BLACKGOLD2007

St. Joe since Downey has come back has been struggling to be competitive. South Side, also sees better teams week in and week out than St. Joe does.

I think you under estimate Elkhart's ability to screw things up. lol

This seems typical of Elkhart teams. Talent coming out the ears, just too many mistakes to overcome.

South Side at St. Joseph, 7 pm Logansport at Adams, 7 pm Marian at Culver Academy, 7:30 pm New Prairie at Goshen, 7:30 pm Northridge at Elkhart, 7 pm Penn at Mishawaka, 7 pm Riley at Wayne, 7:30 pm I don't trust St. Joe to win close games. I am taking South Side. 24-10 Adams will be the Clay for this season, sorry eagles the Berries give you indigestion. 21-0 I want to believe that Marian is going to build off last season, beating CMA will help their cause. 21-17 NP is the second best team in the NIC, sorry Elkhart you have some explaining to do. 28-3 Elkhart wins in a close game, but does not impress doing so. 10-7 Penn will either shut down Mishawaka or we may have another shoot out on our hands...I am thinking 35-21 Riley wins another game, but will still have doubters...me being one of them. 24-17

Is it possible that teams in the past could not generate points or offensive consistent enough to help their defense. Penn teams from 2019-2021 were awful, they struggled to generate any momentum, they couldn't sustain drives and went three and out more often against top teams in the North and in 6A. Is it possible that I am reporting the facts because I was at the game, and giving my perspective of something we have not seen in years from the Penn offense. It has been since Zach Oakley that the offense has gone off so easily on a team of any significance. They scored so quickly it actually was hindering the defense. That is fact based on the events of the game against Valpo. I love the fact we scored, however it would have benefited the team more if they were able to take time off the clock. I think it is comical that you cant differentiate teams of the past and something that happened with a new set of players 4 days ago. SMH

Results from Friday's games: Concord 13, Elkhart 12 Culver Academy 36, Adams 14 Hammond Central 28, Washington 24 Lakeland 21, St. Joseph 20 Mishawaka 41, Marian 24 New Prairie 33, LaPorte 14 Penn 49, Valparaiso 42 Riley 35, Bishop Noll 0 I think the teams that won were the ones everyone was thinking were going to win. The Penn game was ugly if you are a defensive guy. Both teams offenses were unstoppable. I believe Penn's D was hurt by their O, the O was scoring fast...too fast. The D was on the field a lot, but seemed to keep fighting their hardest until the final whistle. New Prairie started slow it sounds like but avenged the hic-up from last year. Riley beat a bad team, so we learn nothing from this game, other than they won a game they were supposed to win. Unlike how they finished last season. Marian had the fans at Penn shocked for half the game, until Mishawaka finally flexed their muscles and pulled away. Lakeland has had St. Joe's number for the last two games. A tough loss for the newly branded Huskies. Washington came close but fell short in a tough game with Hammond Central. Washington is now 1-3 against HC. Adams was taken to the shed by CMA, making Adams 0-2 against CMA. In Adams' last 6 games they have given up 30+ points per game. Is Adams going to take over as the new Clay?

I think we will know for sure after the next two weeks. They have Columbia City and Northridge coming up. Win one of two or both, look out...Drop both games I think this is business as usual for Plymouth.

Is Ben Davis also young on the Defensive side of the ball? I think they will over come some of these short comings as the season progresses, but I currently think BD could drop 2 or 3 more games this year, if they don't. The nice thing about being exposed week 1, is there are 8 weeks to work on fixing these issues. Penn's D gave up 500 plus yards of offense to Valpo and 42 points....now they were on the field all night because Penn couldn't sustain a drive...because they were scoring every few plays. The benefit Penn has is they play no one after week 2. So, lots of opportunities to improve...but that doesn't bode well for their inevitable match-up with CP.

1 - Cathedral 2 - Westfield 3 - Warren Central 3 - HSE 5 - Brownsburg 6 - Center Grove 7 - Ben Davis 8 - Crown Point 9 - Carmel 10 - Snider

I know you should reward winning, because wins need to mean something, but a blow out win over Lowell does not convince me that CP is better than Ben Davis or Center Grove. I think Snider at 10, after playing Warren to a 15-0 L is fair. Carmel still has to prove they are better than the past couple years. Other wise those are the only changes I would make.

