.
About Bremen: Coach Jordan Leeper’s Lions lost 48-6 against visiting Mishawaka Marian in Week 3 … Bremen intercepted two Knight passes … Ethan Nunemaker (15-of-27 for 216 yards and one TD) guides the Lions in passing, Lance Moser (44 carries for 309 yards and three TDs) and Austin McKenzie (29 carries of 179 yards and one TD) in rushing and A Shively (nine catches for 148 yards and one TD) in receiving … Total tackle leaders are Shivley (8) and Marty Manges (8) … The Lions have beaten Triton 11 straight times.
About Triton: Coach Rodney Younis’ Trojans beat visiting Caston 35-16 in Week 3 … Anthony Schuh (14 carries for 163 yards and three touchdowns) and Trace Schuh (13 carries for 69 yards and one TD) were rushing leaders for Triton … Josh Lemler (seven tackles, one forced fumble), Tyler Amsden (4.5 tackles, two fumble recoveries) and Landon Lemler (7.5 tackles, one fumble recovery) were defensive standouts for the Trojans … For the season, Cole Shively (15-of-36 for 118 yards and one TD) leads Triton in passing, Anthony Schuh (61 carries for 424 yards and five TDs) and Shively (22 carries for 99 yards) in rushing and Amari Snyder (eight catches for 65 yards) in receiving … Pacing in total tackles are Landon Lemler (23), Reilley Wood (22), Brayden Cunningham (22) and Snyder (20). Amsden has recovered two fumbles.
Per Triton coach Rodney Younis:
On Bremen — It’s always a tough week preparing for Bremen. You can’t simulate their size and speed. After a tough Mishawaka Marian game, the game is going to slow down for them and speed up for us … We need to make sure we’re doing our (defensive) reads and get many hats to the ball.
Schuh brothers — They both have powers. Anthony has some speed to go along with it. Trace is a hard runner. When it’s tough yards he’s the one we like to give the ball to. Team can’t focus on one running back … We feel like we have multiple weapons. We’ll go with a hot hand. We want to be as balanced as we can be.
On Caston game — The two areas I was pleased with is that we didn’t turn the ball over and reduced our penalties. We struggled in those areas against LaVille … Caston runs the option and they can get three yards a pop. Our defense did a good job of bending and not breaking … It was a tough week (after the death of Cameron Fairchild on Aug. 28), but our kids really stuck together and played as a unit.
Whitko (0-3, 0-2 TRC) at Maconaquah (0-1, 0-1)
When: Friday, 7 p.m., Maconaquah HS.
Series: Maconaquah leads 5-2.
Last meeting: Maconaquah won 31-28, Sept. 11, 2020.
Last Whitko win: 36-7, Sept. 2, 2016.
John Harrell’s prediction: Maconaquah, 31-21.
About Whitko: The Wildcats fell 35-6 to Rochester last week, avoiding the shutout when quarterback Slater Craig scored on a 9-yard scamper with 23 seconds remaining. Whitko was never blanked last year, and hasn’t been this year, after being held to zero eight times over the 2018 and 2019 seasons. … The Zebras, powered by star fullback Alex Deming, led 21-0 at halftime. Deming had 232 yards and three second-quarter touchdowns on 21 carries by the break. He finished at 260 yards. … Sophomore lineman Dean Boggs racked up 14 tackles, including three for loss, against Rochester, pushing his season total to 29, second only to senior standout Tyler Veach’s 35 for the Wildcats.
About Maconaquah: The Braves, under their fourth head coach in five years — same as Whitko — finally opened their season last week, losing 48-0 at Northfield (1-2). Mac’s first two games were canceled “due to COVID numbers,” according to the school. … New HC Tyler Campbell, a 2015 Attica High grad who attended Purdue, already owns a varied background that includes helping a middle school program while in college, serving as offensive quality control analyst for Jackson (Miss.) State in 2018, assisting at Illinois Wesleyan in 2019, assisting with the Dallas Renegades of the XFL in the spring of 2020 and going 4-3 last fall as head coach at Covington. At Mac, he succeeds Brad Purcell, who departed for Indianapolis Ritter after a 5-4 finish in his lone year aboard. … The Braves heavily preferred the pass in their opener, with sophomore Braxton Birner completing 22-of-33 for 149 yards. Freshman Klaytin Kile made six catches for 80 yards. … On defense, senior Matt Ingram, Mac’s top tackler a year ago, had 10 tackles and a fumble recovery.
