On The Gridiron Capsules
September 21, 2017 at 2:28 p.m.
By Staff Report-
Kickoff: 7 p.m. Friday in Goshen
Coaches: Phil Jensen (Warsaw), Kyle Park (Goshen)
Records: Warsaw 2-3 (1-2 NLC), Goshen 1-4 (1-2 NLC)
Last Game: Northridge 24, Warsaw 6; Concord 48, Goshen 14
Last Year: Warsaw 43, Goshen 14
Matchup: Trying to rebound from a homecoming loss to Northridge, the Warsaw Tigers travel to Foreman Field Friday to play the Goshen RedHawks. The Tigers have won the last nine meetings in the series, a streak that began when head coach Phil Jensen came back for his second stint with the Tigers. With Jensen as head coach, Warsaw is 13-4 against Goshen. The Tigers will be short-handed Friday as seniors Will McGarvey and Trevor York will not play because of injuries. McGarvey, who reached the 2,000-yard mark in his career two weeks ago in a win at Elkhart Memorial, has rushed for yards and two touchdowns this season on 60 carries. York has caught six passes for 70 yards and a score. Senior QB Tristan Larsh is second on the team with 246 yards and two TDs on 58 carries, while also completing 33 of 66 passes for 348 yards and two TDs with one interception. Senior Zach Riley leads Warsaw in receiving with 13 catches for 155 yards and one score. The Tigers' defense is led by senior Lane McClone, who has 36 tackles, including three tackles for loss. After an 8-3 season a year ago, Goshen has struggled this season. The RedHawks average just 12 points per game, while giving up 22 points per game. In last week's 49-14 loss to Concord, Goshen scored touchdowns on a 96-yard run by Liam Morales and a 48-yard run by Rene Gutierrez. Morales finished the game with 162 yards on 14 carries, while Gutierrez had 61 yards on four attempts. Goshen quarterback Wesley VanHooser completed both of his pass attempts against Concord for a total of 35 yards, but left the game early with an injury. He was replaced by Jack Immel, who was 5 of 15 for 48 yards.
Jensen: "Will (McGarvey) and Trevor (York) are both out. That presents more challenges for an offense that is trying to find its identity. We are focusing on consistency in our offense. Goshen is a run-first, ball-control offense. They want to control the tempo of the game. They have big, physical offensive linemen, and they're very solid on defense. Going on the road in our conference is always tough, but getting a win would be a great step heading into the final third of the season."
MANCHESTER AT TIPPECANOE VALLEY (TRC)
Kickoff: 7 p.m. Friday in Akron
Coaches: Greg Miller (Manchester), Steve Moriarty (Valley)
Records: Manchester 1-4 (0-1 TRC), Valley 1-4 (1-1 TRC)
Last Game: Northfield 70, Manchester 22; Valley 43, Whitko 7
Last Year: Valley 31, Manchester 28
Matchup: The Tippecanoe Valley Vikings will dedicate their field with a new name Friday night, and would love nothing more than to beat rival Manchester in the first game at "Smith-Bibler Memorial Field … Home Of Death Valley Football." The Vikings enter the contest on the heels of their first win of the season, a 43-7 win at Whitko. Manchester comes in on the opposite end of the spectrum, trying to rebound from a 70-22 loss to Northfield. The Squires will be without quarterback Hayes Sturtsman, who is serving an IHSAA-mandated one-game suspension after being ejected last week. Sturtsman has completed 48 of 109 passes for 760 yards with eight touchdowns and one interception. Delton Moore leads Manchester with 430 rushing yards, while Andrew McAtee and Trey Clark have 270 and 255 receiving yards, respectively. For the Vikings, who have won six of the last seven meetings in the series, Tanner Trippiedi has completed 42 of 82 passes for 548 yards and three TDs with six interceptions. Alex Morrison leads the team in rushing with 247 yards, and is the only Valley player to rush for more than 95 yards this season. Noah Miller leads the Vikings with six catches for 117 yards and three TDs, while Wes Melanson has caught eight passes for 104 yards, and Jalen Shepherd four passes for 76 yards and a pair of TDs.
Miller: "(Valley's) changed some things up scheme-wise the last couple of weeks. We'll see what they come out with Friday night, and we'll have to make adjustments during the first quarter, after we see how they're going to play us. You see on film how they play other teams, but not a lot of teams do what we do in spreading out a defense. Hayes dome everything he can to help Devin Markham get ready for his first career start at quarterback. Devin's played some varsity snaps on offense, defense and special teams, but there's nothing quite like being the starting varsity quarterback. But this is why we get him reps in practice. we're excited about this opportunity for Devin. Our team has backed him wholeheartedly, and so has Hayes. Teenagers make mistakes, and Hayes is doing everything he can to make amends for that."
