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Cumberland faces Casey-Westfield again CASEY -- For the second straight year Casey-Westfield and Cumberland, two Little Illini Conference teams, are to meet in the first round of the Illinois High School Association Class 2A playoffs at Sinclair-Vidoni Field. Game time is set for 7 p.m. tonight with the winner advancing to play the winner of the Red Hill at Westville contest. Earlier this season Casey, the No. 1 team in Class 2A, scored 27 points in a span of seven minutes, 41 seconds of the first quarter en route to a 55-0 victory Sept. 18, leading 48-0 at the half. “I do not look for the same Cumberland team of earlier this season,” said Casey coach Keith Sinclair. Cumberland, for the second year in a row, had to win its final three games to get to the five win mark, making it playoff eligible. Cumberland’s defense has allowed just 32 points (average of 6.4 points per game) in the last five contests.
“I feel like we are peaking at the right time,” said Cumberland coach Todd Butler. “We will have to continue to improve tonight to be able to compete with them.”
While Cumberland’s defense has improved Casey’s defense has been strong all year, allowing only 3.6 points per game on the season, the lowest of the 32 playoff teams. The Warriors have posted five shutouts and have only allowed more than one touchdown in a game once (in 33-12 win over Marshall). In the first game Casey held the Pirates to 46 total yards and only one first down. The Warriors defense is led by Kaleb Brandenburg, Nate Sandiford and Patrick White, who average nine, 7.1 and seven tackles per game respectively. Cumberland is coming off a 36-0 win over Oblong for its third shutout of the season. The 36 points scored was a season-high. “Our team will face an improved Cumberland squad which is evident in their season finale win over Oblong,” said Sinclair. “Cumberland showed an improved defense and offense.” The Pirates offense, which averages 13.1 points per game, is led in rushing by junior Silas Gabel, who averages 51.7 yards per game. Another junior, Cole Miller, has thrown for an average of 57.2 yards per contest with Gabel the leading receiver. Gabel has 22 receptions for 316 yards. “In the past few weeks we have played better football,” said Butler. “Whether it is good enough tonight we will see. Our execution as a team offensively, has been as good as I have seen in a long time. We are executing well and playing good team football right now. We have to play as perfect as a game as we can play.” Casey took advantage of excellent field position in the first meeting, not starting a drive past the Pirate 43 on its first four drives, all in the opening quarter. I fact the Warriors only had two drives that began in its own territory. The game was the first for Cumberland without Adam Markwell, who led the team in tackles and was the top rusher. Jim Kruse and Shaun Wellbaum, both linemen were out as well. Wellbaum remains out with an injury and Jaton McMechan, a sophomore, is not expected to play either. Butler said, “They are just a very good football team, the best in Class 2A. We made a lot of mistakes in that game and were without some players, but at that time of the year they certainly could have had more scores. They subbed early. The score looks bad, but it could have been worse. We didn’t play well, but they are just that good. We hope that we have improved.” While Casey’s defense is strong the offense has put up an average of 48.8 points per game, tops of the playoff teams. Third year starting quarterback Mitch Snyder, the school’s all-time leading passer, has completed 83 of 128 (.648) passes for an average of 170.1 yards per game with 31 touchdowns and just three interceptions. His leading targets are Taylor Biggs and Aaron Rhoads, who have both caught 35 passes each. Billy Seeley, who has missed the last two games, is the top running back with an average of 59.3 yards per game. Casey has not scored below 43 points since the season-opening 33-12 win over Marshall. “We have had a good week of practice,” said Butler. “We are really concentrating on what we need to do to get better and that is what has worked the last half of the season. I know we are going to play their hearts out.” Seeley had seven carries for 108 yards and two touchdowns and 11 other backs carried the ball for a total of 211 yards on the ground. Snyder was 6-of-8 for 107 yards and three touchdowns, most of which was in the first half. Rhoads led the team in receiving with four catches for 70 yards and a touchdown. Cumberland has lost 16 straight games to Casey with the last victory occurring Sept, 30, 1994 in a 32-21 win. “The key for us is execution,” said Butler. “We didn’t execute the first time we played them and gave up a couple of big plays early in the game. Their special team is another concern especially with their speed.” Cumberland overcomes injuries to make playoffs By MIKE MONAHAN, Staff Writer, Mattoon Journal Gazette TOLEDO -- Every team usually has to deal with injuries in a football season, but one area playoff team had three injuries at the same positions. Cumberland, who for the second straight season, had to win its final three games, had three injuries at outside linebacker/tailback. “You never think they would be in the same position,” said Cumberland coach Todd Butler, who is in his ninth year at his alma mater. “No one has complained about the situation. They all have confidence in whoever we have.” The season began with one player out as Jaton McMechan, a 6-1, 190 pound sophomore, was thought to be out for the season with an injury to his elbow suffered in American Legion baseball. The team had lost 92 percent of its offense from the 2007 season. Junior Adam Markwell, a 6-1, 175 pound running back/defensive lineman, was expected to carry the bulk of the load for the ground game. However, Markwell, who averaged 93.7 yards per game, was injured in the 20-15 victory over Marshall.
