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North Huskies vs Mater Dei Wildcats - at 'The Bowl' Sep 22, 2023

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Offense

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Game Recap

HUSKY ‘D’ SHINES IN 30-0 SHUTOUT OF MATER DEI

In one of its most dominant displays of defense this decade, the North Huskies overwhelmed the Wildcats at Reitz Bowl in a 30-0 shutout Friday.  Breaking a long losing streak against Mater Dei, the Husky defense held their opponent without a first down in the second half of the game as North’s offense broke open a tight contest after the break.

BATTLING SCHEME FOR SCHEME

Six games into the season, it is no secret that North possesses the conference’s undisputed best defensive front four.  Messrs. Harris, Hazelwood, Dixon, and Schaffer have earned the right to make that claim—holding all opponents to less than 95 yards rushing and accumulating nearly 20 quarterback sacks between them.  As a result, when facing Evansville’s winningest football coach in history, a defense must be prepared for the opponent to come up with a scheme to beat North’s strengths.

Mater Dei’s offensive scheme seemed to plan for only token running calls and very few deep drop backs by the quarterback.  Their play selections seemed designed to use the front four’s notorious pass rushing skills against them and test the ability of the linebackers and defensive backs to react to a variety of screen passes and deceptive ‘wheel’ and ‘rub’ routes.

Judging by the results, North’s collective coaching brain-trust and athletes prepared for just such a plan.  If there were ‘stars’ of this game, it would be important to list the seven players who play behind the furious front four.  For their part, the linebacker corps of senior Kaleb Vashon and juniors Luke Grayson, Matthew Pegram, and Austin Bell closed off every corridor for receivers of screen passes to turn up field.  The defensive backfield of seniors Kasey Hospelhorn, Keonta Barton, and Alex Heck came up in support and dealt with the clusters of receivers who attempted to disrupt or confuse the coverage.

North fans witnessed a group of athletes executing perfectly on a well-thought-out defensive scheme that capably matched and overwhelmed an opponent that has, in the past, proven to be problematic for the Huskies.

…and thus a 15-year drought without a victory against the Wildcats of Mater Dei was ended.

CAINEN NORTHINGTON ‘TOTES THE ROCK’

From the opening moments of the game, the Huskies were in control of the line of scrimmage.  Having said that, there are not many runners who can turn open holes in the line into a breakthrough past the secondary.  Most running plays are designed to gain anywhere from five to seven yards if everyone does their part—and that doesn’t often happen.  It takes a special player to add that ‘secret sauce’ that turns a nice play into a remarkable play.  For North, senior Cainen Northington has most often been that runner who could take an ordinary opening and turn it into a breakaway play. 

Football players often refer to carrying the ball on a running play as ‘toting the rock’—a reference to carrying the weight of knowledge that after taking the ball, a runner will most certainly be hit hard before the next five seconds have passed.  It takes a special player who can take the ball time-and-again and withstand the punishment that tackles bring.

Cainen Northington does not shy from contact.  He runs through holes and accepts that someone will grab him intent on stopping him from moving further forward.  Sometimes the opponent is successful…but not without paying a price of their own.  For a player who stands just 5’ 10” and weighs perhaps 165 pounds, Northington deals out punishment of his own. 

The Huskies fed the ball to number 22 five straight times to open the game on Friday and Northington responded with 63 yards gained that delivered the ball to the five-yard line.  A play later, quarterback Sam McKinney faked a handoff to Northington and froze the defense in its tracks.  McKinney then stepped to his right and fired a pass to junior Grant Happe and North assumed an early 6-0 lead.

DEFENSE FORCES PUNTS

From a highlight perspective, it is difficult to paint a blow-by-blow recap of the Husky dominance.  Because the defensive scheme was ‘spot on,’ the Huskies made their job of disassembling the Mater Dei offense look routine.  The statement that best describes Mater Dei’s six first half possessions is that they were simply forced to punt five of the six times they touched the ball.  The Wildcats made small ‘dents’ in the Husky defense, but routinely on third down a member of the Husky ‘back seven’ would defend against a pass by dropping a receiver well short of the first down marker or simply covering the designated target of a third down pass. 

Certainly, the front four continued to hound the Mater Dei quarterback.  Senior Kaleb Harris teamed with Vashon on one quarterback sack and crushed the harried QB by himself another time.  The line yielded less than 30 yards on the ground and just one of the five first-downs the Wildcats managed came via the run.

LATE FIELD GOAL

When Mater Dei’s fifth punt of the game rolled out of bounds at the North 40-yard line, there were just 46 seconds remaining in the half.  In a brilliant display of pinpoint passing, McKinney led the Huskies down field with three quick pass completions to Happe, senior Kasey Hospelhorn, and junior James Mercer.  One second remained on the clock when Mercer—at the tail end of a 24-yard catch-and-run—got out of bounds at the 16-yard line.  Senior Alex Hess trotted onto the field and calmly kicked a 32-yard field goal to put North up 9-0 at the break.

