Popejoy, Rine lead Pioneer to 35-7 win at Caston
· Yahoo Sports
FULTON — On two of his touchdown passes, Colton Popejoy dropped an absolute dime well down the field and on two of the others, Shiloh Rine Moss’d a Caston DB.
Popejoy and Rine connected on five passes for 191 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Panthers to a 35-7 victory at the Crater.
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The Class 1A No. 2 Panthers (4-0, 2-0 HNAC) went to the air to down the No. 12 Comets (3-1, 1-1).
“The main point of course was throwing today,” Rine said. “We couldn’t get it done on the run, so it’s really great to have Colton Popejoy. We’re able to throw more this year whenever the run doesn’t work.”
Popejoy, just a freshman, was 8 of 14 for 215 yards and four TDs overall.
“He’s really good,” Rine said, “especially being a freshman, coming in first year and he came in from Winamac, so he’s really catching onto the plays and he’s a really good QB.”
Rine also tipped his cap to the Comets, who did as good of a job physically battling the Panthers for years, if not decades. Caston hasn’t beat Pioneer in football since 1996.
The Panthers still managed to rush for 165 yards on 30 carries (5.5 yards per carry). Rine led with 75 yards on eight attempts. Colten Long had 56 yards on 10 carries which included a 20-yard TD run late in the third quarter that made it 28-7. The Comets were still within striking distance at halftime down 21-7 despite multiple big plays by the Panthers in the passing game.
“They’re definitely getting better,” Rine said. “I know the coaches all throughout the week were saying that we can’t just underestimate them. We came out, we got it done.”
Phillip McFatridge added 32 yards on eight carries for the Panthers, who were without sophomore starting fullback Braxton Maciejewski. Pioneer coach Adam Berry said he got banged up in the Winamac game and sat out as a precaution. Long ably filled in and played nearly the entire game on both sides of the ball and had a game-high 15 tackles on defense.
The Panthers held the Comets to 72 yards rushing on 38 carries (1.9 yards per carry).
The Comets’ score was set up by a leaping London Herd interception over the middle of the field that set them up on the Pioneer 30-yard line. Ashton Bowyer scored on a 13-yard TD run that tied the game at 7-7 with 4:06 left in the first quarter.
Bowyer led the Comets with 55 yards rushing on 15 carries. Herd had 24 yards on 12 attempts. Landen Rigney added eight yards on two carries.
Logan Mollenkopf was 3 of 7 passing for 46 yards. Herd had two catches for 23 yards and Rigney had a 23-yard reception. Bowyer led the Caston defense with nine tackles.
The Comets played the game without one of their best players, junior fullback/linebacker Tucker Woolever (knee).
“We just gave up too many big plays,” Caston coach Chris Ulerick said. “They played harder than us. It’s plain and simple. We’ve got to figure it out and we have to prepare better through the week. Our mental makeup is not right, but hopefully we get things figured out. We’ve got to get things figured out because we’ve still got half the season to go.”
The Comets generally had a size advantage up front but were outrushed for the game, which was frustrating for Ulerick.
The Panthers countered with one of their quickest defensive lines.
“It was frustrating because 58 (Mikaden Tolosa)’s everywhere. We couldn’t get anything sustained and we couldn’t get anything that was consistent,” Ulerick said. “So when that happens, I thought our defense was able to stop the run. And then I’ve never seen so many plays in the defensive backfield where there were times that we screwed it up. But there were other times where we were right there and they’re making contested catches. So what do you do? It’s a team sport, so when that kid’s got time to throw, bad things are gonna happen for us. We get some pressure in his face and all of a sudden we get a ball picked off there early that led to a score. That was key, but it just didn’t happen enough.”
Rine did his best Randy Moss impersonation against some athletic Caston defenders. Rine had TD catches of 79, 37, 10 and 19 yards.
“18, he was everywhere,” Ulerick said. “He’s a good player, a very good player. They executed better than what we did and we’ve got to get better and answer the bell again next week.”
Rine said he might end up at Taylor University and is being recruited there as a running back or outside linebacker.
“Shiloh Rine, we knew he was gonna be a go-to player for us,” Berry said. “And our pass game has just gotten better and better. We work on it a lot and thank goodness for a pass game tonight, because we knew Coach Ulerick was gonna have a game plan against us. He always does. We had to fight for yards.
“Shiloh went up and got the ball. Popejoy put it in spots where he could do that. So all credit to him, a young freshmen making big plays in a big game. Both teams were 3-0. We knew it was gonna be a dogfight.”
There’s a chance the teams face each other again in Sectional 43. The top three rated teams in the sectional right now according to the Sagarin Ratings are Pioneer, Madison-Grant and Caston.
Both teams are home this week. Pioneer hosts North Miami (1-3, 0-2) and Caston hosts South Central (0-4, 0-2).