“He was hurt (broken fibula) on the last play of the game against Marshall,” said Butler. “He was the leading tackler as a sophomore and is probably a better linebacker than tailback and we expected 1,000 yards out of him this year.” Markwell is off crutches and is in a boot.
“We scrambled for a week when Markwell was hurt,” said Butler. “We knew Jaton (McMechan) would not be healthy yet. In the second week of the season (14-12 loss to Lawrenceville) we lost Braden Shaffer (5-8, 150 sophomore) as he broke his hand. We were hoping to go the rest of the season with Markwell and he goes down in week three. After those two we got McMechan back in week four (Casey game). He played a little bit against Casey.” Against Palestine-Hutsonville McMechan scored the games only touchdown in overtime for a 6-0 win. “We thought Jaton (McMechan), who is a good sized kid, would be another wide receiver or tight end,” said Butler. “He has played some tailback as a freshman. His dad (Jason) was a pretty good tailback at Cumberland (late 1980s) and his uncle Jess (1999 grad) was the starting tailback (finished with 1,015 yards rushing) on the 1998 team so he has good blood lines.” McMehan had 20 carries for 79 yards in the 6-0 win over Edwards County. However, he was injured in the game. “He injured his calf and is probably not going to be back,” said Butler. “Now we end up with Clay Wilson at fullback and Josh Rodebaugh at tailback. Wilson was the starting inside linebacker and back up fullback. Rodebaugh was the starting fullback and defensive end. Wilson calls the plays for us on defense and plays special teams so we were hoping to give him a break by not playing him on offense. Now he plays both ways and he made a big catch against Martinsville to win the game for us.” The fact that many of the players had been through the same situation the year before didn’t hurt. Last year Cumberland also had to beat the same three teams, Edwards County, Martinsville and Oblong to make the playoffs. I still think week one and two (Red Hill and Lawrenceville respectively) should have gone a different way if we had prepared better,” said Butler. “Last year we beat Lawrenceville and not Marshall. We went into the Edwards County game knowing we had to win out. We though the Flora game was another one we should have, but we had crucial penalties. Our kids were able to adjust to adversity and get through it and we were able to get in the playoffs with kids doing what they had to do.” Rodebaugh had 23 carries for 120 yards and a touchdown in the 36-0 win over Oblong, while Silas Gabel had 16 for 162 plus two receptions for touchdowns in the Oblong contest. Both Rodebaugh and Gable are tailbacks, while Wilson is the fullback. Gabel had moved to tailback from wide receiver and has averaged 129 yards per game in the last two contests. “All and all this is a pretty close group,” said Butler. “They have kept a good attitude and developed toughness. Shaffer had surgery on his hand should be ready to play Friday.” “Our defense is playing a lot better,” said Butler. “Clay Wilson and Payton Baker have had improvement each week. Baker had never played linebacker until week three, moving to inside linebacker against Marshall. He was a defensive tackle and we decided to stand him up and he has really taken well to that.” Baker, a 6-1 220 pound player averages over 14 tackles per game, tops in the JG/T-C area. “The nice thing about is they are all underclassmen (McMechan, Markwell, and Shaffer),” said Butler, who has six seniors on the team, five of which are currently healthy. The Pirates had to start three freshmen this season due to other injuries. Alex Markwell the starting cornerback injured his neck on the third day of practice and has been out since then. Freshman Kendall Butler moved into that spot and leads the team in interceptions with six. Senior Shaun Wellbaum, the starting right guard, injured his knee and has had knee surgery. Sophomore Dalton Kemper replaced him. Jim Kruse, a junior, was out the third and fourth week with a calf injury and freshman George Strong filled in at center. Jackson Green, another freshman has also filled in at certain times on the line. The Cumberland defense has allowed just 32 points in the last five games (6.4 points per game) after allowing an average of 26 points per game in the first four weeks. The Pirates are to play against top ranked Casey-Westfield at 7 p.m. Friday in the first round of the IHSA Class 2A playoffs at Sinclair-Vidoni Field. Cumberland facing familiar opponent in 2008 IHSA Class 2A State Playoffs
In Class 2A, top ranked and undefeated Casey-Westfield, 9-0, is to play host to Cumberland, 5-4, at 7 p.m. Friday at Sinclair-Vidoni Field. “After the Oblong game we all kind of new that we would play at Casey,” said Cumberland coach Todd Butler. “We are playing much better than earlier in the season defensively and offensively. We can go back and see what corrections we need to make compared to week four when we played them.”