Whitko coach Chip Coldiron:
On last week: “We were solid for a quarter and a half, playing defense, moving the ball, but then they busted off a long touchdown in the second quarter (Deming’s 78-yarder on a third-and-9 trap play), where we kind of missed an open-field tackle, and then we fumbled right away inside our 15 and they got another quick score, and at that point, the kids hung their heads a little bit. We’re getting to the point, though, where we’re looking at a handful of plays and saying, ‘If this didn’t happen … ’ whereas Prairie Heights, it felt like those kinds of things were happening every other play. … That (fumble) was our only one, so we’ve gone from seven to three to one. We’re moving the right way.”
On Maconaquah: “They just had their first game after quarantine. On film, it looked like some typical first-game things (against a team playing its third game), so I think they’re going to be a lot better Week 1 to Week 2. We just gotta do our thing. Block and tackle and stick together.”
On injuries: “We finally had a game where we didn’t have a catastrophic injury (after losing Jack Hill for the season in Week 1 and Izzy Kyles in Week 2). We had a player or two get a little banged up, but they’re OK.”
Concord (2-1, 1-0 Northern Lakes Conference) at Wawasee (0-3, 0-1 NLC)
When: Friday, 7 p.m., Warrior Stadium, Syracuse.
Series (last 35 years): Concord, 35-6.
John Harrell’s prediction: Concord, 28-10.
Last meeting: Sept. 12, Concord, 28-7.
About Concord: Coach Craig Koehler’s Minutemen outlasted NorthWood 30-29 in overtime in Week 3 … Concord prevailed when the Panthers did not convert a two-point attempt in OT … Anthony Trudell’s touchdown reception from Hunter Dutton plus an extra point from Miguel Aguilar accounted for the Minutemen’s points in the extra period … Dutton passed for 329 yards and three TDs. Amarion Moore caught three passes for 73 yards and one TD. Jack D’Arcy had five receptions for 93 yards .. On defense, Zaven Koltookian (nine tackles with 2.5 for loss and one sack), Will Odihambo (seven tackles and one interception), Ephram Lake (four tackles with one for loss and one sack) were defensive stalwarts for the Minutemen.
About Wawasee: Coach Jon Reutebuch’s Warriors lost 42-0 at Northridge in Week 3 … Just 28 players dressed for Wawasee (as of Tuesday night five starters were still out because of injury or COVID-19 issues) … The Warriors were led in rushing by Cameron Zimmerman (28 yards) … Wawasee punted seven times.
Per Wawasee coach Jon Reutebuch:
On Concord — They’re talented and well-coached. Hopefully we can get some guys back and compete at a high level.
Progress stalled — After the first game kids were beginning to understand their roles. We haven’t been the same team since the week before West Noble. We still don’t have everybody back yet. Some kids returned from sickness then went into quarantine.
On Northridge game — I’m proud of the boys that were there. We were vastly undermanned. Hopefully get some kids back this week so we can be competitive again.
When: Friday, 7 p.m., Steele Stadium, Mishawaka.
Series (last 35 years): Warsaw, 1-0.
John Harrell’s prediction: Mishawaka, 35-21.
Last meeting: Sept. 11, 2020, Warsaw, 40-32.
About Warsaw: Coach Bart Curtis’ Tigers beat visiting Plymouth 43-14 in Week 3 … Warsaw led 36-0 at halftime … German Flores-Ortega (10 carries for 81 yards and one touchdown), Leyton Isbell (three carries for 59 yards) and Julius Jones (three carries for 53 yards and one TD) led the Tiger rushing attack … On the season, Curtis Tucker (3-of-8 for 56 yards) leads in passing, Jones (19 carries for 297 yards and five touchdowns), Tucker (39 carries for 242 yards and two TDs) and Flores-Ortega (48 carries for 238 yards and four TDs) in rushing and Jones (two catches for 44 yards) and Flores-Ortega (one catch for 12 yards) in receiving … As a team, Warsaw averages 7.7 yards per rush and all but two of 29 first downs have come on the ground … Total tackle pacesetters are Aiden Binkerd (14 with two sacks), Theo Katris (13.5), Jonney Burritt (13.5) and Nicholas Katris (13.5).
