The Gridiron Digest: Indiana High School Football: TGD Portal

Decatur Central at Martinsville
Franklin at Mooresville
Greenwood at Whiteland
Roncalli at Plainfield

The game of the week in the MID-STATE and for the Conference lead will be at Martinsville hosting Decatur Central this week. The winner of this game could very well go on to win the conference title. DC had a statement game last week against Mooresville. Mooresville Ranked in the top 10 of 4A was sent packing by DC 49-20. DC has a lot of team speed and the QB Ledford can run and pass. I'm not sure if playing on grass compared to turf will make any difference in this one. Martinsville had a good special teams game last week blocking a punt and almost returning a kick off for a touchdown against Greenwood in a 31-17 win. At times in the second half the Martinsville D looked weak after leading at half 24-0. The question here may be does DC have the defensive backs to keep up with the Martinsville passing game? Deep down I think DC wins this game but I'm going with the home team by 7 points.

Franklin picks up a win at Greensburg last week 6-0. However going to Mooresville will be a different story this week. After coming off a loss to conference rival DC Mooresville will be fired up to get back in the win column. Last week Aric Bigham carried 18 times for 115 yards and scored on a 1-yard TD. I look for him to have a big game against Franklin. Mooresville ran it for 268 yards last week with only 48 passing yards. I'm gonna say it again this week to Franklin. Put 8 in the box and let it rip. Mooresville by 21points.

Now Greenwood and Whiteland have me on the puzzled side. Well, at least Whiteland. Whiteland getting beat by Plainfield 17-14 last week was a shocker I thought. Plainfield stepped it up a notch last week and said not in our house. At any rate this should be a good game when Greenwood comes a calling at Whiteland this week. I'm taking the home team Whiteland by 7 points.

after an 0-2 start Roncalli shocked the state by beating 3A #1 power house Chatard. Has Roncalli got their stuff togeather after week 3? Plainfield showing they want it at home last week against Whiteland came alive. I'm going with Roncalli in this one by 10 points.

Week 3 and overall results coming soon...

Week 4 Games
Bremen at Triton
Knox at Jimtown
LaVille at John Glenn
New Prairie at Culver
Elkhart Memorial at Warsaw
NorthWood at Goshen
Plymouth at Northridge
Wawasee at Concord
Elkhart Central at SB St. Joseph's
Mishawaka at SB Riley
Mishawaka Marian at SB Clay
SB Adams at SB Washington
Toledo Central Catholic at Penn
North Judson at Culver Academy
Fairfield at West Noble
Chesterton at LaPorte
Lake Central at Crown Point
Merrillville at Portage
Valparaiso at Michigan City
Rochester at Northfield
Tippecanoe Valley at Southwood

See page with poll attached

It's week four of the current season and there are still 3 undefeated teams in the SW7 and 2 teams with one loss. I did some checking and foung out that the SW7 is currently #2 in the state (behind 5 and 0 Indiana Crossroads Conference) with the best record against non-conference opponents at 8 and 1. I only bring that up because this week's schedule has only 1 conference game.There are some good matchup games this week. Here they are:

My picks are in bold

Eastern Greene @ Monrovia Eastern Greene stays in the ball game for the first half. Monrovia wears them down and wins going away.

North Central @ North Verillion This should be a great ball game. 2 teams who are on the rise this year. I expect it to be a fairly high scoring game. I am only taking North Vermillion because they are at home.

North Daviess @ Washington Washington is playing well this year and the Cougars are still the Cougars. I hate to go against the conference team, but I think Washington will be the winners this year.

Union Dugger @ Tecumseh For me, this is the hardest game to pick. BOTH teams need a win. I am going with the Dogs in a "mild" upset of the Braves.

West Vigo @ Linton The Miners have West Vigo's number lately and West Vigo seems to be down this year. Miners should win this game easily.

Wood Memorial @ NorthKnox ** The way North Knox has played the past 2 games and with Wood Memorial's defense, I think the Trojans will score just enough to surprise the Warriors in this game.

** Conference game

As we approach week four, someone could eclipse the 1,000 yard mark.

Where do that state's top stand right now? Who will be the first this season?

curveball was a big winner this week. He/she was a perfect 10 and earned bonus points for being the winner and nailing the tiebreaker on the nose for a total of 12 points. huskyfan79 didn't have a bad week. He also picked all four correctly and was just 4 points over on the tiebreaker. He still leads after three weeks. some folks forgot their TBs and some just plain forgot, so get 'em in early this week.