Moriarty: "Manchester has a very good team, and their offense is hard to prepare for. They spread the ball around a lot. I think last week was big because the boys know that if they work hard it will pay off in the long run. Against Whitko, we moved (Bryce) Webster back to tight end and moved (Alex) Morrison to defensive end. Not turning the ball over five teams a game helps as well. This is a big week for our school and the community. Naming the field, and homecoming, there would be nothing better than to bring home a victory."
WHITKO AT SOUTHWOOD (TRC)
Kickoff: 7 p.m. Friday in Wabash
Coaches: Jeff Sprunger (Whitko), Dave Snyder (Southwood)
Records: Whitko 0-5 (0-2 TRC), Southwood 4-1 (1-1 TRC)
Last Game: Valley 43, Whitko 7; Southwood 63, Wabash 21
Last Year: Southwood 52, Whitko 35
Matchup: With a trip to Wabash Friday to play the Southwood Knights, the Whitko Wildcats find themselves in a situation opposite of this time last year. Whitko was 5-0 at this point last season and suffered their first loss to the Knights, 52-35. This time around, the Wildcats are 0-5 and eyeing a first win. Whitko enters the contest on the heels of a 43-7 homecoming loss to Tippecanoe Valley and has been outscored 232-27 this season. Southwood, on the other hand, has outscored its five opponents 227-92 and finds itself a game out of the lead in the Three Rivers Conference South Division standings. The Knights average 310 passing yards per game, and another 160 on the ground. Carson Blair has completed 96 of 141 pass attempts for 1,553 yards with 21 touchdowns and just one interception. Matthew Nose lead the Knights in receiving with 33 catches for 665 yards and 11 TDS, while Peyton Trexler has caught 32 passes for 538 yards and eight scores. Gabe Lloyd leads the Southwood running game with 466 yards and six TDs. Whitko averages 116 yards of offense per game – 74 on the ground and 42 through the air. Cade Bechtold has completed 23 of 51 passes for 203 yards with four interceptions. Hunter Reed leads the Wildcats with seven catches for 71 yards, and is second on the team in rushing with 66 carries for 147 yards. Reed has scored two of the Wildcats' four touchdowns this season. Zach Gardner has carried the ball 72 times for 158 yards.
TRITON AT PIONEER (HNAC)
Kickoff: 6:30 p.m. today in Royal Center
Coaches: Ron Brown (Triton); Adam Berry (Pioneer)
Records: Triton 4-1 (3-0 HNAC); Pioneer 5-0 (3-0 HNAC)
Last Game: Triton 27, Culver Comm. 21 (OT); Pioneer 80, North White 0
Last Year: Pioneer 50, Triton 7
Matchup: Pioneer comes in as the top-ranked team in Class 1A, with its only loss in the last two seasons coming in the 2016 state title game. The Panthers play a physical style of football, with a run-first offense and a defense that has yet to give up a point this season. Pioneer has seven players with at least 13 rushing attempts, all averaging 4.6 yards per carry or better. Junior quarterback Jack Kiser gets better than nine yards a carry, with Austin Mersch and Daniel Gregorich getting more than seven yards an attempt. Kiser throws the ball only about eight times a game, but he's hit seven different receivers. Meanwhile, Triton has made a habit of taking what the defense gives it, and the Trojan defense came up big when it needed to late in last week's game at Culver Community. The key for the Trojans may lie in controlling emotions after the death of junior Cameron Scarberry on Sunday. He was an offensive lineman and linebacker for the Trojans, and that void will be tough to fill. The game was moved up a day to accommodate the visitation for Scarberry, which will be held Friday evening at the Triton auditorium.
Brown: "This week has been a worst-case scenario. We want to be flexible with everybody, letting them take breaks when they need them. Sometimes guys have struggled when we do certain drills because Cam was their partner in that drill. Same thing with our staff; if you need to walk away for a while, you do that. I know my staff has been really good in supporting me. It's been a strange week, and we're trying to find the new normal. We decided, as a team, that we'd play this game for ourselves to try and find that new normal, then dedicate the rest of the season to Cam. I never dreamed that after such a big win at Culver, I'd feel so defeated. But this is where we are now. Pioneer is certainly going to be a challenge; they're the unanimous No. 1 team in the state. But more importantly for me this week was finding out how classy of a program that team is. That speaks volumes for their school A.D., their coach and their community. They reached out to us right off the bat. They're doing some special things, and we had nothing to do with it; they came up with that. They've been very flexible for us, even when we didn't know if we were going to play, and that was on the table. This put them in a bad situation, having to play on a Thursday, so we can get closure for our team and community, and we can be there for Cam Friday and Saturday. That was really big of them, and those things will never show up on any stat sheet. But it's important for people to realize that about their program."