The Pirates are making its fourth appearance and have a 1-3 record, with two of the losses coming to the Warriors. Last year Cumberland lost to Casey 45-6 after falling 34-13 in week four. In 2005 the two teams met in the second round with Casey winning 27-7 two weeks after the Warriors (ranked No. 3 at the time) beat the Pirates (ranked No. 9 at the time) 31-7.
“It is the fourth time in two years that we have played them,” said Butler who said the coaches got together to watch the pairings, while some team members also did. “We thought we would probably go to Casey. We let a couple of games slip away at the beginning of the season in Lawrenceville (14-12), Red Hill (20-6) and Flora (14-13) and ended up 5-4. The moral of the story is if you want to avoid Casey in the first round you don’t go 5-4.”
As for playing on Friday night Butler said, “Volleyball regional championships are Saturday. You kind of worry about the weather, but both teams played in the cold and rain last week.”
Cumberland rallies on Homecoming night By MIKE MONAHAN, Staff Writer
mmonahan@jg-tc.com TOLEDO -- Martinsville appeared to have put the dagger in Cumberland’s playoff hopes when Jacob Hilderbrandt scored on a one-yard run with seven minutes, 25 seconds left in the game. It gave the Bluestreaks an 18-7 advantage.
The Pirates scored 16 points in 1:45, scoring the go-ahead points when sophomore Clay Wilson caught a long pass in stride and sprinted into the end zone to complete a 44-yard touchdown pass. The Pirates won 23-18. Silas Gabel ran around his left side for the two-point conversion and the Pirates defense stopped Martinsville on the eight yard line in the non-conference game.
“Clay Wilson made an awesome catch near the sideline,” said Cumberland coach Todd Butler, whose team kept its playoff hopes alive, improving to 4-4. “Defensively, we gave up some big plays, but we know we have another game to step it up for. We lived to fight another day.”
Gabel returned the Martinsville kickoff 31 yards to the Bluestreaks 44. A pass interference penalty helped the drive. Gabel, who had 17 carries for 96 yards, picked up a first down on a five-yard run to the Martinsville nine. An incomplete pass and a five-yard pass to Wilson and a gain of one by Josh Rodebaugh made it fourth and three with four minutes remaining. Three receivers ran curl patterns to the right side and Miller rolled right and dashed into the end zone. Gabel caught the two-point conversion pass and the Pirates trailed 18-15. “Reese Draper (10 carries for 113 yards and both first half touchdowns (one on a 2-yard pas from Jared Higginbotham) played well,” said Martinsville coach Paul Penrod. “He added another dimension for us offensively. Our defensive line played well and our corners flew to the ball well most of the time. Cumberland’s quarterback did a god job of finding his receivers. They did a good job passing and that was the key to the fourth.”
After Cumberland closed the gap to 3 points, Martinsville had a fourth and six from its own 44 and Higginbotham’s pass fell incomplete, giving the Pirates the ball at the Martinsville 44 with 2:22 left. The touchdown to Wilson was the first play.
Martinsville started the final drive of the game at its own 30 and picked up 34 yards on a run by Hliderbrandt and another 12 as well. The Bluestreaks had the ball at the 15 after a sack by Gabel with 21.9 seconds left. Higginbotham found Draper for 12 yards to the three and after a false start penalty Higginbotham got the snap off just before the horn sounded, but his pass, with a Pirate defender on him, fell incomplete, giving the Pirates the thrilling victory on Senior Night.
Cumberland is to travel to Oblong Friday in a Little Illini Conference game. Martinsville, 2-6, is to travel to Palestine to face Palestine-Hutsonville in the final regular season game for the Bluestreaks.
