Behind The Bench
Ep: 149 – De facto regional title game, five-set thrillers and playoff implications
This week on Behind the Bench, we take a look at Carson-Galena football this Friday night, which holds quite a few implications for the rest of the season. After that, Carter Eckl and Jeff Mulvihill, Jr. talk about Douglas' upcoming game against McQueen as well as Carson volleyball's stretch of five-set matches over the last week. Douglas High School volleyball is putting eight members into its Hall of Fame and regional girls golf takes place this week.
- Broadcast on:
- 02 Oct 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
(upbeat music) - Welcome back to another episode of Behind the Bench with Carter Echo. This is episode 149. I am your host, Carter E joined as always, this time by the other end of a telephone with my producer, Jeff Mulvahill Jr., Jeff, how are you doing? Don't ask about how I'm doing, so how are you doing? - Well, I feel fortunate to be feeling better than you, apparently. - Yeah, yeah, I'm not gonna dive too much into what's going on, but may not see me for a couple of days out at events. No worries, I will be fine, but yeah, not in the best place at the moment, but we are hanging in there. We got plenty to talk about today, so don't worry about me. We are gonna start with a little football that we got some other sports to break down, and then we got a lot. Got some teasers for what you can expect to later this week as well as next week. We got some plans for next week, given it'll be episode 150. You'll see something about that in the newspaper as well, but we can start teasing that as we get there. We'll like to start with Carson football, knocking off Wooster. That was 40 to zero this past weekend. A big win for the senators who have now put up back-to-back shutouts to start league play against Hug and Wooster this week, excuse me, this Friday, they will take on Galena at home, which will be a very interesting matchup. Jess, as I said in my preview, that will be in Wednesday's newspaper. We're taping this here on 9.50 Tuesday morning. Wednesday's paper end up online, though. This, you know, maybe not so much for Carson, 'cause of who they have left, but for Galena in some ways is kind of a de facto Class 5A North Division III regular season title game. They're both 2-0 going into this game. There's only two unbeaten teams in Class 5A Division III, and after Galena plays Carson, they play Hug and Wooster. So, again, not to look past anybody, but if Galena is able to knock off the senators, there'll be 3-0 with two opponents that have yet to win a game yet in league play after that. Looking like they'll be at a good chance to go 5-0. Carson with a win would be 3-0 in league play, and then they finished the year with North Valleys and Damani Ranch. But before we get into more of Galena talk, real quickly going through Wooster, Drake Hardcastle finished the game with 192 yards, passing through the air, two touchdowns, and he ran for one. Tyler Sillsby came in the action late and threw for a touchdown as well. Jake Winninger on the ground ran for 85 yards, and two scores. Ethan Hindi had four catches for 158 yards, and a touchdown, and Andrew Ruelis had a touchdown as well. Jeff, you know, I'm curious what your thoughts are going into this Galena game, obviously. Like we said, you know, not too much to say about Carson knocking off hugging Wooster. I think those results were kind of expected, but given the offense has continued to impress and the defense is continuing to pitch shutouts, I think we're in store for a pretty good game this Friday against between the senators and the Grizzlies. - Yeah, I just have to think back to when we said something similar before the Douglas game, and it ended up being kind of a flop on us, but all signs are this is just like you said, this who wins this takes the league, or should, it seems. So that's exciting. Given that we've seen a game with Carson that they threw the ball a lot, and a game where they almost didn't throw the ball at all, it's really kind of what, you know, what are we gonna see from Carson that, and I'm sure Galena is saying the same thing. So what's in store for us? So it should be interesting. - Yeah, it's a good point you make there with kind of what are we gonna see 'cause Carson and head coach Ryan Boshar have talked a lot about stuff that they haven't shown through some of their formations, and maybe those are things they've shown over the last couple of weeks, but a team that has shown plenty of want to to run the ball as frequently as they possibly can, whereas Galena on offense is gonna look a little more RPO, gonna be a little more trickery. Colson Kromode at quarterbacks, who everybody's familiar with from last year is quite the athlete and is capable of doing a lot of different things well. Of course, you know, we've had Duke Rittenhouse talk about some of the plays his son has made, his son Matt has made. He also, Matt Rittenhouse leads the team in receiving touchdowns for Galena, but the