TightEndOpenAgain

North Judson over Culver 55-6 - There’s a lot of speed wearing the blue and gold As a fan, I came away disappointed in the Warriors this past Friday. Not in the score, not even in the 4 turnovers in the first handful of plays, but the chippiness as LD alluded to. I’m not sure if it was frustration boiling over or what. I do know it’s uncharacteristic for the program. As for the game in Royal Center, the defensive backfield better heal up or Popejoy could have a field day. I always look forward to the gas station chicken in Royal Center. Caston over South Central by about however many they want. Winamac over Triton 40-14 before the Warrior bowl next week Liberty Field remains by far my favorite place to catch a high school football game in the area. Really cool atmosphere. The student section and cheerleaders look like they have a great time. The lawn chairs setup around the north end of the track is great. The food vendors.. The loud music…it all makes for an experience you don’t see many other places. You can tell football means a ton to the community, and they certainly have a program they can be proud of!

Several good matchups this week! Maconaquah 34-13 over Peru Northfield 27-14 over Manchester Rochester over Cass 24-16 Wabash over Southwood 26-20 Northwestern 55-6 over Whitko I could be talked into any of those middle 3 games going the other way. Will be interesting to see how Wabash adjusts to blocking up front with more guys on the field to account for. They’ve put up some pretty decent scores in the 8man games they’ve played…albeit against some questionable competition. Mac looks like the class of the conference as was probably expected. Northwestern and Rochester are very much in the hunt while doing it 2 very different ways

Could be a number of things. Who knows? The last few years have been light on injuries. The last heavy year was the 0-10 season of 2021. Went through about 4 quarterbacks that year. It doesn’t seem to affect other sports, so I’d be very hesitant to say the kids need to be tougher. Seems to me the injuries they’ve had the last half decade are an ACL here and a broken collarbone there. Just things you can’t really control when you sign up to play. When the enrollment is down to 250, an injury hurts worse than even a school with 375

Catching wind of a couple injuries at NM. If true.. OOOF

Lewis Cass over Manchester 30-14. Cass bounces back after a focused week of practice Maconaquah over Whitko. Game will be close early…but only because it starts tied. I’ll see myself out ha Battle for supreme Tigers.. Game of the week in the conference to me. Peru has to defend a good assault from the skies for the first time this season. Peru has played an overall tougher schedule so far. I’ll go 28-20 Purple over Bengal. But I’m not sold it. Rochester over Clinton Prairie 34-18. Guessing a bit here Northfield over Southwood 28-14. Seems the rivalry the last 20 years has had respectable scores even when there’s a sizable talent difference. With the exception of a handful of course

Jays Trojans Warriors Panthers Congrats to all the winners last week. Culver! Great win. Caston Comets will be a tough out for most! North Judson and Pioneer might struggle to be tested before week 9. Great programs who look good again and again

Can anybody tell us what happened in Walton last night???

Looks great!

NM I believe is going with a single black stripe on the white helmet. Staggered NM on left side. Numbers on right side Caston at NM. Caston probably the favorite on paper. The game most likely stays tight most of the way Triton over Culver by 3ish scores at home Jay fans will enjoy getting home early from SC. Running clock to begin 2nd half. Winamac might hang around for a bit with Pioneer. But in the end Pioneer wins very comfortably

Agreed it will be a fun season. But I don’t see a close game on this week’s slate. “Home” teams all roll

NJSP wins handily over Laville. Might start the season with 2 shutouts Pulling for our friends from Union Mills. I’m thinking they can win a tight one Taylor can hang with North Miami. Warriors seemed a little banged up. Hoping they come out on top this week. Tough time for the Cavs to catch a focused West Central ball club. Trojans handily Bremen over Triton by 3, maybe 4 scores. Interested in seeing how Triton develops through the season Game of the week in the HNAC is probably in Chalmers. I can see a 1 score game either way. I’ll say the Warriors have more points on the board at the end. Pioneer by 12-16 points over Knox. Redskins will get it figured out, but in week 2, they’re still figuring out an identity post-Myles. Glad they still wanted Pioneer on the schedule after leaving the conference. Works well for both sides

