NRRaider2001

Leo fans coming to Northridge tomorrow before the game, for the Amish experience at Indianas largest restaurant, you'll want to get here early and visit Das Dutchman Essenhaus. If you can't make it before the game, 41 degrees north, Wedgewood Brewing Company, and Rullis Italian are all great options post game.

Give me a couple of ideas on what type of food you're looking for, lots to choose from in Mishawaka!

From Austin Hough of The Goshen News MIDDLEBURY — A year ago, Tagg Gott was a sophomore at Schoolcraft High School in Michigan, playing as a running back and linebacker on the school’s football team. Fast forward to today, and Gott is now leading the Northridge Raiders at quarterback into the IHSAA Class 4A Sectional 19 championship game this Friday against No. 2 Leo. What makes the journey for Gott almost more improbable is the fact he didn’t start at quarterback for the Raiders until the final weekend of the regular season. He’s only played at the position for three full games, but he has sparked his team to two sectional victories the last two weeks and a chance to host the undefeated Lions Friday night in Middlebury. “I was kind of scared at first, but once I got the reps through the week and stuff, I kind of settled in to it,” said Gott of transitioning to quarterback. “I talked to my dad (Chip) about it, and I just had to go out there and play my game. … We were just talking and he said, ‘You’ve just got to go out there and play football.’” Gott said he played some quarterback his freshman year at Schoolcraft, but moved into a running back/linebacker role his sophomore year. That’s the positions Gott played this season as well before the injury bug bit Northridge. Senior Micah Hochstetler was the starting quarterback for the Raiders to begin the season, getting off to a sensational start. Northridge was 3-0 through three weeks, with double-digit wins over South Bend Adams, South Bend St. Joseph and Wawasee. They were cruising in their week four game against Plymouth as well before Hochstetler’s season was cut abruptly short. An ankle injury sidelined the star player after three-and-a-half games, and surgery was chosen for the senior. While the Raiders went on to beat the Rockies and improve to 4-0, Hochstetler's year was done with 351 passing yards and seven touchdown passes to go along with 140 rushing yards and two rushing scores. “He wants to play some sort of sport in college, and if he would’ve kept going on the injury, he wouldn’t have been able to do anything in the future," said Northridge coach Chad Eppley on Sept. 17 following a 36-3 loss to Warsaw in week five. Not only did Hochstetler get injured against Plymouth, but in the lead-up to the game against Warsaw, backup quarterback Qade Carrington was sidelined as part of COVID-19 contact tracing. This meant third-string QB Conner Roth was put in the signal caller position, limiting what Northridge could do on offense at the time. To make matters worse, Carrington was still out in week six when Northridge face off with NorthWood. During that game against the Panthers, Roth was injured, meaning there were no true quarterbacks available on the roster for the Raiders. Given Gott played the position as freshman at Schoolcraft, he was thrust into the role as an emergency option. NorthWood beat up on Northridge, 42-8, that night to send the Raiders to a 3-2 record. Carrington returned in week seven against Goshen and led Northridge to a win, but then struggled in week eight against Concord. The junior went 4-of-12 passing for 47 yards and an interception in a 40-7 loss to the Minutemen in Dunlap. Gott actually threw five passes in the game as well, completing one for a 57-yard touchdown to senior Clint Walker that would prove to be the only points for Northridge in the contest. With his team sitting a 5-3 and no chance at winning the Northern Lakes Conference going into the regular season finale against Mishawaka, Eppley decided to try Gott out at quarterback full-time to see what they had with him at that position. “Once Micah went down, we repped him more at quarterback a little bit just to make sure we had a backup,” Eppley said. “He was doing a good job, and really, we just wanted to put the ball in a playmaker’s hands.” After a full week of practice at the position, Gott started against the highly-touted Cavemen. Northridge would lose the game 58-14, but Gott put up solid numbers in his performance. He went 8-of-15 passing for 129 yards, a touchdown pass and an interception. He also ran the ball four times for 20 yards. “I felt like I played well in the first half,” said Gott of the Mishawaka game. “It was a close game in the first half, and then we kind of came out (in the second half) and things didn’t go quite the way we wanted.” The first week of the playoffs brought a rematch for Northridge against NorthWood, the game where Gott had to play quarterback in an emergency. That was not the case this time around, as the junior had a full week to prepare for the Panthers’ defense. That preparation paid off, as Gott had the best performance of any Northridge quarterback so far this season. He threw for 260 yards and a touchdown, then added 27 carries for 87 yards and three rushing scores to lead the Raiders to a 28-7 win over the Panthers. It was a 55-point turnaround from the regular season matchup between the teams just four weeks prior. “I was way more comfortable,” said Gott of the second NorthWood game. “That Mishawaka game really prepared me, and like I said, that full week of practice just made me comfortable out there. I was playing football and having fun.” Gott continued that high level of play in the sectional semifinal win over Columbia City last week. He passed for 149 yards and two touchdowns while also rushing for 114 yards and three scores to lead the Raiders to a 35-21 victory over the Eagles. For the season, Gott is 40-of-78 passing for 695 yards and five touchdowns. On the ground, he has 156 carries for 801 yards and 10 rushing touchdowns. “I just don’t overthink it,” Gott said. “I try not to overthink it and I just go out there and have fun; play football, really.” Gott and the Raiders will face their biggest challenge this Friday when they play No. 2 Leo. The Lions have only allowed 13.2 points per game this season and have an average margin of victory of 29 points. Northridge was the underdogs two weeks ago against NorthWood as well, so this is a position Gott and the Raiders are comfortable being in. “I kind of look at it like the NorthWood game,” said Gott of this week’s game. “Everyone had us losing, and we just went out there and played football. I’m kind of treating it the same way: I’m going out there, playing football and having fun. I’m going to go out there Friday and do my best to help this team win.”

