New Haven vs Columbia City

[BTF]

Easily the game of the week in all of Northeast Indiana. This game needs a thread of it's own. Should be a heck of an atmosphere in New Haven, one that I'm looking forward to being part of. Columbia City is the higher ranked team in the AP Poll. New Haven ranks higher in Sagarin and Temp's Top 25. In the pick-em challenge, not one person other than yours truly is taking Eagles in this one. Honestly, the only reason I did that was to be different and take the risk. Is it really a risk picking the Eagles? I don't really think so. They were the top team last year in the NE8 and seem to have picked up where they left off from a season ago.................schedule so far as been suspect though. New Haven already has two quality wins over Luers and Leo.  I think this one could go either way. The Bulldogs want to prove that they are the frontrunner to represent the North...............none of this Kokomo talk. Columbia City's getting no respect in this one, which could light a fire. Gimmie the Eagles by 7.

Edited September 22, 2023 by BTF

[temptation]

26 minutes ago, BTF said:

Easily the game of the week in all of Northeast Indiana. This game needs a thread of it's own. Should be a heck of an atmosphere in New Haven, one that I'm looking forward to being part of. Columbia City is the higher ranked team in the AP Poll. New Haven ranks higher in Sagarin and Temp's Top 25. In the pick-em challenge, not one person other than yours truly is taking Eagles in this one. Honestly, the only reason I did that was to be different and take the risk. Is it really a risk picking the Eagles? I don't really think so. They were the top team last year in the NE8 and seem to have picked up where they left off from a season ago.................schedule so far as been suspect though. New Haven already has two quality wins over Luers and Leo.  I think this one could go either way. The Bulldogs want to prove that they are the frontrunner to represent the North...............none of this Kokomo talk. Columbia City's getting no respect in this one, which could light a fire. Gimmie the Eagles by 7.

How do you know where both rank in Temp’s top 25 (you’re right though)?

[BTF]

2 minutes ago, temptation said:

How do you know where both rank in Temp’s top 25 (you’re right though)?

Not sure why I thought that to be honest. 

[temptation]

8 hours ago, BTF said:

Not sure why I thought that to be honest. 

Get out of my head!

[NE8_Fan]

This game will be huge for NE8 supremacy this year as well as a possible forcast for how things could shake up in the north for 4A.  New Haven and that offense is simply EXPLOSIVE.  Athletes all over the field and a QB in Williams that can threaten you with his legs as much as his arm along with a RB in Bates that has been superb making teams pay when they worry too much about slowing down Mylan Graham with 2 high bracket coverage.  Columbia City comes in as the defending NE8 and sectional champs from last year but they lost ALOT from that team, but they return Stratton Fuller who will go down as one of the greatest ever at Columbia City when its all said and done.  I look at it this was.....Columbia City does NOT have enough guys to cover all New Havens weapons and I'm not sure New Haven will be able to withstand the Eagles relentless rushing attack.  I'm expecting  minimum of 4-5 BIG plays in this game and I think 3-4 of those will be by the Bulldogs.  New Haven has lined up against the FAR better schedule so far with Leo and Luers while the Eagles schedule has been about as soft as it can be.  Common opponent being Dekalb with CC winning 49-7 and NH winning 28-28 BUT the New Haven game was 42-7 at half when the Dogs completely took their foot off the pedal and Dekalb got back into the game.  This game DOES deserve more interest but lets be honest....if its not the SAC, you dont get alot of clicks on here as it pertains to football in the Fort Wayne area, sad  but true.  With all that being said, I believe this game is for the NE8 title this year as if New Haven wins, they will go unblemished in the regular season (and yes I know they still have a date with East Noble that cannot be overlooked) and if Columbia City wins, they still have dates with Leo and East Noble left SOOOOO  I'm saying New Haven 35 Columbia City 24

[BTF]

1 hour ago, NE8_Fan said:

