New Chesterton, Griffith QBs work off the nerves in scrimmage

Updated: August 13, 2011 10:43AM

GRIFFITH — A couple of rookie quarterbacks got the chance to work out a few kinks Friday night when Griffith hosted Chesterton in a scrimmage.

It was a win-win situation for the Panthers and Trojans, at least in that regard.

Chesterton’s Chris Kastafaros threw a pair of touchdown passes before giving way to Michael Crowley for the final varsity series of the night. Griffith’s Austin Brown took all the varsity snaps and ran for three scores.

“I thought we executed really well,” Chesterton coach John Snyder said. “The nerves are running high, (it’s) the first time you’re playing under ther lights. … Next Friday, I hope we’re getting over those nerves (and realize) it’s just another game at a different time.”

Snyder believes his starting quarterback has passed that test.

“Chris Kastafaros played really well, kept some plays alive,” the Trojans coach said.

After his first pass fell incomplete, Kastafaros found Zac Jenks for a 29-yard gain down the left sideline. He later hit a wide-open Joe Troop for a 30-yard touchdown pass on the first series and bought some time by scrambling before throwing an 11-yard TD pass to Jacob Andrews on the Trojans’ second series.

Brown spent much of his night weaving his way through the Chesterton defense. The junior had eight carries on Griffith’s 15-play first series, including a 1-yard TD plunge, and then ran the ball the first five plays of the Panthers’ second series.

“He’s got varsity experience, but not as a quarterback,” Griffith coach Russ Radtke said. “Scheme-wise, I feel that he was a little flustered at times. But I liked how he carried himself and attacked well. … We’ll have to see how fast he can come along.”

Chesterton also scored on a 10-yard run by Troop, A.J. Snyder’s 2-yard run, Crowley’s 3-yard pass to Alex Katsafaros and Kyle Schmidt’s 48-yard field goal.

Troop’s success on offense is only half the story, according to Snyder, who is looking forward to getting more of his special teams play in the mix next week.

“Kyle’s going to do what he’s going to do kicking-wise,” Snyder said. “But I (also) think our return game has a chance to be very good,. (Troop’s) got a chance to go the distance almost every time he touches it. If he gets some blocks, he’s going to be able to run away from some people.”

Brown added TD runs of 7 and 10 yards for Griffith, while Brett Brinkley scored on carries of 5 and 14 yards. Radtke did see room for improvement, though.

“Our offensive blocking schemes have got to improve,” he said. “Chesterton has a good defensive front that really packed it inside and caused us some problems until we could sit there and figure it out. We got some big yardage, but we need a little bit better calls from our offensive line in that situation.”

Chesterton played without a pair of injured linebackers (Julian Raudry and Dana Konchar) as a precautionary measure. The only significant injury of the night appeared to come when Griffith defensive end Ben Parish hurt his left knee.

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