PLYMOUTH AT WAWASEE (NLC)
Kickoff: 7 p.m. Friday in Syracuse
Coaches: John Barron (Plymouth); Mike Eshbach (Wawasee)
Records: Plymouth 4-1 (2-1 NLC); Wawasee 1-4 (0-3 NLC)
Last Game: Plymouth 35, Elkhart Memorial 7; NorthWood 32, Wawasee 0
Last Year: Plymouth 33, Wawasee 16
Matchup: The Rockies come in ranked No. 13 in Class 4A, making them Wawasee's fourth-straight ranked opponent. Plymouth's Blake Reed averages 112 yards rushing per game. Junior QB Cole Filson gets 31 yards a game on the ground and passes for another 81 yards. Benji Nixon is a double threat, averaging almost eight yards a carry and 22 yards per reception. But the big story for Plymouth is its stingy defense, which gives up about 11 points per game, even with a touchdown Northridge scored on a two-yard drive following a turnover. The Rockies have turned the ball over 13 times in five games, including nine lost fumbles. Four of those turnovers came in their loss to Northridge. For Wawasee, healthy bodies remain an issue but QB Aaron Evans is feeling better after playing through a knee injury Friday night at NorthWood. The emphasis at practice this week has been execution of assignments, something head coach Mike Eshbach felt his team has lacked this year, but especially so in the NorthWood game.
Eshbach: "I'm not sure we're going to be healthy in a couple of positions, but at this time of year with knees and ankles they end up being nagging injuries until they have some time to heal. Through the grind of a football season I don't know you'll ever get that time to fully heal until after the season is over. So you rehab, you get taped up, that's just football. (NorthWood) didn't do anything that we hadn't prepared for; they do what they do well. But we were disappointed with the execution on our side. It wasn't at just one position. Watching the film, we saw deficiencies at several spots. We have to take accountability for our positions and execute what we're coached to do. Right now, we're very inconsistent with that. Plymouth is a very good team, they like to run the triple option and they run the mid-line well. They're physical, they're aggressive. To a degree they've had a tendency to turn the ball over a little bit, so we're hoping that continues and we can take advantage of it."
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Kickoff: 7 p.m. Friday in Goshen
Coaches: Phil Jensen (Warsaw), Kyle Park (Goshen)
Records: Warsaw 2-3 (1-2 NLC), Goshen 1-4 (1-2 NLC)
Last Game: Northridge 24, Warsaw 6; Concord 48, Goshen 14
Last Year: Warsaw 43, Goshen 14
Matchup: Trying to rebound from a homecoming loss to Northridge, the Warsaw Tigers travel to Foreman Field Friday to play the Goshen RedHawks. The Tigers have won the last nine meetings in the series, a streak that began when head coach Phil Jensen came back for his second stint with the Tigers. With Jensen as head coach, Warsaw is 13-4 against Goshen. The Tigers will be short-handed Friday as seniors Will McGarvey and Trevor York will not play because of injuries. McGarvey, who reached the 2,000-yard mark in his career two weeks ago in a win at Elkhart Memorial, has rushed for yards and two touchdowns this season on 60 carries. York has caught six passes for 70 yards and a score. Senior QB Tristan Larsh is second on the team with 246 yards and two TDs on 58 carries, while also completing 33 of 66 passes for 348 yards and two TDs with one interception. Senior Zach Riley leads Warsaw in receiving with 13 catches for 155 yards and one score. The Tigers' defense is led by senior Lane McClone, who has 36 tackles, including three tackles for loss. After an 8-3 season a year ago, Goshen has struggled this season. The RedHawks average just 12 points per game, while giving up 22 points per game. In last week's 49-14 loss to Concord, Goshen scored touchdowns on a 96-yard run by Liam Morales and a 48-yard run by Rene Gutierrez. Morales finished the game with 162 yards on 14 carries, while Gutierrez had 61 yards on four attempts. Goshen quarterback Wesley VanHooser completed both of his pass attempts against Concord for a total of 35 yards, but left the game early with an injury. He was replaced by Jack Immel, who was 5 of 15 for 48 yards.
Jensen: "Will (McGarvey) and Trevor (York) are both out. That presents more challenges for an offense that is trying to find its identity. We are focusing on consistency in our offense. Goshen is a run-first, ball-control offense. They want to control the tempo of the game. They have big, physical offensive linemen, and they're very solid on defense. Going on the road in our conference is always tough, but getting a win would be a great step heading into the final third of the season."