Per Warsaw coach Bart Curtis:
On Mishawaka — They are seasoned. They are well-schooled in all phases of the game. They play awfully darn hard. We’re going to have to meet or exceed the manner in which they play the game … Defensively, they are far better than they were a year ago. Offensively, they are extremely efficient … They utilize their personnel well … There’s a lot at stake. They’re playing for a conference championship every Friday night. We’re playing for a conference championship every Friday night …They’re going to honor (former defensive coordinator) Greg Smith (who died in March) prior to kickoff. It’s going to be such an emotional evening for so many. We miss him everyday.
Area of improvement — Our kick coverage Friday was better than the prior 35 games I’ve been able to coach here. Our kicker put the ball in the right spots. We stay in our lanes until its not time to be in their lanes. They enjoy contact and really want to bring the ball carrier down … (Special teams coach) Cole Richards works awful hard at it and he’s into it.
On Plymouth game — We came out and played like we’re interested which is always important. We were able to strike early and often … Our varsity defense had a shutout. The JV’s gave up a score on defense and offense in the second half.
About Mishawaka: Coach Keith Kinder’s Cavemen topped Goshen 36-7 in Week 3 … Mishawaka gained 405 yards on the ground … When starting quarterback Justin Fisher went off with a leg injury his brother — Brady Fisher — came on and passed for one touchdown and ran for another in the second half for the Cavemen. He rushed 12 times for 99 yards … On a night when Mishawaka produced 455 yards of total offense, Chase Gooden ran 23 times for 127 yards and one TD while Chaz Hardy had four carries for 76 yards and one TD.
Manchester (1-1 overall, 1-0 TRC) at Tippecanoe Valley (3-0, 2-0)
When: Friday, 7 p.m, Smith-Bibler Memorial Field.
Series: Valley leads 40-7.
Last meeting: Valley won 48-18, Oct. 9, 2020.
Last Manchester win: 27-20, Sept. 6, 2014.
John Harrell’s prediction: Valley, 42-17.
About Manchester: The Squires, after having their Week 2 game canceled by virtue of contact tracing numbers, returned to action last week with a first-ever meeting against Winamac. The Class 1A No. 6-rated Warriors (3-0) won 35-18. … Manchester led 6-0 through one quarter and trailed just 28-18 after three periods. … Senior Braxton Ream rushed for 160 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries for the Squires, while junior Brock Casper was 9-of-25 throwing for 140 yards, two TDs and one interception. Senior Seth Gaerte caught three passes for 98 yards, including a 72-yard score. … Over two games, including the Squires’ season-opening 42-6 win at North Miami, Casper has fired seven TD passes, including three to Gaerte. … Defensively, Dominic Lincoln and Dylan Stroud have been in on 23 and 22 tackles, respectively, while fellow senior Trevor Dill has forced three fumbles.
About Valley: The Vikings’ 3-0 start is their best since 6-0 in 2007. Their three straight wins by at least 30 points marks the second straight season they’ve compiled such a streak, but it’s also just the second time in the last 10 years. … Senior wingback Jamasyn Virgil rushed for four TDs and 119 yards on 12 carries in last week’s 45-9 victory at Peru. He’s up to 257 yards on just 25 carries with five TDs on the season. … Senior quarterback Branson McBrier hit on 8-of-9 passes against the Tigers to push his season totals to 17-of-23 for 270 yards with two TDs and no interceptions. … Sophomore safety Wade Jones intercepted a pass for the third straight game — giving him six picks in 12 career varsity contests. … Sophomore defensive end Dalton Alber leads Valley with 18 solo tackles. Junior Karl Parker leads in tackles for loss with seven. … As a team, the Vikings have 14 takeaways to two giveaways.
Manchester coach Alyx Brandewie:
On last week: “After not finding out our opponent until Tuesday afternoon, our kids went out and competed their butts off. They really did. We have plenty to fix, plenty to clean up, but I challenge anybody to say our kids didn’t give a max effort. We were really proud of that. We didn’t do some technical and schematic things as well as we would’ve liked, but we’ll keep working. It was an awesome opportunity for our guys against a great, disciplined program.”
On Valley: “I told my AD, yeah, just throw us into the meat grinder. We go from one hard, physical contest against a great program to another one this week, and then we’ve got (Northfield and Southwood the next two weeks). (Valley’s) very talented. Coach Moriarty’s got some really good football players up and down that roster. Virgil’s a stud on both sides, fast, physical, aggressive, and then (tailback Braden) Shepherd and (receiver Rex) Kirchenstien, those are darn good athletes, and then you have (lineman Wade) Melanson moving the way 350-pound guys are not suppose to be able to move. He creates some real issues.”