real interesting side of things is gonna be Galena's defense against Carson's offense, because Galena, and from talking to head coach Ryan Boshar, Galena throws a ton of different formations and looks at teams, and they don't, Carson doesn't expect anything to be different this week, and finding ways to mix and match, especially given Carson will come out in some of those real heavy personnel packages on offense, where there may only be one or a receiver lined up, and everybody else is on the line or in the backfield. Be curious to see what the Grizzlies counter with there, 'cause I think Carson's offense against Galena's defense is kind of the matchup I'm really looking forward to seeing, and that's not to say that I'm not looking forward to the inverse either, but I am very curious to see what kind of looks Galena will throw at Carson's offense and vice versa. What kind of formations Carson's offense will try to use to get around Galena's defense? Elsewhere in the region, Douglas lost to Spanish Springs in a shootout 31-28, that's the first loss in league play for the Tigers this season. That game went back and forth. I believe my lead from this past Friday, excuse me, was, you know, had more swings than an elementary school playground, because that game just, it seemed like every time somebody got the ball, they were going down and scoring, and, you know, there's a little, a little blip there in the first half where, where Douglas wasn't able to put some points on the board with a turnover as well, and Spanish Springs jumped in front, and then Douglas was able to tie it up at 21 all, and overall, just, I mean, a really good game came down to the wire. Douglas decided to go for it on fourth and three from, I believe, Spanish Springs is 32, so it would have been about a 49-yard field goal. You know, I think kind of depends on who you ask and when you ask, if they would do that again or not, but all in all, I mean, it was a great game to watch from a spectator perspective. It was definitely one of the best games in the region, so far this season. If they do go as the three and four seeds in the Class 5A Division II North, going into the playoffs, they won't see each other until a potential regional final. I don't know how realistic that is, but I would be very curious to see these two teams line it up again, because I think you would get arguably a game just as good, if not better. Quick stats for you from the Tigers, Jack Novard, another fine day at quarterback, 80%, completion percentage, 187 yards and two scores. Evan Newman's ran for 94 yards, caught a touchdown and ran for a touchdown there. Zach Jackson also had 92 yards on the ground with a score, and of course, Brent Weston, eight catches, 98 yards, a touchdown and then led the team in tackles on defense as well with nine. So plenty of good stuff, football-wise. Douglas will travel out to McQueen this week, which will be a good matchup for the Tigers, potentially get back on track. Remember Carson knocked off McQueen earlier this season. I believe that game was also 31-28, if I'm not mistaken, off the top of my head. So curious to see what the Tigers do against the Lancers. As we've talked about before on the podcasting, I've written about before. The Lancers do a lot of disguising looks on defense to try to mix and match, and pretty much are breed of blitz from almost anywhere, which can definitely mess with opposing offenses. Defense-wise, we saw what Carson was able to do against the Lancers, and that Tiger offense has started to look pretty potent over the last few weeks. So I don't expect the Tigers' offense to stutter at all. It'll be how McQueen's gonna be able to respond with a few points of their own. I think that's kind of the only way the Lancers will be able to stay with the Tigers. But looking forward to both those games, we will have live in-person coverage from Carson Galena. That game, like I said, is at Carson High School, whereas Douglas will be traveling out to McQueen. Of course, you can find recaps for both games online after the fact at www.navadapeal.com/news/sports. All right, moving forward. Carson Girl Soccer knocked off Douglas this past Saturday for zero. Senators got goals from four different players in Elondra Carrillo, Nastasia Soprizio, Deanna Torres, and Sofia Vega. Addie Morgan had two assists for the Senators and Carrillo, excuse me, Carrillo also added an assist as well. Jeff, what have been some of your takeaways from that game and just from the way the Senator Girls team has played over the last week or two? - They're tinkering still. I mean, they've been, Matt's been working on trying different things and trying to, you have to get hot for the playoffs. It's, I mean, we say this every season, not every year, but we say it multiple times. If you can get the team really functioning, it doesn't matter what the sport is, get them functioning come playoff time and you can make a good run. So with the playoff format, it's single elimination. So you can go in and have a great game and the