SECOND HALF

MAKING A STATEMENT

If the first half seemed like a mechanical deflection of an opponent’s best laid plans, the second half began with a destruction of any adjustments Mater Dei had made in the locker room.  On the first play, Matthew Peagram zeroed in on a screen pass recipient and smashed him for a two-yard loss.  On second down, senior Jayden Hazelwood simply picked a runner up in the air and tossed him to the ground for another loss.  On third down, before a late whistle blew the play dead, Kaleb Harris chased the hapless quarterback across the field and out of bounds.  After the penalty set up ‘third and forever,’ Mater Dei did manage to deliver a pass to the tight end over the middle.  Before the receiver could turn and take a step, Hospelhorn laid into him with a shoulder and dropped him in his tracks.  The only thing the Wildcat fans could find as a bright spot was when their sixth punt of the game went 60 yards and rolled dead at the North six-yard line.

McKINNEY SHINES AGAIN

When you play quarterback behind an offensive line that consists of seniors Delshan Davis and Timothy Dixon, a pair of mountainous juniors like Ben Brasher and Brady Reeves, and sophomore Ty Acuff, there are certain expectations that onlookers have.  Those five linemen give ample amounts of time to throw from a pocket that eliminates a lot of threats.  Sam McKinney makes very good use of his time.

After a false start pushed the Huskies back to just their three-yard line and a pair of running plays could gain just three yards, the Huskies were facing third-and-ten in the very shadow of their goal posts.  Failure to convert would yield a punt out of the end zone that could likely give Mater Dei some much needed momentum.

Taking the snap, McKinney dropped back into the end zone and the front five dealt with all comers.  The quarterback had sufficient time to determine the holes in Mater Dei’s coverage, spotted Hospelhorn breaking open over the middle, and delivered a perfect strike that moved the line of scrimmage out to the 25-yard line.

Disaster averted.

LONG DISTANCE DELIVERY

Junior James Mercer has caught just seven passes this season.  Ordinarily that number of receptions would not indicate a player who has made a significant impact on the offense after six games.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Mercer has AVERAGED almost 33 yards per catch on those seven receptions.  He is the player who can most often be counted on to ‘flip the field’ when the Huskies are down in their own end of the field. 

Friday was no exception.

Streaking along the sideline, McKinney was again given time to throw and delivered a long-distance package that the junior receiver turned into a 35-yard gain at the Memorial 37.  On the next play, McKinney lined up in the shotgun formation, faked a handoff to junior Jason Rucker, and ran to his right.  On the snap, a thousand pounds of linemen—namely Davis, Reeves, and Brasher—simply pushed three defenders back in a solid wall that opened a hole into the secondary.  Acuff had pulled from left guard and waylaid the right defensive end and put him flat on his back.  Dixon, too, had pulled and used his amazing mobility for a man his size to lead McKinney into the gaping hole where a safety had run up to fill the gap.

In a contest between a two-hundred-ninety-pound tackle with a full head of steam built up and a 170-pound safety, the ‘smart money’ would say to bet on the tackle.

The ‘smart money’ was correct.  Again.

McKinney was off to the races and only a desperation dive by a defender could knock him out of bounds on the ‘one inch’ line.  The Huskies inserted Jayden Hazelwood at left guard between Davis and Dixon and the threesome (in a word) annihilated the defense so that McKinney could dive into the end zone behind them.  Senior Maya Baggett kicked the extra point, North went up 16-0,...

...and whatever air was left in the Mater Dei balloon could be heard hissing out of the south sideline at The Bowl.

NOT A SINGLE FIRST DOWN

The dominance continued and was both thorough and complete.  Senior Mojo Schaffer would force another punt by stopping a runner for no-gain on third and three.  Hospelhorn would force another by holding a receiver to four yards on third and nine.  Schaeffer and Hazelwood would combine for a thunderous dunk of a runner on fourth-and-two at the Mater Dei 32.  Hazelwood would drop yet another hapless Wildcat for loss on one third-down and then finish off Mater Dei’s final possession with a signature lift-and-drop tackle on third down at the Mater Dei 10.

Given the defensive dominance and North’s continued ‘ownership’ of the offensive line, another 70-yard drive would result in McKinney’s second rushing touchdown.  One of Hazelwood’s show-stopping tackles for loss would leave the Huskies with a short-field ahead of them and end with a 12-yard Jason Rucker touchdown run.

In total, the Wildcats were held scoreless against North for the first time since the fabled 1995 Huskies beat them 14-0.   In this instance, on this night, in this shrine to Evansville football, North ended a streak and announced that it had a staff that could scheme and plan with the best the city has to offer.

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