Cavs embrace the break, but not from football
CULVER - Culver Community students are enjoying Fall Break this week. For the football team, that means they can focus solely on their sectional opener.
“We have nothing else to focus on but football,” said Culver head coach Mike Zehner. “We are doing morning practices this week. It’s been a nice thing for us. Hopefully, it’s a good week for us.”
Playing two of the better Class 2A teams in the Hoosier North Athletic Conference to end the regular season should have the Cavaliers ready for the postseason. Two weeks ago, Culver went toe-to-toe with Pioneer and last week it was Laville.
“I really felt our offense, defense and special teams did a nice job last week,” continued Zehner. “We understand the outcome (a 19-6 loss to LV), but we ran the ball pretty well and moved the ball against a good defense. We didn’t turn the ball over. Defensively, we did some really good things. We are making (our opponent) earn it more and more each week. We had a touchdown called back on an inadvertent whistle. If that doesn’t happen we have a tie ballgame at that point in the third quarter and who knows? We would have had the momentum on our side. Our record doesn’t show it, but we are a good football team and records don’t matter now.”
This week the challenge for Culver (2-5) will be South Newton (5-4) out of the Midwest Conference for opening night of the Class 1A Sectional 41. The Rebels finished third in the six-team MWC and are on a two-game win streak. Eight of their nine games were against 1A competition. South Newton averages 28 ppg and has allowed 27. Two times the Rebels scored over 50 points this season. The last time Culver and South Newton met was in the 2011 sectionals (South Newton winning, 27-21) and they have only played two other times in the last 35 years. The one common opponent this year was West Central and the outcomes were practically identical - Culver winning 38-14, SN winning 39-14.
“They are having a nice season,” Zehner said.
“They are playing their best football right now. They have a really nice quarterback and he’s got a brother who’s a threat to run the ball as a halfback. The QB makes the right decisions and is tough to bring down. He’ll find a way, if not by his arm, by his feet. He’s a dualthreat kind of guy and they live off their offense. On defense, they have some big guys up front. They have a 304-pound freshman at nose guard. We are going to challenge our offensive linemen this week. We’ve moved the ball against some good defenses we just haven’t shown it with the points (13.7 ppg). We want to finish each drive this week. We still want to be +3 or better on turnovers. Every time we do, we win, and we want to build off that. We want to play defense with some emotion, send the house, get some blitzes, and make that quarterback make a poor decision. Half of the teams will be done this week, let’s not be one of them.”