Portage feeling right at home

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Most coaches who have the usual seven-game conference schedule want a good mix in their first two non-conference games of the season.

Maybe one tough opponent and one not-so-tough.

Maybe one running-style offense and one passing-style offense, if it's possible to figure that out when putting together the schedule.

Maybe one road game and one home game.

At least that's the way Portage head coach Mark Peterson was hoping it would turn out.

Instead, thanks to Highland's new grass field not being ready, the Indians will have four straight home games to start the year.

"Every team would love to play every game at home, so from that standpoint it's welcomed," Portage coach Mark Peterson said. "But you would like to have some early road games to get the feel for playing away from home."

The Indians easily defeated Andrean 40-7 last week in home game No. 1, and open the Duneland Conference campaign with Lake Central and Merrillville coming to Portage.

Those are two tough opponents, home or away. But if his squad plays like it did last week, it might not matter.

"Ultimately, yes and no," Peterson said when asked if he was surprised at his team's great effort. "You work all summer long and you think you're going to be pretty decent and you think you have a special group of kids, so we thought we'd be decent. We don't have a lot of starters back, but we have a lot of regular players back.

"As it turns out, many of those kids starting now were starting at the end of the season. So yes, I'm pleasantly surprised, but still with a certain level of expectations."

Nervous but effective

So far so good with Clark's first-year starting quarterback Micah Rooke.

At least after the first couple series in last Friday's 27-16 victory over Wirt.

"He was a little jittery," Pioneers' coach Dave Verta said. "He came up to one of the coaches saying everything was going so fast and we just told him it would slow down … and it did for him."

Rooke finished with three touchdowns passes, including a 34-yard TD pass to Jorge Galindo. The junior QB wasn't the only one starting in his first varsity game.

"I'd say on offense, we had nine or 10 guys starting varsity for the first time," Verta said. "On offense we tried to limit our formations, keep it fresh. We have a lot of guys also playing special teams and going both ways."

Though not as bad as in recent years at Clark. In fact, Verta sees a bright future for the program as a whole.

"We had another five or six freshmen join this week," he said. "We have 45 kids out. This is easily the biggest turnout we've had. We just want people to know this isn't the same old Clark program."

Contact Steve Gorches at 648-3141, sgorches@post-trib.com or visit his blog at blogs.post-trib.com/gorches.