Cass 41-16 over Northfield Maconaquah 34-14 over Carroll Madison Grant 26-6 over Southwood Eastern 28-20 over Northwestern Peru 40-20 over Whitko Is this the year Rochester reclaims the bell?? I think so. Z over Vikes 28-26 Tipton over Manchester 30-22

Caston over Whitko. Light at the end of the tunnel still a ways off in South Whitley. Logansport over Peru. Could get ugly. I understand the longest series in the state thing. But does this still really have to be played? Only thing keeping the TRC from a true round robin. Maconaquah over Sheridan in a somewhat close one. Chance of rain could change that though. North Miami over Northfield. Even though NM graduated 10,000 career yards of offense and 4 OL, they remain fairly old this season. Coach/AD Grant has installed a winning mindset throughout the whole athletics program. I think it’s enough to get by NF in a tight one Northwestern over Manchester. Purple Tigers went with a lot of sophomores last year. I look for them to be much improved in year 2 in the fast paced offense Pioneer over Cass in probably the best played game on the week 1 slate. Cass should have a nice year. The program that is Pioneer is a machine. Rochester over Southwood. Zebras are just bigger, faster, and stronger. SW will probably get better as the season progresses, but power L/R won’t be quite humming along for week 1.

I have the exact same picks this week. Hoping the Cavs can pull what would be the upset

I think the HNAC will look pretty similar to the last couple seasons. I’ll go: 1) NJSP - Most production comes back 2) Pioneer - Lost a lot of yards, tackles, and points. But there’s a reason Royal Center hasn’t seen a truly disappointing season in the Pit for 30 years. They’ll be in the race week 9. 3-6) Some combination of Caston, North Miami, Triton, Winamac (listed here in alphabetical order). Caston looks to be very tough out for the middle and bottom classes of the conference this year. North Miami looks to take a step back. But still enough pieces to be competitive this fall. Winamac size will be a load to handle for most. Triton graduated a lot but will still be formidable I’d imagine. 7) Culver. But really solid group of sophomores 8:) South Central. But a really solid group of freshmen

Like I said, if it’s wet, Pioneer rolls

Rained all night in Berne and South Adams can’t move the ball

Pioneer 30-14. Going to at least be damp if not raining and on the chilly side. That will really hinder the Starfires offense South Putnam 35-13

To be fair, North Miami had a couple critical penalties taking away potential points on a couple drives. Point being it was a great game between 2 very solid teams. In football, mistakes are bound to happen both ways

If the weather clear, South Adams at home has a real chance of taking out Pioneer. If it’s rainy and/or windy, Pioneer rolls.

I’ll echo the Farmer. Maybe ND over Milan

HNAC shines this week! Give me: Jays over Laville 28-20 Panthers 48-8 over Frontier. More about Pioneer than how good Frontier is or isn’t. I think they’re getting better every week. North Miami over Southwood Triton over Fremont 34-14

Great game in Bourbon. NM loses 3 fumbles all well into Triton territory to lose it. First fumble was inside the 10 which Triton took the other way for 6

North Miami 40-14. An ugly game against Pioneer maybe woke up the Warriors. Focus and effort seem better the last couple weeks Judson 34-6. Caston’s inconsistency is confusing. They’ve seemed to play the top 4 of the conference well. This one is a tough score to predict Winamac 48-7. Heard SC has a very nice couple middle school classes Pioneer 28-14. Triton hangs tough on the road, but the Panthers are the class of the conference since its inception. 30 years of big games give enough experience to get it done. Hopefully the Trojans can enjoy some of the gas station chicken on the ride home. (Great stuff!!)

Agreed on all fronts. I’m sure they’ll try to combine SW and NF again soon. If/when that happens, it would help football. Big Coach T at Northwestern has a solid young core. Would love to see Cass get back to their 2000s days. Seagraves, Bowser, Mannerings, O’Brien were some TOUGH squads