Miller, Jones lead the Mustangs’ defense

Published 8:47 pm Thursday, July 23, 2026

MENDON, Ill. — Similar to the offense, there is some turnover with Unity-Payson’s defense.

The Mustangs do return a pair of senior standouts to its defense — defensive end Troy Miller and defensive tackle Trenton Jones.

“Troy’s an explosive defensive end off the edge, and you know Trenton’s going to be a big physical presence in the middle for us,” said Woodworth. “We’ve got several other younger guys that are working in there. We’re figuring those spots out and I think they’ll do a good job for us.”

Given the talent and experience up front, defensive line looks to be the strength of Unity-Payson’s defense.

“I think our defensive line is our strongest position on the whole team,” said Miller. “I think the line will be able to create constant pressure.”

Unity-Payson will look to Miller to pressure opposing quarterbacks and stop running backs in their tracks.

“Defensively, I think my speed in comparison to tackles around her is a big factor on how I play my game,” said Miller. “Making them feel like they need to hurry up helps me out a lot, too.”

The Mustangs did lose Aden Cannell to graduation and will look to fill that spot along Jones and Miller.

“It’s definitely nice having a fast edge like Troy, for sure,” said Jones. “But we got to improve on not jumping and not climbing too far outside and pushing ourselves up. That’s just another thing we got to work on this summer. Having Troy is great. He likes to be fast and he’s pretty aggressive on what he does, and I’m glad to have him as a teammate.”

Jones finished last season with 27 tackles and four stops for a loss.

“I would say it’s mainly being hot off the ball and using my strength to my advantage,” said Jones. “I’m not the fastest guy, but I can definitely do some damage if I catch somebody off guard.”

Linebacker was a position group hit hard by graduation, with the Mustangs losing Sawyer Allen, Justin Cramm and Austin Janssen.

Cramm was the Mustangs’ leading tackler last year with 92 stops.

“Carson Trautvetter is going to do some good work for us there in the middle,” said Woodworth. “Other than that, we’re still working through some stuff trying to figure the rest of them out. Clint Cannell’s a kid that may be a hybrid outside linebacker against spread stuff, but we can also put him at defensive end against some run-heavy teams.”

The secondary took a hit with the injury to Charlie Scarber, who had 55 tackles and four pass deflections last season. Unity-Payson also graduation key defensive backs such as Blake Arnsman and Cole Wray.

“In the secondary, we had one returner coming back, Charlie Scarber,” said Woodworth. “Unfortunately, he is going to have surgery on some ankle ligaments that he’s got a deposit on and is going to miss most of the season. It’s a three-to-six month recovery, so we’re wide open in the secondary.”

One player who has shown some promise is sophomore Kamper Eberle, with the Mustangs holding competition for the other spots in the defensive backfield.

“I think Kamper Eberle is going to help us out quite a bit in the secondary,” said Woodworth. “He’s a sophomore that we’re looking to step up and get some varsity reps this year. I think he’ll do a good job.”

Woodworth and the Unity-Payson coaching staff is examining its options as Unity-Payson sees who rises to the top during camp competition.

“We’ve got a lot of spots where we got guys competing for,” said Woodworth. “We’ve got some younger guys stepping in to fill those roles. We’ve got a few new first-year players that will hopefully be stepping in and taking some of those roles. Then we’ve got some juniors from last year that got some quality varsity reps that will hopefully lead us as seniors this year.”