“Hopefully we will have Jaton McMechan back next week and maybe Braden Shaffer,” said Butler.
Martinsville 6 6 0 6—18
Cumberland 0 7 0 16—23
First quarter
M-Reese Draper 2 pass from Jared Higginbotham (kick blocked) 6:13
Second quarter
M-Draper 45 run (run failed) 9:18
C-Silas Gabel 45 pass from Cole Miller (Brendon Ritchie kick) 6:49
Third quarter
M-Jacob Hildebrandt 1 run (run failed) 7:25
Fourth quarter
C-Miller 3 run (Gabel pass from Miller) 3:57
C-Clay Wilson 44 pass from Miller (Gabel run) 2:12
TEAM STATISTICS
M C
First downs 10 9
By rush 6 3
By pass 4 4
By penalty 0 2
Rushes-yards 43-241 28-90
Passes attempted 18 18
Passes completed 5 10
Had intercepted 1 0
Passing yards 61 167
Total yards 302 257
Punts-avg. 4-32 3-25
Fumbles-lost 0-0 0-0
Penalties-yards 7-55 2-20
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
M-Jared Higginbotham 7-20; Jacob Hilderbrandt 21-87, TD; Garrett O'Rourke 5-21; Reese Draper 10-113, TD
C-Josh Rodebaugh 4-8; Cole Miller 7-(-14); Silas Gabel 17-96
Passing
M-Jared Higginbotham 5-18-1-61, TD
C-Miller 10-18-0-167, 2 TDs
Receiving
M-Hilderbrandt 1-14; Draper 2-30; Bryant Washburn 1-12; O'Rourke 1-5
C-Gabel 4-81, TD; Dalton Baughuss 3-22; Rodebaugh 1-15; Clay Wilson 2-49, TD
Leading tacklers
Cumberland: Patyon Baker 19; John Breese 18; Clay Wilson 10; Jimmy Kruse 10
Tonight! Flora (3-2, 3-2) at Cumberland (2-3, 2-3)
Cumberland is coming off a 6-0 overtime win over Palestine-Hutsonville and needs to win at least three of the last four to have a shot at the playoffs.
Flora lost to Marshall 28-14, a team the Pirates beat 20-15. Flora beat Red Hill 32-7, while Cumberland lost 20-6 and Flora beat Lawrenceville (26-7), while Cumberland lost (14-12). Both teams lost to Casey, Cumberland falling 55-0 and Flora falling 48-7.
The Wolves are led by running backs Chris Beckham and Cody Brubaker.
“Flora is a very athletic team with strong offensive and defensive lines,” said Cumberland coach Todd Bulter. “We have to stop the run. They have three for four really good running backs.”
As for the win over Palestine Butler said, “Defensively, we played really well. We worked on a lot of stuff on offense during the week and hopefully we have it corrected. We have to move the ball much better. We are trying to get better and get healthier. We need stop their run and on offense have sustained drives and get first downs.”
Mattoon Journal Gazette 9/26/08 [Edited by Webmaster]Cumberland hopes to extend Palestine’s nine-game losing streak, which began with the Pirates 39-28 win last year. The Pirates are to have lineman Jim Kruse back, who was injured for the 55-0 loss to Casey-Westfield last Friday.
“Palestine uses the spread formation,” said Cumberland coach Todd Butler. “They like to throw, but do have a balanced attack. On defense they run a 3-5, but do show a four-man front also.”
The Pirates are without four players for the rest of the season in Braden Shaffer, Adam and Alex Markwell and Shaun Wellbaum, who is to have knee surgery Oct. 3.
The Tigers average five points per game and allow 37.3, while Cumberland scores an average of 7.5 points per game and gives up an average of 26.
“We have to take care of the ball and block well and tackle well,” said Butler. “We have to have good coverage and key on the bootleg and watch Dana Kilmer. They are home and a dangerous team.”
8/21/08 Young Pirates have strength in line
By MIKE MONAHAN, Staff Writer
mmonahan@jg-tc.com
TOLEDO -- Eleven players are gone from last year’s Cumberland Pirate football team, one that reached the playoffs for the third time in four years. A whopping 92.4 percent of the offense is gone from last season, including first team all-Little Illini Conference tight end Kye Butler, who is now at Indiana State.
