H.S. Football: Zion Castillo, dominant defense lift Elyria Catholic to first win

ELYRIA — The Elyria Catholic Panthers played a physical brand of complementary football Friday night in a dominant 17-0 victory over previously undefeated Vermilion in the home opener at Dan Reaser Stadium.Junior running back Zion Castillo, who's 5-foot-6, 175 pounds, was the ultimate workhouse, carrying the ball 41 times for 217 yards and a score. Playing without do-it-all weapon Donovan Shumpert, and losing starting quarterback Robbie Duray to an arm injury in the first half, the Panthers rode Castillo, ate up the clock and controlled the game with their running attack and dominant defense."It's one of those things where we talk about it, we work on it, and it came to fruition tonight," Elyria Catholic coach Chase Farris said. "We didn't stop ourselves. We tried to limit the penalties the best we could and those guys went out there and gave it their all."An interception by sophomore defensive back Juelz Martin halted Vermilion's first drive of the game inside the Panthers 20-yard line.Later in the half Elyria Catholic mounted a drive that resulted in a 22-yard field goal by Benjamin Essenmacher, with Castillo carrying seven times for 57 yards. Essenmacher was later pressed into quarterback duty with Duray out.Another interception, this one by senior Corey Armerlin, halted another Sailors drive.Elyria Catholic's defense was dominant throughout, limiting Vermilion star tailback Evan Kuhns to 50 yards on 13 carries. Kuhns came into Friday with 619 rushing yards in two games.The Panthers' entire defensive unit complemented each other well, as it led to several hurries and sacks of quarterback Drake Hooks.Senior defensive end Trent Merrell was all over the field."It's a group effort," he said. "We've had games where one side has played good, one side hasn't. We really put it together, a great week of practice, and leaned on each other and got this win tonight."Shutting down Kuhns was a point of emphasis for the Panthers, and playing another county team brought out even more excitement."The 400-yard game, that was in our head," Merrell said of Kuhns' 414-yard effort two weeks ago. "It's a Lorain County team, obviously a little bit extra. We had a lot of motivation going into this game, us being 0-3 too. We used everything we could have.""There were times when our guys had coverage sacks when the defensive backs were holding up in man coverage and our defensive line had time to get there," Farris said.In the second half it was more of the Castillo show offensively, before speedster junior Mikey Bates offered fresh legs as he bolted 39 yards between the tackles for a touchdown to make it 10-0 in the third quarter. After the Sailors fumbled the ensuing kickoff and EC recovered, Castillo punched it from 4 yards to take a 17-0 lead in the fourth quarter and end the Sailors' chances."It was complementary football," Castillo said. "Coach told us we needed to draw a line and we drew that line today and we executed."Hooks and the passing game struggled due to being hurried and impressive coverage from Elyria Catholic, as Hooks finished 6-for-22 for 86 yards. The ground game was limited to 73 yards on 28 carries, with many negative plays due to sacks.The Sailors play host to Sandusky in a Sandusky Bay Conference crossover game next Friday, and Elyria Catholic plays at Padua.