MANCHESTER AT TIPPECANOE VALLEY (TRC)
Kickoff: 7 p.m. Friday in Akron
Coaches: Greg Miller (Manchester), Steve Moriarty (Valley)
Records: Manchester 1-4 (0-1 TRC), Valley 1-4 (1-1 TRC)
Last Game: Northfield 70, Manchester 22; Valley 43, Whitko 7
Last Year: Valley 31, Manchester 28
Matchup: The Tippecanoe Valley Vikings will dedicate their field with a new name Friday night, and would love nothing more than to beat rival Manchester in the first game at "Smith-Bibler Memorial Field … Home Of Death Valley Football." The Vikings enter the contest on the heels of their first win of the season, a 43-7 win at Whitko. Manchester comes in on the opposite end of the spectrum, trying to rebound from a 70-22 loss to Northfield. The Squires will be without quarterback Hayes Sturtsman, who is serving an IHSAA-mandated one-game suspension after being ejected last week. Sturtsman has completed 48 of 109 passes for 760 yards with eight touchdowns and one interception. Delton Moore leads Manchester with 430 rushing yards, while Andrew McAtee and Trey Clark have 270 and 255 receiving yards, respectively. For the Vikings, who have won six of the last seven meetings in the series, Tanner Trippiedi has completed 42 of 82 passes for 548 yards and three TDs with six interceptions. Alex Morrison leads the team in rushing with 247 yards, and is the only Valley player to rush for more than 95 yards this season. Noah Miller leads the Vikings with six catches for 117 yards and three TDs, while Wes Melanson has caught eight passes for 104 yards, and Jalen Shepherd four passes for 76 yards and a pair of TDs.
Miller: "(Valley's) changed some things up scheme-wise the last couple of weeks. We'll see what they come out with Friday night, and we'll have to make adjustments during the first quarter, after we see how they're going to play us. You see on film how they play other teams, but not a lot of teams do what we do in spreading out a defense. Hayes dome everything he can to help Devin Markham get ready for his first career start at quarterback. Devin's played some varsity snaps on offense, defense and special teams, but there's nothing quite like being the starting varsity quarterback. But this is why we get him reps in practice. we're excited about this opportunity for Devin. Our team has backed him wholeheartedly, and so has Hayes. Teenagers make mistakes, and Hayes is doing everything he can to make amends for that."
Moriarty: "Manchester has a very good team, and their offense is hard to prepare for. They spread the ball around a lot. I think last week was big because the boys know that if they work hard it will pay off in the long run. Against Whitko, we moved (Bryce) Webster back to tight end and moved (Alex) Morrison to defensive end. Not turning the ball over five teams a game helps as well. This is a big week for our school and the community. Naming the field, and homecoming, there would be nothing better than to bring home a victory."
WHITKO AT SOUTHWOOD (TRC)
Kickoff: 7 p.m. Friday in Wabash
Coaches: Jeff Sprunger (Whitko), Dave Snyder (Southwood)
Records: Whitko 0-5 (0-2 TRC), Southwood 4-1 (1-1 TRC)
Last Game: Valley 43, Whitko 7; Southwood 63, Wabash 21
Last Year: Southwood 52, Whitko 35
Matchup: With a trip to Wabash Friday to play the Southwood Knights, the Whitko Wildcats find themselves in a situation opposite of this time last year. Whitko was 5-0 at this point last season and suffered their first loss to the Knights, 52-35. This time around, the Wildcats are 0-5 and eyeing a first win. Whitko enters the contest on the heels of a 43-7 homecoming loss to Tippecanoe Valley and has been outscored 232-27 this season. Southwood, on the other hand, has outscored its five opponents 227-92 and finds itself a game out of the lead in the Three Rivers Conference South Division standings. The Knights average 310 passing yards per game, and another 160 on the ground. Carson Blair has completed 96 of 141 pass attempts for 1,553 yards with 21 touchdowns and just one interception. Matthew Nose lead the Knights in receiving with 33 catches for 665 yards and 11 TDS, while Peyton Trexler has caught 32 passes for 538 yards and eight scores. Gabe Lloyd leads the Southwood running game with 466 yards and six TDs. Whitko averages 116 yards of offense per game – 74 on the ground and 42 through the air. Cade Bechtold has completed 23 of 51 passes for 203 yards with four interceptions. Hunter Reed leads the Wildcats with seven catches for 71 yards, and is second on the team in rushing with 66 carries for 147 yards. Reed has scored two of the Wildcats' four touchdowns this season. Zach Gardner has carried the ball 72 times for 158 yards.
