Providence High School football’s offensive line causing big problems for opponents

It is impressive for a running back to have more than 200 rushing yards in a game, but to get more than 300? That’s rare.

Last week, Providence High’s Luke Bailey ran for 336 against South Mecklenburg and broke a 17-year-old school record. How did he do it? Bailey and head coach Wes Ward both credit Providence’s mammoth offensive line, which has caused problems for opponents since scrimmages started last month.

That line includes 6-6, 315-pound Connor Drake, Cash Topinka (6-3, 325), Marc Tomljanovic (6-5, 315) and two tight ends — Noah Watson (6-4, 250) and Connor Shelton (6-1, 220).

At 5-foot-8, 190-pounds, center Ben Baker feels small compared to his teammates, but Ward said he more than gets the job done.

“Our offensive line is nasty,” Topinka, the left tackle, said. “We are mean. We play to the whistle. We practice to the whistle. We finish our blocks until the whistle is blown or ‘till the guy is in the dirt.”

Topinka also spoke about what it was like to be able to block for Bailey, the Panthers’ tailback.

“He (Bailey) is a leader,” Topinka said. “He makes us want to play great. The way he holds us accountable and the way we hold each other accountable. We want to do well for him.”

The Panthers’ offensive line coach, Jonathan Castator, doesn’t take any credit for the performance and says it is the way his guys work and prepare, and nothing he’s doing, is what led to the squad’s performance on Bailey’s record-setting night.

“I am extremely proud of our guys,” Castator said. “Honestly it is all about the kids. They buy in and work hard. These guys have been training since February and they have high expectations and it is all on them. I try to coach them hard but at the end of the day, they play the game and I don’t play the game.”

Tight end Connor Shelton said that Castator is being modest.

“Our O-line coach, coach Cast, gets us right,” Shelton said. “He makes sure we work hard every day, never lets us rest and he pushes us to our best every day.”

And one of the guys who benefits from Castator’s creation, quarterback Grant Powell, said that the line’s preperation has been key.

“One thing I’ll say,” Powell said, “is that in the weight room, they lift a lot of weights and I can tell from other schools I have been at that they are just on a different level.”

Tomljanovic, the starting guard, feels that all of the guys on the line trust one another to do their part in making sure all the assignments are covered in every play of every game.

“One thing that we’ve learned over the years,” he said, “and we’ve all been together two or three years with each other, is to trust each other and for everyone to do their job. And, you don’t have to worry about someone else not doing their job correctly.”

Coming off his monster game last week, Bailey would sure agree.

“That is just five nasty dudes up front,” Bailey said. “Obviously I am the one getting the stats and getting in the end zone, but none of that is happening without them. I just ran it exactly the way they drew it up.

“We’ve got a pit bull in Ben Baker up front so they (opposing defenses) are never really coming through the middle,” Bailey said. “We’ve got a guard like Connor Drake, and he is pulling and so it feels like the linebacker or whoever can’t see me. So, when they pull I think it is best when they get me in space, but we can run downhill too because we have a bunch of monsters on the O-line.”

Providence High all-time single game rushing leaders

This story was originally published September 2, 2022 at 6:00 AM.