other team doesn't and you carry yourselves through. So tonight's gonna be a good test. Galena is very good. So coming off of a good win for Carson and I was actually just talking to Ron 'cause Douglas plays Dovani tonight. So it'll be, league games are very important at this point. I mean, you're fighting for not being the fifth seed. So the fifth seed stays home. The top four seeds on both sides go. So, obviously you don't really wanna play the one seed on the other side either as the four, but if you got stuff figured out and you looked different than you did before, when you played them, that can be a positive thing as well, so. - Absolutely. And we know and we've talked about that the Carson girls team goal this season is to make the playoffs. That's kind of been there. They're outspoken goal the last couple of years. And right now they are in line to do that with them being the four seed and Douglas being the five. So a big win there. But like you said, still plenty of important league games coming up to really see what they have going against the rest of the league. But a good win for the Senators, like I said, four nothing over Douglas girl soccer this past Saturday. Jeff, you were also at Carson volleyball last night against Bishop Minogue. That was a doozy of a matchup that went 22-20 in favor of the minors in the fifth set. What can you tell us about that? And I mean, that's Carson volleyball's third, five set match in the last five days. - A seesaw of a game just back and forth and back and forth in, you know, momentum swings. And it went that fifth game. I mean, it was Carson one, Minogue one, Carson one, Minogue one. So you got down to the fifth and even that, I mean, it goes to the fifth game goes to 15. And it took 22-20 to get the win. And back and forth and back and forth. And it was very exciting in the gym and the fans were starting to get into it towards the end. 'Cause it, I mean, it was literally down to, can we score one more point and win this thing? So it was, you know, from our perspective, it's exciting. I'm sure Carson was a little disappointed. I just like we just talked about soccer though. Volleyball is even more important. Your regional tournament is a couple of days. All at one site, everybody's playing the same court. You get hot, you get all of your pieces and parts of line and you can blow right through the tournament. So it's interesting seeing the difference in the two sports and how, 'cause Brittany does not seem even the least bit worried. You know, seeing her on the sideline this year, it's in the past, you've seen it a little more animated and doing stuff and now she's almost sitting back and kind of watching the kids do their thing and they know you've got a lot of veteran players on that team and that's what was interesting. I've never seen some of the Minnow kids. They've got some tremendous athletes but the psychology of it, you and I have talked about tennis psychology before but the psychology of volleyball and you know, you make one bobble and it's, can you get back? Can you recover from that and can you kind of just throw it away and move on to the next point? So it reminds me of that Roger Federer talking with the, is it a commencement speech that he gives? - Yeah. - Yeah, that's fantastic. So if you don't know what we're talking about, Google it, just Roger Federer commencement speech and listen to all of it, it's tremendous. - I believe it was an Ivy League school though. I don't think I could tell you which one it was off the top of my head. I wanna say like Dartmouth or Yale, but I could be wrong. So don't quote me on that. I'm sure if you Google Roger Federer commencement speech it will take you to where you need to be. And I think to your point about the center volleyball team, you know, I'm not sure we've seen their ceiling yet and that's what I think is maybe part of the reason that I'm not trying to put words in anybody's mouth here but maybe part of the reason why Coach Witter is just so calm on the sidelines because I think, I mean, they've shown that they're capable of playing really good volleyball and can hang with some of these, the top teams in the region. Part of me wonders if it's only just a matter of time until they click and find a way to knock somebody off and maybe that doesn't come until regional tournament time but the team as a whole certainly has the ceiling to be one of the best teams, if not the best team in the region. And I think that's something that we will only continue to see as the day goes, the season goes on. I can only imagine also how exhausted they were by the end of a third five set match, especially coming out on the wrong end of one. They played a makeup game against Galena. I believe it was Wednesday of last week then played Spanish Springs at home. That also went five sets and then of course played a make it match with Manog Monday and that went five sets as well. And they play Reno tonight. - Yeah. - So that's quite a slate right there. - Yeah, it's gonna be interesting. You know, I wonder how much weight, how much stock you'll be able to put in into this Reno match. You know, I'm not trying to say anything too exasperated here but if they go out and get losing three sets, I still don't necessarily think that says a whole lot given what they've had to go through over the past week. I think the next couple of weeks will be a big telling point for what the Senators team has moving forward. - Well, they seem kind of more steady that yes, they make mistakes but it's not such a big deal. 