Friday's results
Eastern 44, Peru 18
Hamilton Heights 59, Maconaquah 7
Lewis Cass 15, Northwestern 13
Western 58, Taylor 0
TB=28

Totals so far - Week 3
82 huskyfan79 10 (+4)
80 Nickdude - 10 (+7)
77 Zone Blitzer - 10 (+5)
76 Patiently56 - 9 (+21)
74 Coach H - 9 (+21)
73 fabdog - 10 (+14)
73 fearless fly - 10 (+12)
72 wpanther - 9 (+7)
72 curveball - 12 (+0)
71 fballfan15 - 10 (
68 The Professor - 10 (+20)
68 Hit To Win - 10 (+25)
68 Full Time King - 10 (+3)
67 warrior14 - 6 (+7)
67 dcjjones - 10 (+17)
67 HH88 - 10 (+13)
65 GOBRAVES - 9 (+28)
63 MacAttack75 - 7 (+17)
46 BBSMITH1 - 9 (+13)
45 not so fast my friend - 10 (
43 Randall J Peabody II - 9 (+20)
42 Dwayne Gill - 10 (+7)
39 engineer from troy - 10 (
35 dupageflinger910
35 huskyfan54 - 9 (+15)
33 hhyf coach
29 panthersoph
25 scoots710 - 6 (+14)
19 bighog - 7 (+23)
9 thecableguy7 - 9 (+20)

This week's games
Friday
Lewis Cass at Hamilton Heights, 7 pm
Maconaquah at Eastern, 7 pm
Peru at Taylor, 7 pm
Saturday
Northwestern vs. Western, 11 am, Lucas Oil

Could be some challenging picks this week, including the annual showdown between Cass and Heights, plus the backyard rivalry between Western and Northwestern in the Oil Can on Saturday. I like Heights at home and Western on neutral turf, given NW's uncertain injury situation. Give me Eastern (4-0?!) and Peru, too. Good luck.

Seriously...this goes to show that computerized polls are foolish
Sagarin ratings week 3

Thoughts:
Carmel wins another close one against Center Grove. CG's offense does not look like they have improved over last season. It will be tough to win it all, unless they get a little more dynamic on offense. Really poor clock management at the end. Carmel looks deep and complete. They can run and have had some success throwing too. If they hold onto the ball, they will be very difficult for anyone to beat.

Brownsburg gets a huge win, and now I believe will get the recognition they deserved last season. I think these were two of the best teams in the state. They Royals are still capable of making a deep playoff run.

Lawrence North put up a good fight vs Warren, but Warren eventually took over in the second half. Any word on Holts?

Conference Indiana is a bit deeper than I had thought, and I had thought it was pretty deep.

Bloomington North was coming off of 2 lackluster wins, but came out on fire vs Columbus North and looked to have them on the ropes at 10-0, with North looking out of synch and injured (4 of their best players out, including 2 2-way starters). CN's depth and strength got them back in it, as youngsters and role-players, along with Keenon Noel stepped up. Took a last second play, but CN survived. They'll need to get healthier if they want to compete with the best, but showed resilience.

Southport defeats Pike in what was to me the surprise of the week. I know the Cardinals have a lot of athletes, but I did not think they could play with Pike's lines. They did, well, and pulled out a 4th quater victory on a 2-pt conversion. Anyone have a good game recap on this one?

Merrillville takes out CP in a very good game. This one was back and fourth and Mville ended out on top. DAC is still pretty wide open with probably 5 teams with a chance at the title or a share of it.

Valpo has another impressive civtory over LaPorte. Valpo has played 3 solid teams and gotten 3 solid victories. They have MC then play the other 4 best DAC teams in succession IMO.

Decatur Central has been very impressive this season so far. This sets up a very big Mid-State game in week 4 vs Martinsville. I'm really looking forward to this one being a Sectional 7 fan.

Mishawaka will have a big match-up week 5 vs Illinios power Marist. They won't have in state measuring stick games until week 7. They close out the season with their 3 toughest games in state games of the year.

There are several big 5A games this week (as there always is), but I may be looking forward to Zionsville's first big test of the season vs HSE than the others. LC vs Pike should be another good one.

