Cascade was back at home for the Battle of I-70 Trophy Game against rival Monrovia Friday Night. It would be the 57th meeting between the two schools with Cascade looking to extend their already two game win streak. Cascade held the traveling trophy with a 26-14 win from the 2022 season. The biggest takeaways from the night? Turnovers by the offense and big runs given up were the difference Friday Night for the Cadets. Cascade won the opening toss and elected to defer to the second half. Monrovia would need only two plays to score, ripping off a 75 yard touchdown on the second play from scrimmage giving the Bulldogs a 7-0 lead 50 seconds into the game. On the ensuing possession, SO Toby Savini would be hit from behind by two Bulldog defenders and fumble the ball that Monrovia would go on to recover. Two plays later, SR Brayton Belcher would find the endzone for the Bulldogs pushing the lead to 14-0. On the first four run attempts of the game, Monrovia would rush 4 times for 113 yards and 2 touchdowns, just the start to their 573 yard performance on the ground and 600 yard total on the night. The Cadet offense would go three and out the next possession struggling to find any momentum. Monrovia would go on to drive the ball down to the 10 yard line and Cascade’s defense would come up with a huge goal line stand to force the turnover on downs and give a little life to Cascade. Cascade would go on one of their best drives of the year, taking 20 plays, 90 yards and 5 minutes 17 seconds off the clock to get on the board and cut the lead to 14-7. Monrovia would drive down the field again finding themselves in the red zone, but the defense did not break forcing a 2nd straight red zone stop. Cadets would take over on downs at their own 14 yard line with some huge momentum. Unfortunately, the offense couldn’t take advantage of the stop as the Bulldogs forced the Cadet offense to a 3 and out with 4 minutes left in the half. With 3:41 left in the half, Monrovia would drive down the field to the 15 yard line and be forced to a 4th and 13 with 8.8 seconds left to go. Cascade would lose contain and SR Eli Welch would run into the end zone with 1.1 seconds left on the clock to crush the Cadets going into halftime down 7-21. Opening up the second half, Cascade would get the ball and the scoreboard began to light up quickly as it became a shootout. SO Toby Savini would take the second half kickoff to the house to cut the lead to 14-21 in Bulldogs favor, but all momentum went to the Cadets. However, on the night, anytime Cascade would get a momentum shift, Monrovia answered and cut it immediately the next possession with big runs and takeaways. Monrovia would break off a 59 yard touchdown run 5 plays in the next series to extend the lead 14-28. On the next possession, SR Damien Appleby broke a 14 yard run down the right sideline for 14 yards setting the Cadets up in Monrovia territory, but SO Toby Savini would have his second fumble of the night giving the ball back to the Cadets. Monrovia would take over, however, SO Toby Savini would make up for it on the next possession. Cadets defense would force Monoriva to march down the field, but on a 3rd and 3 from the Cadets 32 yard line, SR Belcher would fumble the football and SO Toby Savini would scoop and score for a 70 yard touchdown return to put the Cadets back within 7. Cascade could never get full momentum, from the 1st play on the next series Bulldogs would rip off a 71 yard run, setting up an easy walk-in touchdown for SR Eli Welch extending the lead 21-35. Monrovia would go for the surprise onside kick and recover on the next play. Cascade’s defense were able to stand tall and get a big stop to keep the Cadets in the game. Trailing 21-35, Cascade would force an incomplete pass on 4th and 6 giving the ball back to the Cadets offense 56 yards from the end zone. SO Brady Trebley would march Cascade down the field on 14 plays and SO Dayton Mink would find the endzone from 1 yard out. Cascade would trail 28-35 with 8:31 left to go in the game. On the ensuing possession, Cascade’s defense would get the Bulldogs to a 4th and 2, but couldn’t get off the field giving up a 50 yard touchdown run to all, but put the nail in the coffin. Cascade would trail 28-42 with 4:21 left to play. They would need a quick score to stay in it, since they held all three timeouts still. Cadets got just that, SO Brady Trebley would go 3-3 on the drive for 29 yards and a 12 yard touchdown completion to SO Marcus Hobson to give Cascade a chance. SR CHase Schnarr would make the kick bringing the score 35-42 with 2:52 left in the game. Cascade would go for the onside, but failed to recover it. Monrovia would run out the clock after getting two 10 yard gains and left the Cadets with no timeouts left in the game. Cascade would show a lot of fight and heart, but mistakes seemed to be the biggest difference maker. Monrovia would win the line of scrimmage and win the turnover margin, two biggest points of emphasis for teams that run the ball. Cascade would have two 3 & outs on the night and 2 fumbles, one on the first play from scrimmage and one that was two plays into another drive. But where are the positives? The players didn’t give up, even being out played on offense and having almost a 400 yard difference, Cascade still managed to fight and claw to give themselves a chance. Defense came up with their second straight week with a defensive touchdown. Special teams make special players with Savini taking his 2nd kickoff return to the house on the year. We could go on and on about what could’ve been and what we should’ve done, however, at the end of the day, Monrovia made 1-2 more plays than Cascade did. Cascade players never failed to answer the challenge when they went down 14-0, 21-7, 28-14, 35-21, or 42-28. Cascade will look to get back to their brand of football this week and prepare for the 2023 IHSAA playoffs with their final game and prep coming this Friday Night against South Putnam. Scoring Summary 1st Quarter M: 75 Yard Run (Kick) 0-7 M: 20 Yard Run (Kick) 0-14 2nd Quarter C: Mink 1 Yard Run (Schnarr Kick) 7-14 M: 15 yard Run (Kick) 7-21 3rd Quarter C: Savini 70 Yard Kickoff Return (Schnarr Kick) 14-21 M: 59 Yard Run (Kick) 14-28 C: Savini 70 Yard Fumble Recovery (Schnarr Kick) 21-28 M: 1 Yard Run (Kick) 21-35 4th Quarter C: Mink 1 Yard Run (Schnarr Kick) 28-35 M: 50 Yard Run (Kick) 28-42 C: Hobson 12 Yard Pass From Trebley (Schnarr Kick) 35-42 Game Summary Total Plays C: 47 M: 71 Total Offense C: 234 M: 607 Passing Yards C: 41 M: 35 Rushing Yards C: 193 M: 572 First Downs C: 15 M: 24 Third Down C: 5-9 M: 5-12 Fourth Down C: 2-2 M: 2-5 Turnovers C: 2 M: 1 Penalties C: 5-25 M: 10-102 Offensive Stats Passing Brady Trebley 5-7 41 Yards 1 TD Rushing Dayton Mink 14-54 2 TDs Damien Appleby 11-86 Toby Savini 11-45 Receiving Trent Austin 2-13 Marcus Hobson 1-14 1 TD Dayton Mink 1-9 JT Roshong 1-7 Defensive Stats Tackles Jackson Cornelius 16 Tackles Lucas Farmer 16 Tackles 1 TFL Jacob Potts 16 Tackles 2 TFL Brayden Cartmel 10 Tackles 1 TFL 1 FC Josiah Murrain 9 Tackles Toby Savini 8 Tackles 1 FR 1 TD Special Teams Kickoffs Chase Schnarr 6-254 Punts Kaiden Hodges 2-55 Kickoff Returns Toby Savini 1-70 1 TD Varsity vs Monrovia (35 - 42) Loss