npcougar15

do any of these have any specific meaning with St. Joe? Or are they just generic names? But if I had to pick one, I'd go with Buffalo. It has a ring: St. Joe Buffalo. Buffalo used to roam the area and obviously were very important to Native American Culture so it kind of plays on the old "Indian" nickname.

What a colossal waste of time, energy, and effort for Penn to play their schedule. Nobody gets anything out of Washington, Riley, Adams, St. Joe, Marian vs. Penn. Nobody. And with NP probably taking a step back this upcoming season, you might be able to add them to list. How did Yeoman say this with a straight face?: “we look forward to new challenges in the NIC,” Football Head Coach Cory Yeoman said.

Such a weak take IMO. So essentially it's impossible for a program outside of the MIC to be designated "best in the state". So outside of schedule, why else do you think EC is the 5th best team in the state and not ranked higher?

While Northwood is the 4A north sacrificial lamb there isn't another school in 4A that can hang with EC and that's been proven on the field all year. With that being said, if their is one school that can make this game interesting/intriguing it's Northwood. Having the talent they do from the wideout positions should be fun to watch in the controlled environment. No way they stop EC's offense to win this game, but if they hit a few plays and spread them out they might be able to score enough to make it a game for a little while. But I can also see EC jumping out to a big lead then the wheels just completely falling off for NW and it turning ugly. The most important play this game might be the coin-toss. If you are Northwood you want the ball first and try like hell to get the first score on the board, playing from behind won't work, too many obstacles to overcome both physical and mental. I think EC is the best team in the state this year regardless of class and would love to see them go against Ben Davis. Kudos to Northwood getting to Indy and but it's unfortunate that they just ran into a complete buzzsaw in LOS.

Wow Northwood just hit a 55 yard field goal. Crazy in 30 degree weather 38-20 northwood leads

Northwood with an interception. That pretty much does it unless something crazy happens

NW 35 Leo 20

Northwood 28 Leo 20 Very early in the 4th. NW needs to score on this possession to keep Leo at arms length

Northwood 28 Leo 12 deep in the 3rd quarter

Yeah I wasn't clear, that my fault. I'm advocating for Penn to go independent in football only. Going independent in everything would be too much on the athletic department. An independent Penn needs to happen if they want to get back to where they were as a program. Indy and the doughnut counties have leapfrogged them and aren't looking back. Are there some northern schools Penn could schedule? Absolutely. Mishawaka, Valpo, Crown Point, Merrillville, Elkhart, Snider, Homestead, Carrol, Warsaw. But they need to be getting some Indy schools on that schedule. Cathedral, Center Grove, and Carmel are all independent with schedule flexibility. You have Roncalli & Chatard that play 3 conference games so they have some flexibility. And you have the MIC where each school plays 5 conference games. The schedule is there if they want it.

2023: 5-0 2022: 5-0 2021: 4-1 2020: 3-2 2019: 4-1 2018: 4-1 2017: 5-0 30-5 during the worst period in program history. 2019-2021 New Prairie picked them off in close games, NP went 11-2 and 11-3 in both those seasons. 2018 was a legendary game vs. Mishawaka where the Cavemen came out on top in OT Cavemen sported a 12-2 record. And in by far you worse season for nearly 4 decades it took a 11-1 Marian team and 9-1 Elkhart squad to eeeek out a 1 and 4 point victories. So in 7 seasons Penn has lost a 5 games by a COMBINED 26 points. Take away the 7 point victory from Mishawaka because it went into OT it drops it down to 19 combined points in 5 losses at the end of the 4th quarter. Keep in mind those teams that beat Penn were a combined 54-9 and ALL were sectional champions with New Prairie (2021), Mishawaka, and Marian all just a couple plays away from playing at Lucas Oil. I guess the point I'm trying to make is during a period where Penn has fielded their worse teams it still takes nearly a state-finalist type team to knock off the Kingsmen by a couple points. Long term I have no idea what Penn gets out of being in the NIC.

Really doesn't seem like a bad idea for Penn to go independent and CMA take their place. Unfortunately I have no idea why the Penn coaching staff is "into" winning the NIC. 9 times out of 10 they should be able to win it just by rolling out of bed. Not much of an accomplishment for the Kingsmen if you ask me. A conference of: New Prairie, Marian, St. Joe, CMA, Riley, Adams, Washington, Elkhart. Doesn't get me too excited but it is a hell of a lot better than with the Kingsmen there. And on any given year 3 or 4 teams are going into the season thinking they can win it; which makes it way more exciting.