“They look at this as an opportunity,” said Cumberland coach Todd Butler, a 1987 Cumberland graduate, who is in his 9th year with a 35-41 record. “They all want that starting spot. We had some question marks and we have answered them. Whether or not this translates into wins we will have to wait and see.”
One of the question marks was who is to be the starting quarterback. The answer is junior Cole Miller, who is taking the spot of Kenny Flood, an honorable mention all-conference quarterback, who completed 95 passes for 1,159 yards and 11 touchdowns.
“Cole Miller has really done a nice job of running the team,” said Butler, whose team finished 5-5 last year. “He has taken control of the team and is doing a really nice job and is showing good leadership.” Behind every good ground game is a good line and the Pirates appear to be strong in the line where they return four of the five starters, including first team tackle Payton Baker.
“The line is strength with Jim Kruse, Shawn Wellbaum (senior), John Breese (one of 12 returning lettermen and a senior) and Baker,” said Butler. “The fifth is Seth Repp (a sophomore letterman). He shows good leadership skills and is probably going to play center for us. Our line looks really good.”
Stepping into the backfield where Jake Peters had 1,131 yards on 221 carries are Silas Gabel, Josh Rodebaugh and Adam Markwell. All three carried the ball last year with Rodebaugh leading the way with 14 carries for 68 yards and Gabel having 10 carries for 57 yards.
“Silas Gabel has looked absolutely outstanding early in the season,” said Butler. “Markwell is also looking good.”
The team lost 91.6 percent of its receptions as Gabel had nine for 196 yards. Butler and Cody Ashworth (senior) who moved to Mattoon led the team with 31 and 25 receptions respectively.
Senior Zach Bolin, a six-foot-eight tight end, who has played previously, but not the last two years as he played on the golf team, is one of the players stepping as a receiver. Sophomore Dalton Bauguss is another receiver
“Bolin is an athletic receiver with good hands,” said Butler.
The returning lettermen are seniors Baker, Breese and Rodubaugh along with juniors Gabel, Kruse and Markwell. Bauguss, Repp and Clay Wilson are the sophomore lettermen.
On the defensive side 46.7 percent of the players who made tackles return, including Markwell, an honorable mention linebacker. The Pirates lost first team all-conference linebacker Brett Miller. Markwell was third on the team in tackles last year with 98, while Gabel was fourth with 85 and Baker fifth with 78 and Breese was sixth with 58.
“Most of the starters on offense will also play defense,” said Butler. “Clay Wilson and Repp are linebackers and the strength of the defense is the outside linebackers of Markwell and Gabel. Bolin is a defensive end, while Isaac Christopher (senior) has taken over for a kid that had a good summer, but had an injury in Alex Markwell (sophomore) Rodebaugh and Bauguss are in the backfield.”
A total of 42 players are on the roster, including 15 freshmen, some of which are expected to see action at the varsity level. Eight seniors, six juniors and 13 sophomores make up the rest of the squad.
Three players are fighting for punter in Miller, Wilson and sophomore Jeremy Bowman.
“We have a good surprise at kicker,” said Butler. “Brendon Ritchie has looked good. He won’t do the kickoffs, but he will do the extra points.”
“I am very pleased with the effort of the practices,” said Butler. “The early practices have been great. We are working on trying to get our defense shored up. Our goal is to have consistent improvement, effort and continue to learn. We had most of the playbook in before the season started. So, we are just going over it. I feel like we can be competitive. Casey is probably going to be the best in the area and we will have to play a perfect game against them and if we do that who knows what happens. I feel like we can compete with the rest of the schedule even though we have a bunch of sophomores out there. We are a pretty solid ball club.”
With a playoff tradition started at Cumberland the players are hoping to continue that.
“These kids have all seen week 10 and the playoffs is definitely one of their goals,” said Butler. “They want to be there. With 40 kids we have to stay healthy.”
Butler is assisted by Kevin Maynard, who has been his assistant for all eight years. Bill Ault is another familiar assistant and Kenny Keyser returns for his third year. Lucas Watkins, a 1998 Cumberland grad joins the group as does 1998 Oakland graduate and former all-stater Roy Clapp. Former Newton running back Alex Koebele joins the staff as does last year’s lineman Andrew McClain and Daniel Huffman.
The Pirates are to open the season Aug. 29 when they play host to Red Hill in a LIC contest.
Contact Mike Monahan at mmonahan@jg-tc.com or 238-6854. |
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