FOOTBALL: Sectional preview
Oct. 22—Logansport begins the defense of its Class 4A sectional championship tonight.
The Berries (5-2) host South Bend St. Joseph (2-7) in an opening round game. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. tonight at Logansport Memorial Hospital Stadium.
The Berries enter the tournament with the 13th most votes in Class 4A. They have already secured their first winning season since 2010. They are trying to repeat as sectional champs for the first time in program history. Their previous sectionals titles were won in 1986, 1988, 2004 and 2020.
They're facing a tradition-rich St. Joe program that played Culver Academies to within 7-3 two weeks ago and Mishawaka Marian 16-6 last week.
"We expect a very good ballgame," Logansport coach Mike Johnson said. "You have to throw out their record of course. They play in a tough league, play some good competition."
This is the third straight sectional meeting between the two schools. St. Joe won 56-13 two years ago and Logan won last year's matchup 36-7.
"We certainly don't think have the element of surprise that we had last year with them," Johnson said. "Last year we had come off playing them the year before and it was a running clock and they just trounced us, just whipped us. Last year I think we surprised them a little bit. We certainly don't have the element of surprise this year. They are a very good team, have a lot of athletes and are well coached. We know they'll be ready.
"They run to the ball really well defensively and offensively the quarterback is very good and they have some very big receivers and just a lot of athletes to contend with really on both sides of the ball."
Logan's senior night game with Anderson was canceled last week after Anderson canceled.
"We're going to have somewhat of a senior night before this ballgame," Johnson said. "I know they're going to honor those seniors in some way and their parents. So we're happy we've got a home playoff game so we could do that. It was weird not playing for a second time this year on a Friday. But it did give us a chance to heal up a after two tough ballgames against Kokomo and on the road against Jeff. Any minor injuries that we had I think we were able to get healed up and ready to go."
The Berries have a balanced rushing attack with their wing-T offense, led by Jeremiah Miller (540 yards, 6.1 per carry, 11 TDs), Luis Ortiz (530 yards, 6.2 per carry, 6 TDs), Gavin Barron (504 yards, 7.6 per carry, 4 TDs) and John Scott (337 yards, 5.1 per carry, 2 TDs). Izak Mock is 15 of 25 passing for 273 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions. Grayson Long has seven catches for 169 yards and two TDs. Long leads the defense with 76 tackles, 11 tackles for a loss, three sacks and three fumble recoveries. Quentin Clark has five sacks. Miller and Amari Gittings each have two interceptions.
WABASH (2-6) AT PIONEER (7-2)
Pioneer is a defending Class 2A regional champion.
This year's Panthers squad has hit its stride as the Panthers enter on a seven-game winning streak.
Pioneer coach Adam Berry talked about the ups and downs of this year.
"It's one of those things where it's been different for Pioneer here recently obviously starting 0-2. But we weren't even close to being full strength those first two weeks. Not having Brock [Robinson] until Week 3 obviously hurt. Cayden [Hill] gets hurt Week 1, we don't have him Week 2. We don't have Oscar [Solano] Week 1. Then COVID hits. It was just a strange start to the season. It's one of those things where we didn't think we were really at full strength until Week 5. So it was a strange start to the season but we've been playing really good football. It's also been different where we've thrown in four or five different quarterbacks and we've been very happy with how our offense has produced the last couple weeks and I feel like we're where we need to be going into sectionals."
The Panthers have gone back to their traditional wing-T offense with Caleb Sweet at quarterback and Robinson at fullback. Robinson has rushed for 736 yards (5.3 per carry) and eight TDs in seven games. The three wingbacks are also big-play threats with Beau Mersch (331 yards, 17.4 per carry, 4 TDs), Rylahn Toloza (327 yards, 7.6 per carry, 3 TDs) and Hill (323 yards, 4.6 per carry, 5 TDs). Derrick LeGrand leads the defense with 89 tackles, 12.5 for a loss and 5.5 sacks. Logan Smith has 67 tackles, 12 for a loss and five sacks. Solano has 60 tackles, 10 for a loss and 4.5 sacks. Hill and Sweet each have two interceptions.
The Apaches have wins over Whitko and North Miami.
"They are a spread offense, something we don't see a lot of throughout the regular season," Berry said. "It's something where we haven't really been challenged with another team's passing a lot throughout the year. Their quarterback does a great of getting rid of the ball quick. They throw a lot of short routes, they throw a lot of screens and he does a good job when he feels pressure he scrambles. A lot of times when he scrambles and takes off, he knows where the line of scrimmage is and he will stop before he crosses and dunk it off. That's always concerning. We're stressing to our DB's, our linebackers in coverage, stay in your zone. If we're in man, stay with your man because he is not necessarily going to run, he's still looking to throw the ball. That's something that's given us fits in the past when a quarterback does that. It's something that's a little concerning.
"You look at their defense, they do a great job of stunting their linebackers. They move them to different gaps. Their outside linebackers set the edge. From the offensive side of things, we have to keep attacking. If we stop our feet when we go to make our block, it could be a long night for us."