Northridge 35 Columbia City 21 final

Northridge had it wrapped up 35 to 6 in the 4th when they put the JV in, ended up 35 to 21 final. Next week hosting Leo will be a challenge to say the least.

Northridge by 15 Mishawaka by 3

We got back our top CB, albeit with a cast on his arm (still got a pick). But we're still really feeling the injury bug, with multiple key players out for the year including qb1/ safety/LB and arguably rb1/rb1a/LB. Our starting stud LT just got his cast off his arm also. The kid playing qb for us Friday night was Tagg Gott, he's a baller for sure (2 ways). He's our other rb1/rb1a guy converted to qb, which he hasn't played since Freshman year (junior now). He went for 362 total yards, 4 total touchdowns against Northwood. Northwood dealt with a little adversity as well and was missing a key player for an undisclosed reason on Friday. I like our chances against a tough CC team, I believe this is where our conference schedule with Mishawaka, Concord, Warsaw, and Northwood really helps prepare us for the post season. Attached is a picture of our seniors whose seasons were cut short due to injury. (Photo credit Russ Draper)

I'm thinking the Cavemen avenge their earlier loss, but man Concord has been pretty impressive too! Always a good Friday night when we leave Nappanee with a convincing win, hope it carries over this Friday. Pulling for the remaining NLCers from here on out, and I think there's a good chance of at least 2 of us advancing to regionals or farther.

Northridge 28 Northwood 7 in s19

If I weren't headed to Mishawaka tomorrow night, I'd definitely head down to Jake Field, should be an awesome NLC atmosphere! I'll be rooting for everyone in the NLC to stay healthy and make deep runs in the tournament (except Northwood, I hope they lose next week of course).

Warsaw Freshman were very impressive and took it to us a couple of weeks ago. We have had an up and down season with injuries much like our varsity has dealt with this year, but beat Angola tonight 38 to 6 to go to 3-4 on the season with Concord still to come. We replaced a couple of schools that didn't have freshmen teams this year with some tough competition, including a few JV/C teams including Mishawaka Marian, Angola, Fairfield, etc...

Lippert Components sponsored tomorrow nights student sections for both schools tomorrow night at Concord. Both schools students will get in free thanks to their contribution.

We are looking for an opponent to play our JV team on this date. If you are interested in hosting us, please call 574-825-7667. We are located in Middlebury Indiana

Congrats Concord on the big win! Gonna be a tough go for us the rest of the regular season, guessing the Goshen game will be the only one we are favored in. Feel for the seniors that watched a promising start of the season begin to fall apart after all of the injuries keep stacking up I'm still a big believer in Eppley and think our future is still bright.

