BATTLE OF BASELINE: NECC Game of the Week: Central Noble @ Churubusco

Tonight, the Battle of Baseline reaches its 53rd all-time meeting as 4-2 Churubusco entertains Central Noble on Busco’s homecoming. Busco is coming off both games where they’ve outscored Prairie Heights and Fremont 88-0, while CN ran into a hot Lakeland offense in a 49-20 loss. This game has a lot at stake because a Central Noble loss would clinch Eastside at least a share of the NECC’s Small School Division.

In the rivalry’s history, Busco owns a 31-21 lead and have won this series in 16 of their last 17 meetings. Busco hasn’t lost at home to CN since 2002 with Busco owning a 18-9 home record against CN.

Headlines going into this game

1. Two talented quarterbacks square off in Turtle Town

Coming into this season, a lot of people were already realizing just how good Riley Buroff can be as a quarterback and as an athlete. The stats and words we talk about him don’t do nearly enough Justice to how explosive this kid is. It’s just amazing how much he gets overlooked sometimes from the aspects of how colleges view him. He’s so calm and collective with the ball, he has strong instincts with finding his targets from a short period of time, and he has tremendous ability to avoid the sack, step out of the pocket and create a sense of deception.

Buroff has 574 yards on .569% completion and 4 TDs with no picks. But he also has 58 carries for 260 yards and 5 more TDs and he has two punt returns for touchdowns as well. The explosiveness from Buroff flirts with the likes of other studs like Donavan Williams with his athletic speed, but add that with the ability to lead the passing game with such composure and efficiency. He’s a special quarterback.

Now on the Central Noble side, an unexpected situation led to something huge from sophomore gunslinger Brody Morgan who leads the NECC with 969 passing yards on .646% completion and 6 TDs, despite the 8 INTs. Morgan in just 36 carries has 126 yards (3.5 yards per carries) for 3 more scores. Look at this change. Last season alone, Central Noble quarterbacks threw for a grand total of 945 yards on .419% completion (Tyler Shisler only threw for 881 yards in 2021). Morgan’s ability to stretch the offense with the downfield pass is one that changes a lot about how Busco has to plan this CN team.

In past seasons, all Busco had to do was stop the run, and they’re going to beat them. Boy, have times changed. Two schools that at one point predicated to exclusively running the football are now evolving into small schools that are starting to flex their muscles a little more with the quarterback talent.

Let me just say the quarterback talent in this state is PHENOMENAL! We have so many talented kids playing football at an elite level in this great state! Don’t change what you do! Because it’s working.

2. Can the Cougars Block Well enough to establish good pass protection?

One of the things that will be greatly important is the ability to protect the quarterback, and as both teams evolve with their offenses, the strategy in slowing down these offenses becomes a little more complex and less black and white.

Usually, in the NECC, if you stop the run, you almost always win these games. Usually if you stop CN’s power run game and out tackle them, you beat CN. But it’s like football, the game adapts to the modernization of play calls and the growing development of skilled players, teams will eventually adapt a remixed version of their old self. That’s what you’re seeing between these two teams.

Looking at the stats, CN is 2-1 when they throw for 200 yards, 2-2 when they throw for .600% or better, and 2-1 when they run for at least 150 yards. This season’s backfield only averages 129 yards per game and 3.9 yards per carry, which are down by an average of 118 yards per game and 2.8 yards per carry.

This season, CN is 2-0 when they have double figures in TFL’s, and 2-0 when they reach 3 sacks. Last week against Lakeland, that number dropped from 19 TFLs against Fremont to 5 vs Lakeland.

The point being is for CN to have a chance at winning this game they have to be able to compliment the passing game to establish more confidence with the run in manageable situations. They can’t compete with Busco and Eastside if their plan is to just commit to run the football or trying to strike golf on every home run pass without sustainability or good fielding position. They will need to have a good plan in trying to exploit Busco’s small number of weaknesses and share the wealth of talented offensive players like Drew Pliett, Ethan Skinner, and Tysen Deck. Who knows! If Tyler Shisler is able to play at about 100% tonight, you could see them try to utilize him in the pass and running games to give Busco another pain in the butt to slow down.

This can’t happen if CN gets completely blitzed by Busco’s front 7 that has 12 sacks, 6 in just the last game at Fremont. They also have to clean up the turnover issues that occurred against Lakeland where CN had three picks and a lost fumble. Busco has forced CN to commit 7 turnovers in their last 3 meetings or 2.3 turnovers per game. More extra possessions for Busco means a more exhausted CN front 7 and an inexperienced secondary that has to play both ways, especially with a zone defense that is intended to have one maybe two guys covering 2 different receivers. It’s just not realistic if the turnovers are a problem.

For Busco, it’s key to take care of the football and force the Cougars to be one-dimensional. They’ve only committed 3 turnovers all season, all from fumbles. Busco has NOT allowed more than 19 points to CN since 2007! That’s also important to note.

3. Wyatt Marks represents a long-trend of tremendous Busco running backs

Entering tonight, Senior Wyatt Marks has 562 yards and 6 TDs on 100 carries as he builds the type of a game changing running back that has similar trends to Jason Nicodemus. It’s a Busco thing to have these type of small, but incredibly quick and strong running backs. In his career, Marks has 2,105 rushing yards in his career for 23 TDs.

Here are the rushing leaders over the last 7 years. Yes Jason Nicodemus and Kyle Mathewson have more, but I don’t currently have the entire history of Busco football statistically right now

Landon Harris 2015 2,785

Jake Fulk 2019 2,429

Nate Keener 2018 2,361

Wyatt Marks 2022 2,105*

This here shows how great Marks has been playing over the past two seasons, and he could be important tonight.

Players to Watch:

Central Noble: Brody Morgan QB

Morgan has thrown for 200 yards in 3 straight games, which is unheard of at Central Noble, and so just that side of the ball alone is going to bring a unique challenge to Busco. If CN is going to make this a thrilling finish and possibly a win, which I do think it’s not completely out of the possibility, Morgan has to have another fantastic game in taking care of the football, leading the way in terms of team communication, and have a strong game distributing the offense and moving the chains.

Churubusco: Wyatt Marks Running Back

Since 2014, Busco is averaging 284.8 rushing yards per game against Central Noble. The last time Busco was held to below 200 rushing yards came in their last lost to CN in 2017, when the Cougar Defense held Busco to just 73 rushing yards in the 19-17 win. Last season, Busco ran for 246 rushing yards which was well below the average of 285, but Wyatt Marks had a clutch game as he ran for 130 yards on 30 carries and a score.

While Busco fans will tell me, Riley Buroff is the difference maker in these games, I imagine Busco will definitely try to rely on Marks to wear down the CN front line and lead the backfield in that dangerous Busco Wing-T. If Busco is able to score first and build on a potential lead, you could see Busco gaining a ton of swagger and get their loud fans more electric.