Jump to content
Head Coach Openings 2024 ×
  • Current Donation Goals

    • Raised $2,716 of $3,600 target

Zionsville 42, Harrison 21


Recommended Posts

Should we be surprised by this score? At first, I was. I thought Harrison would have put up more of a fight. They did own the first half to give them credit, but unfortunately for them, football is four quarters. I'd love to hear some insight from Harrison fans who were at the game. 

On the other hand, I'm not surprised at all. Zionsville represented the north last season, and word on the street was that they would be just as good or better this year. Let's face it, none of the five teams they lost to this year were subpar football teams by any stretch. When 15 of the best 20 football teams reside in the same metro area, good teams are going to suffer some losses. The Eagles are alive and well, and in my opinion, the frontrunner to lead the north once again at the state finals. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not incredibly surprising to me. Harrison was up 21-14 going into the 2nd quarter, which means they did not score for the final 3 quarters of the game. They are a run heavy team that runs the triple option I believe. Hard to be that one dimensional and beat a team of Zionsville’s caliber. I think it all boils down to strength of schedule, the NCC is horrible aside from Jeff and occasionally Marion and Kokomo. Harrison and Jeff will never truly be ready for the postseason until they ditch the NCC. Harrison scoring 21 in the first quarter shows they have the talent to compete, but these Indy schools go to war each week, they know how to win a dog fight. Harrison had 2 tough games all year, week 1 against Westfield and week 4 against Jeff. Until these Lafayette schools ditch the NCC, it would take a really special team to beat programs such as Zionsville.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not surprising to me as well. I watched Zville play Bburg, and the Eagles definitely held their own, especially defensively. The final score was only 19-6. 

Price, their RB, is an unreal RB and their OL is a bunch of maulers, led by a Notre Dame recruit. 

Other than Zionsville's games against HSE & Westfield (top 5 teams in 6A), they held their own and probably should have beaten FC & Fishers. They're a legit ball-club who will be ready to make another run to LOS. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wasn't at the game, but listened to it online.  I was surprised by the score but, for a 42-21 score, the game was much tighter than the score would seem to indicate.

Zionsville made really good second-half adjustments and Harrison tried to, but it wasn't sustainable.  From listening to the game, what stuck me, and I posted this in the scores thread, the weather took its toll on Harrison or at least the passing game.  Harrison isn't really a passing team, but what they can do when they are successful with the pass makes teams play them like they are a passing team and that makes the run so much more effective.  They've been able to make teams pay for stacking the box, but last night they couldn't make it work.  When they did pass they had receivers open, but over-threw them.  As a result, I heard the announcers say on more than one occasion that Zionsville was playing 9 in the box ... and that worked for Zionsville in stifling the Harrison run game. 

The Harrison team had a decent game against 6A Westfield and took Westfield in the 4th quarter training just 19-11 before dropping that game.  The Harrison team has been scheduling stronger competition in freshman and JV ball instead of playing their NCC junior counterparts for the past couple of seasons.  This year's JV squad lost to Westfield by one point on a 47-yard field goal ... their only loss.  Also played Chatard, Brebeuf, and Tri-West in place of schools like Anderson and Richmond.  The freshman squad faced the likes of Cathedral, Lowell, and Chatard and, when they did play Anderson, hey faced Anderson's JV squad.  I thin Harrison's squad will see a "peaking" based on the upcoming classes' stronger schedules.  The problem though is that Harrison is going to get bumped to 6A next classification period as they have now passed cross-river rival, Jeff, in enrollment.  Unfortunately, the NCC, with Jeff as the only other 6A competition in that conference, will hinder more than help Harrison, when they move up to 6A.  They play Westfield on a regular basis and I will be interested in seeing what happens in the next couple of years there because, while the Westfield varsity has handled Harrison over the years, the underclass matches with the current JV group was decided by a TD last year and 1 point this season.  Harrison does also play THS as a non-con game, but that won't help any for 6A competition. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is like comparing the HCC to the MIC, teams like Harrison and Jeff continually fall short, in large part due to strength of schedule. Until these post season wins happen, playing “decent” and coming close in JV games are just excuses. It’s a huge hurdle to get over.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Staxawax said:

This is like comparing the HCC to the MIC, teams like Harrison and Jeff continually fall short, in large part due to strength of schedule. Until these post season wins happen, playing “decent” and coming close in JV games are just excuses. It’s a huge hurdle to get over.

There was no excuse being offered at all.  It was an indication that Harrison is and has been working to grow its program, but it often takes time to do so.  Prior to Coach Peeples arriving in 2014, Harrison hadn't  had a winning season since the the 20th century ... 1996 to be specific.  Since his arrival, they've had seven winning seasons.  He's got the culture going at the school where 2020 had the largest freshman class to come out for football at Harrison in the history of the school and this year there were somewhere around 100+ easily on the varsity.  Of course, there is the realization that Harrison, along with Jeff, were playing a stronger schedule ... until they were "removed" from their conference ... the HCC.  

Zionsville did roughly the same, actually a little worse, against same competition last season and a little better this season as Harrison did.  Last season, Harrison lost to 6A runner-up Westfield, 34-10.  The following week, Zionsville lost to the same Westfield squad 49-16.  This season, Harrison dropped the game against Westfield 33-11 and Zionsville lost to the same Westfield squad the following week 42-21.  Last season, Harrison played 4A state champ Roncalli to a 49-45 last possession lost.  Harrison has more to go, but as my post was pointing out, they are facing stronger competition as they can, short of being in the NCC, and also have been getting better in their competition against that.  Per my other posts about Harrison, I expect to see the "peaking" of that growth around 2023 or so, but that will add another dimension to their continued progress in that they will now be in 6A too.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, BTF said:

It sounds like rain may have been a factor? I believe that rain always benefits one team more than another. 

Zionsville's back is just a workhorse who I suspect could run in concrete if he had to. 

Harrison would have played better if dry, but Price(?) could play in anything, so if there's an advantage on the weather, I would lean that toward Zionsville.  Make no mistake about it though, that back was good regardless of weather.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...