One issue that has come up in recent weeks is the HNAC standings. Pioneer was awarded the HNAC title last year.
Pioneer athletic director John Bingaman said, "Pioneer was awarded the HNAC championship last season in the spring of 2021 by HNAC due to Pioneer defeating LaVille in the 2021 IHSAA Tourney. This was an addendum to the original constitution. For this season, football coaches will submit a proposal to the AD's who will present it to the principals, and then the AD's and principals will vote on the measure. Our original charter said each team had to play a full conference slate to crown a champion. Our football coaches will meet this Sunday at Culver."
CASS (3-5) AT DELPHI (6-3)
Cass takes momentum into its sectional game at Delphi after last week's 42-27 win at Twin Lakes.
"There's no question it was our best game, not necessarily in terms of execution but a game where we figured out how to win the second half," Cass coach Clayton Mannering said. "That's something we've been preaching now for a long time is at some point guys have just got to win individual battles and I think we saw a lot of that on Friday. So more than being able to do any certain thing offensively or defensively, we just found a way to get it done."
Manningering said the matchup with the Oracles will be an interesting one.
"They are on tape very similar to us. They run the same kind of offense that we do and about the exact same defense. They seem to be very similar to us from a talent standpoint. I think the one difference is we've played in a little bit tougher conference and because of that we don't have quite as many wins where as they've got six wins right now. I would say the confidence edge would go to Delphi although after last Friday I think we feel like we've won six games even though we haven't. So I expect it to be a very even ballgame and a four-quarter game that maybe comes down to the last possession and that's something we're trying to preach to our kids.
"The one big advantage they have 10 seniors that start and we've got three. They'll have us a little bit in experience and we've been talking about it's hard to knock seniors out of the tournament because those kids know it could be their last game ever. I think it's a very winnable game but a game we'll probably have to play even better than last Friday to get it done and move on."
The Kings will be back to full strength as starting center/nose guard Luke Chambers is set to return after missing the last two games with an AC sprain. Sophomore Kaden Benner played well in his absence, Mannering said.
LJ Hillis has passed for 545 yards and three TDs on the season for Cass. Cooper Frey is the leading receiver with 25 catches for 211 yards. The rushing attack is led by Haden McClain (349 yards, 3.6 per carry, 4 TDs), Cayde Ingram (281 yards, 6.9 per carry, TD) and Frey (244 yards, 4.1 per carry, 4 TDs). Hillis has 55 tackles and McClain has 52 tackles. Keaton Lewellen has two interceptions.
The Cass-Delphi winner will play the Pioneer-Wabash winner in a semifinal.
CASTON (2-7) AT S. CENTRAL (4-3)
Caston makes the trek to Union Mills to face the South Central Satellites. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
"We're looking forward to playing a good game against a solid opponent," Caston coach Will Porter said. "South Central does a good job of running the ball and they play pretty solid defense."
The Comets are coming off a 19-6 loss to Knox in what was a winnable game if not for penalties and turnovers.
"We've got to eliminate our mental mistakes because that's what's been beating us lately," Porter said. "The point of emphasis this week is understanding your assignment, understanding your alignment. Hopefully we get all 11 of them on the same page. If we do that we'll be fine because I definitely believe the only thing that stopped us this past week is ourselves. It wasn't anything that Knox was doing but more so us shooting ourselves in the foot."
Sam Smith has rushed for 1,025 yards (6.2 per carry) and 10 TDs to lead the Comets. Grant Hickle has 619 yards (6.4 per carry) and seven TDs. Landon Shafer has passed for 280 yards and two TDs. Hickle has 74 tackles and Smith has 71 tackles.
WINAMAC (7-0) AT W. CENTRAL (2-7)
Class A No. 4 Winamac begins the defense of its sectional championship at West Central. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
The game is a rematch of Winamac's 35-0 win three weeks ago.
"We didn't play well the last time. We had a ton of penalties, just did not play very well," Winamac coach John Hendryx said. "It's hard to play people twice. I've never been a fan of playing people twice. They've got that film and they're probably going to come up with things we haven't seen and some different wrinkles. So we've just got to stay pretty focused. Winning the regular season games was nice but they don't mean anything now, you don't do well now and obviously it's over."
The Warriors are coming off a 27-7 win over Triton in which they completed their first undefeated regular season since 2014.
"These last couple games we've done a lot better job, we've cut our penalties way down, just playing with a lot more discipline. Hopefully we can continue to do that," Hendryx said.
Russell Compton has passed for 428 yards and four TDs and rushed for 395 yards (5.6 per carry) and eight TDs for Winamac. Hayden Clark has rushed for 719 yards (7.4 per carry) and 15 TDs. Jaden Terry has rushed 297 yards (9.3 per carry) and a TD and is the leading receiver with 14 catches for 191 yards and three TDs. Beau Brandt has 50 tackles to lead the defense. Xavier Holehan has 48 tackles and four fumble recoveries. Logan Schultz has 41 tackles. Terry has two interceptions.
