Cadets steamroll Tiger Cubs to end homestand

It’s been a season of learning and struggle for the Greencastle Tiger Cub football team.

Friday night their difficult 2024 schedule marched on when they hosted Class 3A No. 9 Cascade for senior night. The Cadets did to the Tiger Cubs what they’ve done to nearly every other opponent and dominated from the opening kick on their way to a 56-7 win.

The ninth-ranked Cadets perfect season marched on as they improved to 8-0 with the win while the Tiger Cubs fell to 2-6.

From the opening drive for Greencastle, things got off on the wrong foot.

The Tiger Cubs went for it on fourth-and-four from their own 38-yard line and Cole Stephens was picked off by the Cadets’ Luke Farmer. That was followed by Tyler Hege getting the game’s first score with an eight-yard run.

Greencastle’s offense got a 39-yard run from Cayden Blodgett on its next drive but was forced to punt the football. Cascade then struck paydirt in one play when Toby Savini broke away for an 80-yard run to put the Cadets up 14-0.

Cascade ended the first quarter up 21-0 and proceeded to score 21 more points in the second quarter to lead 42-7 at intermission.

The lone Tiger Cub touchdown came on their best sequence of plays of the night on both sides as senior Ian Williamson got great pressure on Cadet QB Brady Trebly and forced a wobbly pass high in the air which came down in the hands of Nash Dobbs.

Stephens then found Trevin Long in the back corner of the end zone for a 29-yard touchdown, but that’s all the Tiger Cubs could muster all night.

“Cascade’s tempo is what sets them apart in my opinion,” Greencastle coach Dave Stephens said of the Cadets. “Tempo is really hard to pick up on film on how fast they really are from play to play.

“They’re in the top-10 for a reason and I would say they’re the favorites to win their sectional. (Cascade head coach Connor) Simmons has them rolling the way he wants.”

Cascade’s dominance could be seen from the final stats. The Tiger Cubs were held to just 116 yards for the game (39 rushing, 77 passing) while the offense only picked up six first downs. Cole Stephens completed 15-of-23 passes but, excluding the 29-yard TD, it was mainly check downs for the sophomore.

On the flip side for the Cadets, they executed their run-dominant style to near perfection. They ran for 424 yards on 43 attempts which came out to a staggering 9.8 yards per carry.

Dayton Mink bulldozed his way to 168 yards with Savini running for 138 on just five carries. Trebly through the air was 4-of-6 for 65 yards.

The schedule for the Tiger Cubs this season has been a challenging one to say the least. Stephens takes lessons from each game and is using this as moments for his team.

“Playing the schedule like we have, it tests you each and every week,” Stephens said. “There are some areas we know we have to get better at, but at the same time there were areas I thought we improved in tonight and some positives to take away.

“We were without two of our best defensive players up front in (Cam) Pingleton and (Brayden) Monroe, but the good news is that I think we’re getting healthy at the right time.”

It was senior night for the Tiger Cubs who honored their 10 seniors in Axl Mickey, Jake Simmerman, Keegan Smith, Kaiden Tomasino, Bryceton Nunn, Chris Olson, Anthony Adams, Williamson, Monroe and Pingleton. Stephens made sure to credit all 10 of his seniors for what they’ve had to overcome.

“The amount of adversity that these kids have had to go through with the passing of coach (Mike) Meyer and having a new coach come in is never an easy thing,” Stephens said. “We were able to come together and win a championship last year and now having some struggles this year.

“That’s a lot to overcome and you can’t help but have your heart go out to these kids because they just love the game. They keep coming back and try to get better every week. They never hang their head and are always looking for a way to maximize the potential of our team.”

Scoring Plays

1st Quarter

CAS: Tyler Hege 8-yard run, XP Good, 8:13, 7-0

CAS: Toby Savini 80-yard run, XP Good, 6:04, 14-0

CAS: Tyler Hege 27-yard pass from Brady Trebly, XP Good, 34.1 21-0

2nd Quarter

CAS: Dayton Mink 10-yard run, XP Good, 8:47, 28-0

CAS: Tyler Hege 27-yard run, XP Good, 7:14, 35-0

GC: Trevin Long 29-yard pass from Cole Stephens, XP Good, 59.0 35-7

CAS: Dayton Mink 41-yard run, XP Good, 26.7, 42-7

3rd Quarter

CAS: Toby Savini 5-yard pass from Brady Trebly, XP Good, 8:29, 49-7

4th Qquarter

CAS: Gage Minardo 1-yard run, XP Good, 3:55, 56-7

Team Stats

Individual Stats

Rushing: Cascade (Dayton Mink 21-168 2TD, Toby Savini 5-138 TD, Tyler Hege 4-49 2TD, Gage Minardo 4-21 TD, Tim Turner 1-16, Brady Trebly 4-11, Daemon Mason 1-7, Luke Austin 1-6, Adrian Parson 1-5, Davion Robinson 1-5); Greencastle (Cayden Blodgett 11-50, TJ Jordan 1-0, Trevin Long 1(-3), Cole Stephens 4(-8))

Receiving: Cascade (Tyler Hege 2-56 TD, Toby Savini 1-5 TD, JT Roshong 1-4); Greencastle (Trevin Long 4-30 TD, Ian Williamson 3-20, Anthony Adams 5-19, Cayden Blodgett 2-14, Parker Welker 1-4)

Passing: Cascade (Brady Trebly 4-6 65 2TD INT); Greencastle (Cole Stephens 15-23 77 TD INT, Dillon Hughes 0-3 INT)