TRITON AT PIONEER (HNAC)
Kickoff: 6:30 p.m. today in Royal Center
Coaches: Ron Brown (Triton); Adam Berry (Pioneer)
Records: Triton 4-1 (3-0 HNAC); Pioneer 5-0 (3-0 HNAC)
Last Game: Triton 27, Culver Comm. 21 (OT); Pioneer 80, North White 0
Last Year: Pioneer 50, Triton 7
Matchup: Pioneer comes in as the top-ranked team in Class 1A, with its only loss in the last two seasons coming in the 2016 state title game. The Panthers play a physical style of football, with a run-first offense and a defense that has yet to give up a point this season. Pioneer has seven players with at least 13 rushing attempts, all averaging 4.6 yards per carry or better. Junior quarterback Jack Kiser gets better than nine yards a carry, with Austin Mersch and Daniel Gregorich getting more than seven yards an attempt. Kiser throws the ball only about eight times a game, but he's hit seven different receivers. Meanwhile, Triton has made a habit of taking what the defense gives it, and the Trojan defense came up big when it needed to late in last week's game at Culver Community. The key for the Trojans may lie in controlling emotions after the death of junior Cameron Scarberry on Sunday. He was an offensive lineman and linebacker for the Trojans, and that void will be tough to fill. The game was moved up a day to accommodate the visitation for Scarberry, which will be held Friday evening at the Triton auditorium.
Brown: "This week has been a worst-case scenario. We want to be flexible with everybody, letting them take breaks when they need them. Sometimes guys have struggled when we do certain drills because Cam was their partner in that drill. Same thing with our staff; if you need to walk away for a while, you do that. I know my staff has been really good in supporting me. It's been a strange week, and we're trying to find the new normal. We decided, as a team, that we'd play this game for ourselves to try and find that new normal, then dedicate the rest of the season to Cam. I never dreamed that after such a big win at Culver, I'd feel so defeated. But this is where we are now. Pioneer is certainly going to be a challenge; they're the unanimous No. 1 team in the state. But more importantly for me this week was finding out how classy of a program that team is. That speaks volumes for their school A.D., their coach and their community. They reached out to us right off the bat. They're doing some special things, and we had nothing to do with it; they came up with that. They've been very flexible for us, even when we didn't know if we were going to play, and that was on the table. This put them in a bad situation, having to play on a Thursday, so we can get closure for our team and community, and we can be there for Cam Friday and Saturday. That was really big of them, and those things will never show up on any stat sheet. But it's important for people to realize that about their program."
PLYMOUTH AT WAWASEE (NLC)
Kickoff: 7 p.m. Friday in Syracuse
Coaches: John Barron (Plymouth); Mike Eshbach (Wawasee)
Records: Plymouth 4-1 (2-1 NLC); Wawasee 1-4 (0-3 NLC)
Last Game: Plymouth 35, Elkhart Memorial 7; NorthWood 32, Wawasee 0
Last Year: Plymouth 33, Wawasee 16
Matchup: The Rockies come in ranked No. 13 in Class 4A, making them Wawasee's fourth-straight ranked opponent. Plymouth's Blake Reed averages 112 yards rushing per game. Junior QB Cole Filson gets 31 yards a game on the ground and passes for another 81 yards. Benji Nixon is a double threat, averaging almost eight yards a carry and 22 yards per reception. But the big story for Plymouth is its stingy defense, which gives up about 11 points per game, even with a touchdown Northridge scored on a two-yard drive following a turnover. The Rockies have turned the ball over 13 times in five games, including nine lost fumbles. Four of those turnovers came in their loss to Northridge. For Wawasee, healthy bodies remain an issue but QB Aaron Evans is feeling better after playing through a knee injury Friday night at NorthWood. The emphasis at practice this week has been execution of assignments, something head coach Mike Eshbach felt his team has lacked this year, but especially so in the NorthWood game.
Eshbach: "I'm not sure we're going to be healthy in a couple of positions, but at this time of year with knees and ankles they end up being nagging injuries until they have some time to heal. Through the grind of a football season I don't know you'll ever get that time to fully heal until after the season is over. So you rehab, you get taped up, that's just football. (NorthWood) didn't do anything that we hadn't prepared for; they do what they do well. But we were disappointed with the execution on our side. It wasn't at just one position. Watching the film, we saw deficiencies at several spots. We have to take accountability for our positions and execute what we're coached to do. Right now, we're very inconsistent with that. Plymouth is a very good team, they like to run the triple option and they run the mid-line well. They're physical, they're aggressive. To a degree they've had a tendency to turn the ball over a little bit, so we're hoping that continues and we can take advantage of it."
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