I heard some interesting news last week from a very reliable source. Marian and CMA were both wanting to join the new NSC. The new conference turned them down because they didn't want any private schools. Not necessarily for football reasons but because they would dominate the other sports; tennis, golf, volleyball, soccer, etc. I'm not shocked Marian is looking for their exit strategy but it was interesting that CMA was looking for a conference home. This new NIC is destined to fail, it's going to be: Penn: cake walk year in and year out unless another school has a generational type team that will challenge New Prairie: Going to be near the top but hardly, if ever #1. tough out in 4A Elkhart: On track to become Elkhart Central St. Joe & Marian: Switching spots every other year Adams: Will get a new coach with new excitement but produce same results every 4 years. Riley: Will look back with much fondness on their 8-2 2023 season Washington: Clay 2.0

This could potentially be Radtke's 4th team he has taken to the state finals. All public schools that have never been there before prior to his arrival. Pretty impressive

Congrats too Northwood. They looked like the real deal last night. I'm guessing it was one of their more complete games they have played this season? They looked pretty effective in all aspects; offense, defense, short passes, long passes, etc.Their running was just effective enough to gain some big first downs in the first half but obviously 80% of the offense was through the air. Majority of passes were right on target and with their receivers there really wasn't much of a chance for the cougars secondary. If they play like that against Leo it's going to be a whale of game. Honestly, I don't think anyone is touching East Central this year but I'd love to see Northwood make it too state just to see how they look on the turf. They have the athletes and the scheme to make it interesting against EC on the offensive side of the ball if they get their players in the right position. Defensively nobody is stopping EC. Turning of the page for the cougar program. While the cupboard isn't bare we are losing Marshall Kmiecik at quarterback. The kid was 34-8 as a starter the last 3 seasons. 3 sectionals, 2 regionals, 1 semi-state and of course a state finals appearance. Over 3800 yards in rushing (7 YPC career), over 3600 yards passing, 43 rushing touchdowns, 42 passing touchdowns. Kid has made numerous big plays throughout his career that led to championships and just an all-around winner. He will go down as one of the best to do it in a New Prairie uniform.

Looking forward to a packed house this evening! Go Cougars!

Isn't this question getting answer this week? Photos are leaked of Northridge players drinking in July the day before the game and they get suspended. Sense then, there is a photo EVERYWHERE of a Northwood player pretty clearly high and mentions of a video of player(s) smoking weed. I mean surely the Northwood administration would have to address it in some form or fashion correct?

Yeah, Not sure how attractive the DAC is for New Prairie at this point. In 10-20 years from now? might be a different story. NP already plays Laporte and Michigan City in every sport outside of football and dabbles with Valpo and Chesterton on occasion. Going head-to-head against the likes of Crown Point, Merriville, Valpo, Penn, Lake Central, etc. To try and win a conference title isn't too appealing. New Prairie's enrollment right now sits right around 950, on the smaller side of 4A. Compared to Northridge and Kokomo who have about 1500 each. NP is slowly growing, due to developments, and MC, LP and SB kids coming in from out of district. But like I said in another post there is a 3.5Billion battery plant being built as we speak just outside of New Carlisle and thousands of other acres that make up some of the most desirable land in the midwest for industrial development. The infrastructure is there for NP to explode in enrollment in the near future, we just aren't there yet. Right now, NP fits perfectly with the NCC or NLC. ideally, Wawasee would find a new home and NP could slide in and make a perfect fit. I think the NCC footprint is just a little too far west to make a viable home despite the institutional fit.

Watching the WHME interview with Coach Andrews after their game is pretty telling; personally my respect level went way up after it. Sounds like this season has been extremely difficult for him as a coach. I don't think I've ever seen such a melancholy/disappointed interview from someone who just won a championship thriller, against a rival, that's knocked them out of the post-season recently. With all the social media stuff flying around already, something tells me it's going to be a long week for the NW coaching staff for all the wrong reasons.

If there was one potential playoff game I was hoping to see this year, this is it. 10-2 New Prairie travels over to take on the 10-2 Panthers. Last meeting between the 2 schools was the 2004 sectional championship where NP won 14-11. That was New Prairie's first sectional title and the start of a very good 2 decade run the cougars have been on. Despite both programs playing in the same class their entire history, being in the same area, and both with multiple deep playoff runs; this is only the 5th time they have ever met in the post season. Others years were 1987, 1996, 2003, and 2004, the programs have had a knack of avoiding each other. Northwood is coming off an exciting & emotional win over rival Northridge while the cougars took care of business against CMA. On paper everything looks pretty evenly matched despite contrasting styles. Should be another packed house, great atmosphere at Andrews Field and fantastic football game for the Michiana area!

NP 43 CMA 14

NP 29 CMA 7 Early in the 3rd CMA cannot stop the NP run. NP has around 300 yards on the ground already with about 7 runs over 40 yards

at halftime NP 21 CMA 7 Cougars get the ball after the break

after 1 quarter New Prairie 7 CMA 7

Well then don't tell me that Northwood is the smallest school in 4A and then say "don't forget that" when in fact they aren't.