On Ream: “One thing I would mention is that Braxton Ream had four carries of 25 or more yards, but unfortunately for us, we were in a position where we were trailing most of the night, so we didn’t feel like we could run more, but we were really happy to see him get going the way he can.”
Valley coach Steve Moriarty:
On last week: “I thought the first half we came out a little shaky (Valley trailed for the first time this season, 2-0, but scored the next 22 points). We got some things ironed out at halftime and ended up being OK. I thought the offensive line did a good job picking up blitzes and I thought our defense played really well overall.”
On Manchester: “Ream at tailback and their wide receiver, Gaerte, are very explosive athletes. With both of them on the field at the same time, we gotta try to shut down one and still play good man-up on the other one. I think this will be the most explosive offense we’ve faced so far.”
On middle linebacker: DJ Estep stepped up there (after the likely season-ending shoulder injury to Joel Cisneros the week before), and Noah Prater as well. Both of them will see some time there, probably Estep the majority of it. Coming from the defensive line, he knows where everybody should be lined up. He hadn’t played (MLB) before and he did OK.”
Bremen (1-2) at Triton (2-1)
When: Friday, 7 p.m., Trojan Field, Bourbon.
Last meeting: Sept. 11, 2020, Bremen, 41-0.
About Bremen: Coach Jordan Leeper’s Lions lost 48-6 against visiting Mishawaka Marian in Week 3 … Bremen intercepted two Knight passes … Ethan Nunemaker (15-of-27 for 216 yards and one TD) guides the Lions in passing, Lance Moser (44 carries for 309 yards and three TDs) and Austin McKenzie (29 carries of 179 yards and one TD) in rushing and A Shively (nine catches for 148 yards and one TD) in receiving … Total tackle leaders are Shivley (8) and Marty Manges (8) … The Lions have beaten Triton 11 straight times.
About Triton: Coach Rodney Younis’ Trojans beat visiting Caston 35-16 in Week 3 … Anthony Schuh (14 carries for 163 yards and three touchdowns) and Trace Schuh (13 carries for 69 yards and one TD) were rushing leaders for Triton … Josh Lemler (seven tackles, one forced fumble), Tyler Amsden (4.5 tackles, two fumble recoveries) and Landon Lemler (7.5 tackles, one fumble recovery) were defensive standouts for the Trojans … For the season, Cole Shively (15-of-36 for 118 yards and one TD) leads Triton in passing, Anthony Schuh (61 carries for 424 yards and five TDs) and Shively (22 carries for 99 yards) in rushing and Amari Snyder (eight catches for 65 yards) in receiving … Pacing in total tackles are Landon Lemler (23), Reilley Wood (22), Brayden Cunningham (22) and Snyder (20). Amsden has recovered two fumbles.
Per Triton coach Rodney Younis:
On Bremen — It’s always a tough week preparing for Bremen. You can’t simulate their size and speed. After a tough Mishawaka Marian game, the game is going to slow down for them and speed up for us … We need to make sure we’re doing our (defensive) reads and get many hats to the ball.
Schuh brothers — They both have powers. Anthony has some speed to go along with it. Trace is a hard runner. When it’s tough yards he’s the one we like to give the ball to. Team can’t focus on one running back … We feel like we have multiple weapons. We’ll go with a hot hand. We want to be as balanced as we can be.
On Caston game — The two areas I was pleased with is that we didn’t turn the ball over and reduced our penalties. We struggled in those areas against LaVille … Caston runs the option and they can get three yards a pop. Our defense did a good job of bending and not breaking … It was a tough week (after the death of Cameron Fairchild on Aug. 28), but our kids really stuck together and played as a unit.
Whitko (0-3, 0-2 TRC) at Maconaquah (0-1, 0-1)
When: Friday, 7 p.m., Maconaquah HS.
Series: Maconaquah leads 5-2.
Last meeting: Maconaquah won 31-28, Sept. 11, 2020.
Last Whitko win: 36-7, Sept. 2, 2016.
John Harrell’s prediction: Maconaquah, 31-21.