Northridge definitely got nailed by injuries to key players and positions on both sides of the ball, several of which are season ending. But I'd pump the brakes a little bit on the sky falling on our season and post season hopes. I believe we were caught last week against a great team, with little practice time for our backups and third stringers. We were right in it in the first half, but lack of depth killed us in the second half. Tomorrow night should tell us a clearer picture of what to expect from our depleted team the rest of the way, although we are still down to our #3/#4 qb one more week due to a season ending injury back to back years for qb1, and ridiculous contact tracing rules keeping qb2 out a second week in a row. I'm just praying Micah is back in time for the majority of basketball season his senior year. Also side note, love seeing some new blood in here, as much as I enjoy NLCTigerFan07 and his great insight on this thread but I'm glad to see some new blood and some old timers popping back in here more often!

Yeah we've gotten hit hard by the injury bug, but no excuses. We should be ready to go!

Concord (3-1) at Goshen (2-2): Things seem to be trending up for Coach Park and Goshen, but Concord has a great QB, a stud defensive playmaker, and should put them away pretty handily. Concord by 18 Northridge (4-0) at Warsaw (3-1): This one could go a long way at deciding the front runner for at least a share of the conference. Our first real test of the year, and we will be without some really key guys tonight/ moving forward, but it's next man up and some great opportunities for some younger kids tonight. My head says Warsaw by 3, but my heart says Northridge by 1. Plymouth (0-4) at Mishawaka (3-1): Mishawaka will take out last weeks heart breaking loss to Warsaw out on Plymouth tonight. Mishawaka by 40+ Wawasee (0-4) at NorthWood (2-2): I don't think this is a typical Panther team, but should roll easily tonight. NorthWood by 30

Not condoning any bad sportsmanship, but also every year I can remember when playing in Middlebury, we have Plymouth players running past our sideline, trash talking and spitting on our goalpost. The first time I witnessed it, happened to be a kid rather close to a certain coach on the other sideline and occurred in front of my youth kids that were there for MYFL night. We never made it a big deal with the officials and only used it as motivation to play harder. Either way good luck to your Rockies, Pilgrims, or whatever mascot you all are using tonight 😂 I have a feeling tonight will be a little bigger if a test for us than the first 4 weeks.

Big game down in Warsaw tomorrow night, hoping the injury bug didn't bite us too hard. Regardless it's next man up and coach Eppley will have our guys ready to play.

I find that to be an odd statement considering what I've witnessed in the past when Plymouth came to Middlebury.

No idea, other than getting more live reps for our 3rd unit/jv kids that had their last weeks game canceled.

Northridge was dominating Plymouth early up 28 to 0 in the 1st quarter maybe early 2nd. But the injury bug hit and we played most of the game with reserves in key spots. Hoping these kids aren't out long term, but if so we could have a really different look in the weeks to come. Still believe we have one of the top defenses around though.

Elkhart is no slouch and found a suitor from Michigan, would've been fun to see them and Snider battle though.

Concord (2-1) @ Wawasee (0-3) - I was shocked at how small the Warriors team that showed up in Middlebury last week was. I'll be surprised if they put any points on the board again this week and have no reason to believe Concords offense won't have its way tonight. Concord by 35 Goshen (2-1) @ Northwood (1-2) - Goshen may win 1 or 2 more games this season when they play Plymouth and Wawasee, but not this week. I look for the Panthers to win convincingly after their tough fought loss last week in overtime when they went for 2 against Concord and didn't convert. Northwood by 18 Northridge (3-0) @ Plymouth (0-3) - This isn't a Plymouth of old team. It sounds like they're experimenting with a new offense, but it won't matter this week against one of the best defenses in the area. Northridge got some tough injury news this week, but that won't stop them from rolling easily tonight. Northridge by 28 Warsaw (2-1) @ Mishawaka (3-0) - By far the NLC game of the week and my preseason top 2 teams to beat this year. Look for Warsaw to continue getting back on track and battle tonight. Mishawaka may or may not be without their starting senior QB who is arguably the best at what he does in that system in our area, but if he can't go his sophomore brother showed he can step right in and not miss a beat. Should be a battle and give one of these teams a legitimate shot of at least sharing the conference title. I've got to take the Cavemen at home, but wouldn't be shocked to see the Tigers really fight in this one, especially if the older Fisher isn't playing tonight. Mishawaka by 10

Sorry I missed predictions last week, but like you said, I was shocked at the low numbers Wawasee brought north on SR13 Friday night!