This game will be huge for NE8 supremacy this year as well as a possible forcast for how things could shake up in the north for 4A.  New Haven and that offense is simply EXPLOSIVE.  Athletes all over the field and a QB in Williams that can threaten you with his legs as much as his arm along with a RB in Bates that has been superb making teams pay when they worry too much about slowing down Mylan Graham with 2 high bracket coverage.  Columbia City comes in as the defending NE8 and sectional champs from last year but they lost ALOT from that team, but they return Stratton Fuller who will go down as one of the greatest ever at Columbia City when its all said and done.  I look at it this was.....Columbia City does NOT have enough guys to cover all New Havens weapons and I'm not sure New Haven will be able to withstand the Eagles relentless rushing attack.  I'm expecting  minimum of 4-5 BIG plays in this game and I think 3-4 of those will be by the Bulldogs.  New Haven has lined up against the FAR better schedule so far with Leo and Luers while the Eagles schedule has been about as soft as it can be.  Common opponent being Dekalb with CC winning 49-7 and NH winning 28-28 BUT the New Haven game was 42-7 at half when the Dogs completely took their foot off the pedal and Dekalb got back into the game.  This game DOES deserve more interest but lets be honest....if its not the SAC, you dont get alot of clicks on here as it pertains to football in the Fort Wayne area, sad  but true.  With all that being said, I believe this game is for the NE8 title this year as if New Haven wins, they will go unblemished in the regular season (and yes I know they still have a date with East Noble that cannot be overlooked) and if Columbia City wins, they still have dates with Leo and East Noble left SOOOOO  I'm saying New Haven 35 Columbia City 24

If I'm being honest, I never took the NE8 seriously until this year. I think this conference is as strong as it's ever been. I love that NE8 teams have the opportunity to clash with the SAC in Weeks 1 & 2 now. I think that only makes the NE8 stronger moving forward. East Noble impressed me when they went up against Snider. Tonight I get a look at two more solid programs. 

[NE8_Fan]

1 hour ago, BTF said:

If I'm being honest, I never took the NE8 seriously until this year. I think this conference is as strong as it's ever been. I love that NE8 teams have the opportunity to clash with the SAC in Weeks 1 & 2 now. I think that only makes the NE8 stronger moving forward. East Noble impressed me when they went up against Snider. Tonight I get a look at two more solid programs. 

I agree....would be nice to see more NE8 teams pick up an SAC opponent in the coming years....cough, cough Columbia City, Dekalb, Norwell....Leo picks up Luers next after finishing it contract with Kokomo (funny how they drop a team that runs a similar offense that Sauder ran at Leo after that style offense beat them both years they played).  Would love to see Leo drop Angola and pick up a better quality team as the recent Angola games havent been very competitive (maybe a Wayne or Dwenger).

[NLCTigerFan07]

4 hours ago, BTF said:

If I'm being honest, I never took the NE8 seriously until this year. I think this conference is as strong as it's ever been. I love that NE8 teams have the opportunity to clash with the SAC in Weeks 1 & 2 now. I think that only makes the NE8 stronger moving forward. East Noble impressed me when they went up against Snider. Tonight I get a look at two more solid programs. 

King of a shocking statement to me... the NE8 has had some darn good teams over the last decade or so that easily could have competed in the SAC. East Noble, Leo and New Haven have all had squads that would have competed with the upper half of the SAC at different times.

Now, top to bottom could teams in the NE8 have been consistently competitive? No. But I've always found them to be a very solid (and serious) conference.

[BTF]

3 hours ago, NE8_Fan said:

I agree....would be nice to see more NE8 teams pick up an SAC opponent in the coming years....cough, cough Columbia City, Dekalb, Norwell....Leo picks up Luers next after finishing it contract with Kokomo (funny how they drop a team that runs a similar offense that Sauder ran at Leo after that style offense beat them both years they played).  Would love to see Leo drop Angola and pick up a better quality team as the recent Angola games havent been very competitive (maybe a Wayne or Dwenger).

Leo/Dwenger doesn't excite me much since we'll more than likely see that one play out in the playoffs. It is a good matchup between to high caliber programs though. If Northrop can get better, I'd like to see Leo rumble with them since they are right down the road from one another with adjacent school districts. 

[BTF]

23 minutes ago, NLCTigerFan07 said:

King of a shocking statement to me... the NE8 has had some darn good teams over the last decade or so that easily could have competed in the SAC. East Noble, Leo and New Haven have all had squads that would have competed with the upper half of the SAC at different times.

Now, top to bottom could teams in the NE8 have been consistently competitive? No. But I've always found them to be a very solid (and serious) conference.

I feel that they've always had one or two teams that were upper half SAC potential. This year there are four. And with good coaching staffs in place, I see that trend continuing.