Key Games:
HSE 7 Brownsburg 16
Carmel 21 Center Grove 14
Columbus North 27 Bloomington North 24
LaPorte 14 Valpo 35
Crown Point 21 Merrillville 24
Homestead 46 East Noble 4A 49
Decatur Central 49 Mooresville 4A 20
Southport 18 Pike 17

099 Rankings:
4A
1 (1) Warren Central
2 (3) Carmel
3 (7) Brownsburg
4 (2) Center Grove
5 (4) HSE
6 (6) Columbus North
7 (8) Lawrence Central
8 (NR) Fishers
9 (NR) Zionsville
10 (NR) Valpo

Just out: Southport, Pike, Ben Davis, Merrillville, Avon, Mishawaka, Penn, Bloomington North

Dropped out: Pike, Ben Davis, Crown Point

Week 3 key games:
Ben Davis at Warren Central
HSE vs Zionsville
Avon at Fishers
Lawrence Central at Pike
Decatur at Martinsville
Merrillville at Portage
Penn vs Toledo Central Catholic (Oh)

Thoughts:
Reitz has another solid, but not overly impressive victory. They are still mirroring last year so far with decent early season victories with many injuries.

Cathedral falls in another close one to their Catholic brethren. They have still had 3 quality games, the wins will start coming now that they will be playing teams of their own (or lower) division. They have been playing elite teams and could have beaten each of them. The one really troubling thing is, they have not got a running game going this season.

Concord continues to impress and now week 6 at Jimtown looks to be a big non-conference match-upo for both teams.

I'm still scratching my head in 4A. After the top 4 teams, I'm not so sure.

New Pal had another impressive victory of a resurgent PH squad.

East Noble had a big win vs Homestead. Now the Columbia City Eagles get a chance vs the Spartans (and a chance to vault into the top ten). Congrats to the Eagles on a good come from behind win vs Bellmont.

Roncalli had a very impressive win vs Chatard. They were very inexperienced coming into the season. I think they'll get better and end up moving very high in my 4A rankings eventually. They have to keep having good showings though for now.

This week there are some interesting 3A vs 4A contests, highlighted by Cathedral\Chatard and Jasper\Heritage Hills. I also like a couple of the games on the periphery Lowell\Griffith and East Central\Franklin County. Lowell\Griffith should be a good game (is Juarez injured?). If Juarez is done for the year, Lowell may drop out of my rankings quickly and it is a shame for this young man in his senior year. Congrats to Franklin County on a 3-0 start. Can they handle established, quality competition like East Central? Regardless a nice turn-around from an 0-10 season.

Key Games:
Cathedral 24 St. Xavier (Oh) 28
Concord 34 Northwood 3A 6
East Noble 49 Homestead 5A 46
Columbia City 21 Bellmont 3A 14
East Central 28 Edgewood (Oh) 0
Plainfield 17 Whiteland 5A 14
Moorseville 20 Decatur Central 5A 49
Roncalli 20 Chatard 3A 16

099 Rankings:
4A
1 (1) Reitz
2 (2) Dwenger
3 (3) Cathedral
4 (4) Concord
5 (5) Plymouth
6 (6) Jasper
7 (8) SB Clay
8 (9) SB Washington
9 (7) Lowell
10 (NR) East Noble


Just out: Roncalli, New Pal, Morton, East Central, Wayne, Columbia City, Griffith, Plainfield

Dropped out: Morton

Week 3 key games:
Cathedral at Chatard 3A
Jasper vs Heritage Hills 3A
Wayne vs FW North 5A
Lowell at Griffith
Plainfield vs Roncalli
Columbia City vs Homestead 5A
New Pal vs Batesville 3A
Franklin County at East Central
SB Clay vs Mishawaka Marian 3A

The Irish almost knocked off Cinci powerhouse St. X . They lost with 9 seconds left in the 4th quarter on a St. X touchdown. That would have been a nice victory for the Irish and Indiana football.

Cathedral has played three tough games to open up the 2010 season. Although they've lost them all, they have been putting up offensive numbers against tough opponents (Carmel, ESL, Cinci St. X), scoring about 3 TDs per game. If the D tightens up, Cathedral is going to be tough this year. The defense has allowed an average of 29 points a game.

I see the Irish taking a 3-3 record into their match-up with Cinci Moeller. I'd like to see the Irish take it to the Crusaders.