PantherPride

This is what I was saying at the time. The defense was doing decent early and to try an onside kick against a fundamentally sound team like EC is just not the play. They were not caught off guard at all. I’m guessing if you asked Coach Andrews he’d say they were playing to win and felt like they had to be ahead at half. That said it should’ve absolutely been 14-7 at worst at half. Over time then EC wore out Northwood and are to be commended for . Congratulations to both teams, you represented the public schools well.

And I remember that when Chatard finally went to their “throwing qb” on the final drive they were able to move the ball down field enough to get a shot on the final play. As an outsider at that time, not living in Wa-Née I kept wondering why teams refused to try and throw against them. It was clear they were an A+ run defense. Also I saw recently that was Chatard’s only loss in 17 state appearances. I’ll say as far as EC they did score 38 on Moeller. I don’t see Northwood doing something even Moeller couldn’t do. Hope I’m wrong though.

I think most of the hope from Panther fans is in the results of the past 2 weeks. I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in losses from the first few weeks of the season either. Northwood literally threw the ball over 80% of plays and Roeder threw 3 2nd half INTs against Northridge which lead to them blowing a 2 score lead in the 4th quarter. Warsaw was a freak game where there was 5 fumbles and the only game like that. i dont know if Northwood can keep it close or not but I think people are banking on the fact that Leo was ranked higher last week and Northwood really controlled that game. I think honestly that’s kinda how this game will be even Northwood is clicking on offense. They will score but never truly be a threat on the scoreboard.

Thanks. And yes EC is likely an unstoppable force this year in 4A. We’re going to support the community and let our kids experience a state finals and NFL stadium but I don’t have much in the way of expectations.

Taking a break from how awesome EC is, but I wanted to recognize coach Andrews and his staff for the job they have done this season. I know that the Panthers were 1 of the favorites to reach LOS in August, but it’s been fun to see this team overcome mid season adversity and improve tremendously since September. I realize that the Panthers have 2 of the top 5 college recruits in the state, but to get them to play as a team when 1 transferred in last winter and another was transferred out all spring and summer until a week or so before the season started. Nitro admitted in an interview he was playing for himself the first few weeks. A team that was giving up chunk plays in the run game to Plymouth did a solid job of shutting down New Prairie and Leo’s running games. Admittedly it may not matter on Saturday but to pull this team together when they could’ve checked out after 2 straight losses given the preseason expectations coming off all that happened to the program off the field to end last season has been a tremendous job.

Haha, the 4A title game thread has turned into what teams in Indiana can beat EC. This will be an interesting thread but none of it will be about the 4A game.

I thought the game was well played by both teams. How it played out wasn’t at all how I expected it to go. Northwood dominated the ground game and the Leo defensive line. Leo moved the ball at ease through the air. I think if you had been given odds on those things happening beforehand you’d have not taken them. For our reward as Panther fans we get possibly the best 4A team ever, at least that’s how people talk about EC. Great win! 1 more week.

For the most part I thought the officiating was pretty good and I didn’t see the particular play referenced. However, there was 1 play where the Leo WR obviously came down out of bounds and the ref looking right at the play calling it a catch was terrible. I was watching on tv and the 46 crew said something like “that wasn’t even close”. There was a penalty on Edmond for holding so they were still going to get some yards but got about 15 more than it should’ve been.

Yes Tuggle and Edmond are the DBs on defense now. As far as any Michigan rumors Nitro and Joziah are good friends. That’s mostly why Joziah transferred to Northwood. So I would guess he’s trying to get Nitro to go to Michigan but I haven’t heard anything about Nitro not signing with Georgia. I know he just visited there a couple weeks back and hasn’t visited anywhere else, so as far as I’ve seen he’s pretty solid to the Bulldogs.

I could see the other schools okaying Culver just to salvage the conference. Otherwise I’m not sure they will want to make the trek all the way down to SW Marshall county. That’s probably an hour and 15 minutes from Elkhart.

Just saying. I was talking to a kid that’s brother is on the team and he said they are going to turf next year.

I’ve heard rumblings that Northwood will be going to turf next season as well.

I think it really depends on what Northwood team shows up. If it’s the team that played on Friday night I don’t see them losing. NP had only lost to Penn after an odd week 1 loss to Laporte and Northwood completely dominated that game. Outside of a late pick 6 in garbage time NP scored 1 TD. Tuggle is the star but Joziah Edmond, committed to Michigan is almost as good and usually shuts down the opponents best receiver. Other than them it’s basically role players and a decent SR QB in Roeder. Defensively they’re getting better, teams usually have more success running the ball. Having 2 DBs going to play D1 will make throwing difficult but teams have had success running. should be a good game. Good luck to both teams!

Chatard. Knox is good for northern Indiana football, but the Indy metro area is different. I can see this ending in a blowout. Tippy Valley had their best season and were beating everyone easily and they had Chatard put a running clock on them.

I was shocked by the outcome tonight. Northwood finally looked like the team everyone thought they were going to be at the beginning of the season.