Caston-Pioneer to battle for sectional championship

The Caston football team is in the midst of a historic season. The Comets’ 6-1 start was their best in program history. Their nine wins have matched a program record and is their most since 2003. But there’s a major obstacle standing between the Comets and their first ever sectional championship. And that is their nemesis, the Pioneer Panthers, whom they haven’t beaten since 1996. The No. 1-ranked Panthers (11-0) host the No. 11 Comets (9-2) for the Class 1A, Sectional 43 championship tonight. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at the Pit. Pioneer won the regular-season matchup 35-7 in Week 4 in a game that freshman quarterback Colton Popejoy and senior wingback Shiloh Rine connected on five passes for 191 yards and four touchdowns. “We certainly have to play better than what we did the first time,” Caston coach Chris Ulerick said. “A lot of that was my fault first game. That was a bad defensive game plan. We were trying to do things that we could not do physically or mentally, and that is 100% on me. So we’ve got to play better defensively in order to be able to slow them down and just keep ourselves in the game. Anytime you allow big plays, it’s a backbreaker, it’s a morale breaker. It was the same thing last week. I know we won big, but I was fairly irritated after the game because we let three big plays happen and otherwise they don’t do anything offensively. “Round 1 against Pioneer it was the same thing. They throw it to 18 (Rine), 18 catches the ball. They are good players. They’ve got a good quarterback, they’ve got some good receivers. It’s big plays. Last week in Sheridan they let the post go open for big plays. It flips the field and is a morale breaker for 15 to 18 year old kids.” Ulerick thinks the pressure falls on the top-ranked Panthers, who are the defending state runner-up and have won 13 sectional titles in program history. “We have nothing to lose. Our kids are playing with house money at this point,” Ulerick said. “We were supposed to be bounced in the first round and found a way to win and took care of business the second round. And now we’ve made it to that elusive championship game. Anything can happen on any given night. We’ve got to go out and we’ve got to play to the best of our abilities and hope things bounce our way.” Pioneer coach Adam Berry said the Comets have one of their most athletic groups in years. “They’re obviously a very talented, very good team,” he said. “Their defense has guys up front, guys in the middle and athletes in back. And when you’re looking at a defense, when you’re constructing a defense, that’s what you want. Up front it starts with (Parker) Zimpleman, he has power, he has speed. He flies to the football from that D-line spot. The linebackers, they have (Tucker) Woolever there in the middle. He reads his keys extremely well. He’s physical. More to the outside, they have (Ashton) Bowyer who has that speed, but once again he has some strength to go with it. And then they have the (Logan) Mollenkopf in the secondary to kind of clean things up. So they have athletes all around and just a very solid defense.” The Comets have a big offensive line and both teams are very familiar with each other. “Both teams go to the same camp. Coach Ulerick and I go to the same clinics,” Berry said. “We know each other pretty well. When it comes to their offense, it’s gonna be important that we keep them behind the chains, get them into some second and third and longs because once their backs get moving, it’s hard to bring them down. And they just run their offense extremely effectively and they’ll look to pop a long pass here and there. So it’s gonna be very important for our guys to read their keys and get 11 hats to the football.” The Panthers hit the Comets with big passing plays in their regular-season win but also outrushed them 165-72 for the contest. “We definitely had some big explosive plays in the pass game. We are able to throw the ball more this year, but we have to be able to establish the run,” Berry said. “We have to be able to sustain first downs, move the ball and simply take care of our offense possessions. And then hopefully we’ll be able to get some more big plays just like we did that first matchup. But they have film on us and so they’re gonna understand what we’re doing and it’s just gonna come down to execution.” Both teams enter relatively healthy outside of Caston junior London Herd and freshman Abel Lovelady are both out for the season with a broken leg and Pioneer sophomore Braxton Maciejewski is out for the season with a knee injury. Freshman quarterback Popejoy has passed for 1,338 and 21 touchdowns on the season. Senior wingback Rine is the Panthers’ leading receiver (27 catches, 789 yards, 16 TDs) and rusher (1,078 yards, 15 TDs), followed closely behind by junior wingback Phillip McFatridge (898 yards, 17 TDs). Senior defensive lineman Mikaden Tolosa leads the defense with 88 tackles, 24 tackles for a loss and five sacks. Senior linebacker Mason Shaver has four interceptions. Senior Bowyer has rushed for 903 yards and 13 TDs to lead the Comets. Junior quarterback Mollenkopf has passed for 613 yards and four TDs and rushed for 479 yards and 13 TDs. Senior wingback Rigney has rushed for 443 yards and five TDs and has eight catches for 219 yards and a TD. Senior fullback Woolever has rushed for 435 yards and four TDs despite missing two full games to an injury.