'Cause I was sitting at the scores table for actually two of the sets, just kind of watching and taking in the how making a mistake or hitting a great point or those types of things were actually affecting them and how the game kind of transformed. It was very, very interesting. They're very steady. Steady as she goes, you know, no real peak, no real valley, kind of down the middle and just kept chipping away, chipping away. 'Cause they were behind in the first set that they ended up winning. So it was interesting to see and they're definitely, they're gonna be knocking on the door for sure. - Yeah, without a doubt and I'm not necessarily sure that the top end of the 5A North, like I said, Carson's in it, but I'm not necessarily sure the top end of the 5A North as we've said a few times isn't quite as top heavy as it's been in the past, even if it is still kind of the same names up at the top. Speaking of volleyball, Douglas volleyball will induct eight individuals into their Hall of Fame class this evening. You can find more about that online as well. But be sure to check that out at www.recordcurrier.com/newsback/sports. Tiger volleyball sitting at seven and 10 so far on this season. We also got regional girls golf this Wednesday and Thursday at Redhawk, something to keep an eye on there. Not sure we're gonna have anybody taken away a team title necessarily, but individual wise, there are some really talented golfers down at Douglas High School still that could make a push for an individual title. We'll see on the regional team title. I know Bishop Minogue is very strong in the girls golf side of things there. Jeff, you know, I hate to do my own horn here, but we talked about the Giants a couple of weeks ago. And I said that when there's smoke, there's generally fire. And guess what? They did yesterday. They fired their president of baseball operations, Parhan's ID, replaced him with an even bigger question mark, but one that the fans at least enjoy in Buster Posey. I don't think I have anything else to add to that other than, you know, sometimes the reporting is really good. And when leaks come out like that right before the end of the season, just like it happened a year ago around the manager, the writing's just on the wall, I think. - So you're a baseball guy. You're a sports guy, obviously, but you follow baseball pretty closely. There's an adage that catchers make because of their involvement with everything. They make really good coaches, general managers, et cetera, et cetera. What's your Buster Posey take for this? - Well, I think generally that's true, but managing and being and running the front office are two entirely different roles. That's, and that's the thing. I think a lot of what I've read, we've seen what Buster Posey can do in a 3-2 count, or we've seen how he can shape the game when he's on the field, but we don't know if he can squeeze out a supplemental draft pick by saving money in the bonus pool. We don't know how he does negotiating with other agents and other teams. We don't know what his philosophy is for the organization. And granted, that press conference is going on right now as we speak, but there are probably 1,000 unanswered questions with a 37-year-old man with no experience taking over as president of baseball operations. I would be very curious to see if they stick with their same general manager, or if they go a different direction there, I imagine, whoever it is, will be very into whatever scouting and that sort of thing. And Buster may be much more of a face and setting a culture as opposed to being your kind of behind-the-scenes, tablet-in-hand analytics guy. And don't get me wrong, I think he would be very driven by analytics, but I think there's gonna be a little different way to look at the president of baseball operations with Buster in charge. But we'll see the Giants answered one question, and that Farhan wasn't coming back, but they have about 1,000 more now. And I think it's an exciting time. I think they've got some young talent that could blossom into being some pieces for the future, but they've got some things to figure out for sure. All right, that's gonna do it for episode 149. Be sure to check out next week's episode. That is gonna be 150. We got some stuff planned for that as well. And of course, be sure to check out all of our coverage online at www.navadapiel.com/news/sports. For Jeff Mulvahill Jr. I'm Carter Ackles. We'll catch you guys next week. Take it easy. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (whooshing)