Rockets-Chieftains to battle it out in Bascom

On paper, the game may look a tad one-sided.Top-seeded and unbeaten Hopewell-Loudon, ranked third in the final state poll, hosts unranked and No. 8 seed Pandora-Gilboa in Friday's Division VII regional quarterfinals.The 11-0 Chieftains are marking their fourth-straight year in the playoffs while the 8-3 Rockets are in the postseason for the second year in a row, so H-L's players have a bit more experience beyond the regular season.But other than having the benefit of its home field, H-L coach Brian Colatruglio warned that his players and fans shouldn't expect anything but a battle."They're a really good football team. There really isn't a weakness. They do everything really well," Colatruglio said. "Really balanced on offense. They have a couple really physical running backs, and then they throw it around quite a bit as well. They have multiple receivers."Honestly, it's kind of like looking in a mirror. They're very similar to us in what they want to do on offense," he said. "Defensively, they're extremely sound. They're just a really, really well-coached, really good football team."Each of Pandora-Gilboa's three losses came in one-score games, each to a playoff-bound team — 28-21 to Division VI Bluffton, 21-14 to Division VII Leipsic, 33-28 to Division V Liberty-Benton.The losses to Bluffton and Leipsic came in Weeks 2 and 3, with the Rockets trying to find their way with some youth in key roles.But Pandora-Gilboa quickly turned things around, and only the slim loss to L-B in Week 8 kept the Rockets from really finishing the regular season on a tear. The Rockets avenged the loss to Leipsic (33-24) in last week's opening playoff round to keep their season going."It's an expectation at Pandora-Gilboa, and we're happy to be in but our job's not done. Our goal is to keep playing as long as we can," P-G coach Matthew Hershey said. "Our kids are tested, and the playoffs are just another week for us in that regard because we've played some good competition this year. We're excited. We're happy to be where we're at and we're hoping for good things."And the youngsters aren't so young any more."Those younger kids, the sophomores and even some of the juniors that are playing for us, we're in Week 12 now, so they're no longer playing in their first game on Friday nights and being nervous playing," Hershey said. "They've been doing it now, seven, eight weeks, maybe even longer."We took some lumps early on in the year, playing some younger kids, but those kids have gotten their experience, and even though they are a grade level sophomore, I'd say they're playing like a junior and senior in a confidence level right now," he said.Sophomore quarterback Cory Gerten threw for 2,267 yards and 27 touchdowns during the regular season — only regular season stats were available — with the running back duo of junior Andrew Miller (880 yards, 12 TDs) and sophomore Ben Burkholder (402 yards, 7 TDs) combining for more than 1,200 yards and 19 scores for the team's first 10 games.Seniors dominate the receiving corps, with Aidan Morris leading the way there with 58 catches for 832 yards and 12 touchdowns.Classmates Colin Harris (29-252, 2 TDs) and Carson Meyer (23-284, 2 TDs) and sophomore Chase Meyer (22-359, 3 TDs) add depth in the passing game.Hershey said the offensive group faces a steep challenge from the Chieftains."They've got guys around the ball all the time," Hershey said. "They create so much havoc up front, and then their linebackers and DBs really rally to the ball and don't give you a lot of lanes to run through or pass into. So we're going to have to be efficient with the ball offensively to move it against them and create some chunk plays when we can and just try to stay ahead of the chains."Linebacker's Noah Kubitz and Mason Reinhart spark H-L's defense, with Kubitz topping the squad with 86 tackles and Reinhart tallying 66 stops and five sacks. Linebacker Brayden Brickman (58) and lineman Aiden Ewald (56) each added more than 50 tackles, with Ewald also recording four sacks. Lineman Wyatt Crow (31 tackles) adds a team-high six sacks.The secondary features Adam Kreais (47 tackles, 3 sacks), Blake Berrier (46 tackles) and Braylon Martinez each with three interceptions.Hopewell-Loudon's offense has also succeeded.Evan Kreais has thrown for 2,394 yards and 27 touchdowns, with Martinez running for 1,249 yards and 26 scores while adding 23 catches for 365 yards and five more TDs.Berrier tops a deep receiving corps with team-highs of 69 catches, 1,104 yards and 14 scores.Jack Colatruglio (32-404, 2 TDs), Adam Kreais (20-217, 3 TDs), Matt Wyman (14-214, 3 TDs) and Crow (10-98, 1 TD) round out the receivers."They've got a nice three-headed monster with the quarterback, running back and receiver that we're going to have to really pay attention to," Hershey said. "And their line does such a great job protecting and carving our holes for their running back."The Rockets have the talent to challenge H-L, though.Junior linebacker Andrew Miller sparks P-G with 96 tackles and eight tackles for loss, while defensive back Carson Meyer has 79 stops and 11 tackles for loss and Burkholder adds 77 tackles and 12 tackles for loss as a linebacker.Chase Meyer leads the secondary with three interceptions and Morris adds 57 tackles as a DB.Still, coach Colatruglio said the Chieftains don't expect to change their approach on offense — take what the defense allows, with an occasional twist thrown in."We're going to lean on our normal formula. One of the things we've done a really good job of all year is possessing the ball. We've had a lot of 10-, 12-, 14-play drives, where we eat up clock and for the most part we've finished those with touchdowns," he said."I think that's going to be important for us, to stay with our formula — hopefully create one or two turnovers, get a red zone stop and possess the ball and finish with touchdowns," he said. "That's what we've done all year, and if we're going to have success against Pandora, it's something that we're going to have to do again."