About Whitko: The Wildcats fell 35-6 to Rochester last week, avoiding the shutout when quarterback Slater Craig scored on a 9-yard scamper with 23 seconds remaining. Whitko was never blanked last year, and hasn’t been this year, after being held to zero eight times over the 2018 and 2019 seasons. … The Zebras, powered by star fullback Alex Deming, led 21-0 at halftime. Deming had 232 yards and three second-quarter touchdowns on 21 carries by the break. He finished at 260 yards. … Sophomore lineman Dean Boggs racked up 14 tackles, including three for loss, against Rochester, pushing his season total to 29, second only to senior standout Tyler Veach’s 35 for the Wildcats.
About Maconaquah: The Braves, under their fourth head coach in five years — same as Whitko — finally opened their season last week, losing 48-0 at Northfield (1-2). Mac’s first two games were canceled “due to COVID numbers,” according to the school. … New HC Tyler Campbell, a 2015 Attica High grad who attended Purdue, already owns a varied background that includes helping a middle school program while in college, serving as offensive quality control analyst for Jackson (Miss.) State in 2018, assisting at Illinois Wesleyan in 2019, assisting with the Dallas Renegades of the XFL in the spring of 2020 and going 4-3 last fall as head coach at Covington. At Mac, he succeeds Brad Purcell, who departed for Indianapolis Ritter after a 5-4 finish in his lone year aboard. … The Braves heavily preferred the pass in their opener, with sophomore Braxton Birner completing 22-of-33 for 149 yards. Freshman Klaytin Kile made six catches for 80 yards. … On defense, senior Matt Ingram, Mac’s top tackler a year ago, had 10 tackles and a fumble recovery.
Whitko coach Chip Coldiron:
On last week: “We were solid for a quarter and a half, playing defense, moving the ball, but then they busted off a long touchdown in the second quarter (Deming’s 78-yarder on a third-and-9 trap play), where we kind of missed an open-field tackle, and then we fumbled right away inside our 15 and they got another quick score, and at that point, the kids hung their heads a little bit. We’re getting to the point, though, where we’re looking at a handful of plays and saying, ‘If this didn’t happen … ’ whereas Prairie Heights, it felt like those kinds of things were happening every other play. … That (fumble) was our only one, so we’ve gone from seven to three to one. We’re moving the right way.”
On Maconaquah: “They just had their first game after quarantine. On film, it looked like some typical first-game things (against a team playing its third game), so I think they’re going to be a lot better Week 1 to Week 2. We just gotta do our thing. Block and tackle and stick together.”
On injuries: “We finally had a game where we didn’t have a catastrophic injury (after losing Jack Hill for the season in Week 1 and Izzy Kyles in Week 2). We had a player or two get a little banged up, but they’re OK.”
Concord (2-1, 1-0 Northern Lakes Conference) at Wawasee (0-3, 0-1 NLC)
When: Friday, 7 p.m., Warrior Stadium, Syracuse.
Series (last 35 years): Concord, 35-6.
John Harrell’s prediction: Concord, 28-10.
Last meeting: Sept. 12, Concord, 28-7.
About Concord: Coach Craig Koehler’s Minutemen outlasted NorthWood 30-29 in overtime in Week 3 … Concord prevailed when the Panthers did not convert a two-point attempt in OT … Anthony Trudell’s touchdown reception from Hunter Dutton plus an extra point from Miguel Aguilar accounted for the Minutemen’s points in the extra period … Dutton passed for 329 yards and three TDs. Amarion Moore caught three passes for 73 yards and one TD. Jack D’Arcy had five receptions for 93 yards .. On defense, Zaven Koltookian (nine tackles with 2.5 for loss and one sack), Will Odihambo (seven tackles and one interception), Ephram Lake (four tackles with one for loss and one sack) were defensive stalwarts for the Minutemen.
About Wawasee: Coach Jon Reutebuch’s Warriors lost 42-0 at Northridge in Week 3 … Just 28 players dressed for Wawasee (as of Tuesday night five starters were still out because of injury or COVID-19 issues) … The Warriors were led in rushing by Cameron Zimmerman (28 yards) … Wawasee punted seven times.
Per Wawasee coach Jon Reutebuch:
On Concord — They’re talented and well-coached. Hopefully we can get some guys back and compete at a high level.
Progress stalled — After the first game kids were beginning to understand their roles. We haven’t been the same team since the week before West Noble. We still don’t have everybody back yet. Some kids returned from sickness then went into quarantine.
On Northridge game — I’m proud of the boys that were there. We were vastly undermanned. Hopefully get some kids back this week so we can be competitive again.
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