That Penn Valpo game was hard to watch from a defensive stand point. Both Offensive teams had their way. Penn was able to force 6 punts and stop Valpo in the last seconds. But, Valpo had multiple long scoring plays (as did Penn) and Valpo was able to score twice inside the 10 yard line on 4th down. I think Penn will be dangerous from the QB position, he is fast and a great runner. He has some touch issues on his passing but that can be cleaned up over time. Valpo's young QB looked good under pressure. He is able to move the ball with his feet, but has a good arm. I think the lack of D is concerning for both teams. Penn has the benefit of playing no one after week 2 (Sorry NIC friends) while Valpo has Merrillville and CP still to compete with. Valpo will be a player in 5A north if they get their D sorted out.

Big win for North on Friday night!

Penn v Valpo 49-42. Penn wins on a last second sack. ZERO defense was played in the 3rd quarter. Penn scored 21 points and I think Valpo matched it. Over 1100 yards of total offense between the schools. Valpo is big (per usual) all over the field and their QB looks like he will be able to handle the pressure of the DAC.

I know this is not Indiana, but there is a small town in West Virginia....the town of Poca They are the Poca Dots.

HAHA, This is a great list. You did great!

Just have to win to prove everyone wrong...Problem is neither school has a hard schedule.

IFCA COACHES' POLL PRE-SEASON 1. Ben Davis (0-0) vs. Indianapolis Cathedral (0-0) Friday 2. Center Grove (0-0) vs. Westfield (0-0) Friday 3. Brownsburg (0-0) vs. Fort Wayne Dwenger (0-0) Friday 4. Warren Central (0-0) at Fort Wayne Snider (0-0) Friday 5. Crown Point (0-0) vs. Lowell (0-0) Friday 6. Westfield (0-0) at Center Grove (0-0) Friday 7. Indianapolis Cathedral (0-0) at Ben Davis (0-0) Friday 8. Carmel (0-0) vs. Homestead (0-0) Friday 9. Hamilton Southeastern (0-0) at Carroll (Fort Wayne) (0-0) Friday 10. Fort Wayne Snider (0-0) vs. Warren Central (0-0) Friday 10. Fishers (0-0) at North Central (Indianapolis) (0-0) Friday 12. Lawrence North (0-0) at Lawrence Central (0-0) Friday 13. Noblesville (0-0) vs. Mount Vernon (Fortville) (0-0) Friday 14. Lawrence Central (0-0) vs. Lawrence North (0-0) Friday 15. Carroll (Fort Wayne) (0-0) vs. Hamilton Southeastern (0-0) Friday I have not been high on Penn, but not even in the top 15? I haven't looked to see if there is a full listing of the 32 teams in the bottom half of the class is a shocker to me...let alone Carroll is at 15.

Not surprised. How many times have there been clean sweeps across of the either side of the state?

I know this is off topic, but are we doing a pick 'em this year? Snider looked that bad?

I was there when the streak was like 135. We had won 30+ games, in a row, against our rival Mishawaka. The team that broke the streak was Mishawaka. They won four straight and since then we have gone 9-1 against them.

@Frozen Tundra I sure miss the days of winning state titles.

Preach.

What school is the Crimson Knights?

Elkhart at Concord, 7 pm Hammond Central at Washington, 8 pm Bishop Noll at Riley, 7:30 pm LaPorte at New Prairie, 8 pm Mishawaka at Marian, 7 pm Adams at Culver Academy, 7 pm St. Joseph at Lakeland, 7 pm Valparaiso at Penn, 7:30 pm There is a lot of hype around Elkhart this year, people around the program are expecting big things from the Lions, but let's see if this crop of talent can put it together on the field. Can Riley take the next step after an amazing regular season last year? LaPorte v New Prairie a stable in the Week 1 rivalries in Northern Indiana. I expect another solid season out of the Cougars and for them to avenge their Week 1 loss to LaPorte from last year. Mishawaka v Marian, Mishawaka will take care of business, but can Marian build on their improvements from last year. Washington and Adams are in tough Week 1 games, I anticipate Culver Academy and Hammond Central to walk away with the wins. St. Joe has not seen the north side of 5 wins since the 2018 season. Can Downey get the Huskies... back on track. Valpo v Penn there is speculation out there that this is the last game in the rivalry. With Penn looking to end it on a 3 game win streak. Penn and Valpo have been .500 with one another going back to 2016, in regular season play.

My brother and I were saying if the Gold Rush and Wild Bunch was on the sideline that would be fine, but in the endzone that would be bad. lol I think we are ready for a fast start to coach Pete's reign as Master and Commander.