XStar

I believe the Southridge start in 2018 was a bit later in the afternoon. I say this because I was at a college football game that started at 3:30 that afternoon and I was checking for Twitter updates on my phone. My guess is that it was a 3:00 start.

Yes.

Beating Chesterton was nothing to sneeze at. I'll have to take your word regarding the injuries as I've not seen enough of either team to judge how losing any individual player will hurt them. I'm probably not being fair to Andrean because they only game of theirs I've seen in the past 2 season was their loss at Eastbrook in semistate last year and I was completely underwhelmed by their performance. I'm sure they are better this season. But there are other 2A programs that can also punch above their 2A classification. Pioneer is (or maybe "was" pending this injury) one of them. I've been wrong plenty but my opinion is that these are the two best teams in 2A this season, at least when both are full strength.

I am leaning towards Pioneer in this one but it's a very interesting matchup that has ramifications for what 2A North will look like the next couple seasons. If Pioneer wins, they remain in 2A for the next cycle and so does Andrean. If Andrean wins, Pioneer returns to 1A (assuming attendance doesn't move them up and I have no clue where they stand there) and Andrean could move up to 3A if they go on to win state. So a Pioneer wins means both stay in 2A and an Andrean win could end up with neither in 2A next cycle. If I'm another 2A program I'm probably cheering for Andrean to win and then go on and win state.

What has to happen for Pioneer to remain in 2A?

You are correct. I temporarily forgot the correct number of the Sectional of Dominance. 40 it is.

Winning Sectional 30 kind of makes you the State Champ in waiting.

Remind me what happened last year.

Congrats on beating the hell out of the powerful CIC. I don't think their trophy case is going to look much different after this season though. The problem isn't the facts. It's that you don't know which facts are relevant. Winning trumps stats every day of the week.

Well even though I didn't get to see Eastbrook play all season (thanks Covid), I am skeptical that this QB was the player he was built up to be on here. I was told Eastbrook was pretty much better across the board this season and they don't even make the sectional championship game after making the semistate (once) or state (thrice) each of the last four years. Something doesn't add up. Not sure the Eastbrook fans here fully appreciated what they lost from last season. Hopefully that means Tipton is that good. As I mentioned before, they've had some bad luck and unfavorable brackets in recent years. They deserve a good run. Also, blaming the officials is becoming somewhat of a habit for some.

I'm kind of torn on whether I want Western Boone to move up to 3A. Sounds like they have a core that could make a run at another state title in 2A. Not sure that they can do that type of damage at the 3A level. Their prior stint in 3A did not yield as much as a sectional. If they move up, at least Chatard should be playing 4A the next couple of years. Assuming they get put into the same sectional as North Montgomery, there's a few other really tough programs there though and West Lafayette has been a somewhat regular obstacle for them dating back to the 90's.

I thought "still be able to beat Andrean" already implied that. Saying "again" at the end would be redundant.

I don't know if I'd say the run game is more spread out this year or not. Last season they had 4 different players have 10+ rushing touchdowns. Those same 4 also averaged 50+ yards a game each. That's pretty good balance.

So if Engle is such an upgrade, they should still be able to beat Andrean this year even if they also had an upgrade.

Time will tell. If Engle is better, they will win state.

Because eventually most teams run into someone that can match them in the trenches. Ironic since that's the one game he has yet to win.

If so, Eastbrook will win state this year with no problem.

It's implied by your statements.

I'm not at all worried about it. How tough they are will be determined in the upcoming weeks when they start playing teams with a pulse again. We will see if they beat Tipton by 27 again as you predict.

I watched a good chunk of their scrimmage against Speedway back in August and I don't know if Western Boone had players out, were holding back, or just wasn't very good at that point but I thought Speedway was the better team. Then they lost to Sheridan to open the season and I kind of thought they'd be an afterthought come tournament time. But they handled that same Speedway team 25-3 in the first round of the sectional and look destined to play Seeger (who beat Sheridan) in the sectional final. Reminds me a bit of last year when I could never reconcile their early loss to Western until they completed a dominant run through the state tournament and I finally was just convinced they improved a ton throughout the season. Are we seeing the same thing this season? I'm not predicting anything close to the dominance they showed in the tournament last season but I wouldn't rule out a trophy or two either.

I have no idea how good Tipton is this season but I think they are due for some breaks in the tournament. Western Boone was very lucky to beat them in 2017 and I think they were the best team Western Boone played in 2018. Then they finally get out of Webo's sectional and get to move into Eastbrook's. I will say that the final score of their game last year was not really indicative of the nature of the game. It was a 34-7 final but the game was tied at halftime and 14-7 going to the 4th quarter. Anything can happen, but I'm expecting a closer score than last year. This won't be a CIC game for Eastbrook and they haven't played a decent team since August. Sometime in the tournament they will get hit in the mouth and face some adversity and how they react to that will be interesting to me. Friday could be that game. We'll see.

Pioneer against the winner of Sectional 40.

Didn't get to see that game but that's interesting. I know in the past they did not like the quarterback to take any risk throwing the ball. I believe last season the quarterback didn't throw an interception the entire regular season.

I don't think they've been unable to throw the past couple seasons as much as they've been unwilling to call passing plays when they need to. They looked good throwing the ball in the first half of the 2018 state championship game and not surprisingly they led at half of that game. Then they went inexplicably went away from it in the 2nd half. In that game, they were 7 for 8 in passing for 113 yards. In the first half, they were 6-6 for 97 yards. In the third quarter, 1-1 for 16 yards. In the fourth quarter, 0-1. Meanwhile in the 2nd half of that game they ran the ball 24 times for only 58 yards. In 2019, they did not even attempt a pass in the 2nd half of the state title game. They were down 21-0 at halftime and did not throw the ball once in the 2nd half. I'm not interested in what they are doing against Elwood or up 4 touchdowns against Madison Grant. The proof will be when they are in a competitive game where the other team can hold their own in the trenches and you have to be a little creative to move the ball consistently. I've heard that this new quarterback from Western is really good. I just hope his coaches allow him to show it when things are tight and they don't get overly conservative in their play calling when it matters. I really think that, and trying to play 2 QB's all year, cost them the title in 2018. Hopefully they've learned. I think 2A is wide open and if they are really better than last season, coaches included, then they will finally get their blue ring.

Does the quarterback actually get to throw the ball in meaningful downs and situations this year? Or are they going to wait until they are down 3 scores in the state championship game again to try to figure out some sort of way to move the ball in the air?