TightEndOpenAgain

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

Rochester 42-13 Manchester 28-14 Northwestern 33-12 Mac 57-whatever Mac wants the Peru score to be Wabash 21-20 TRC sure has been in a steady decline from 80s-2000s. About 30 years in there where 4-5 teams played some really good football on any given year and several deep postseason runs/state titles. Downturn started with the Oak Hill/Wabash flip in the fall of 06.

Comets comfortably Jays by a lot Trojans by a lot Really good game at North Miami last week. Unfortunate someone had to lose that one. Both teams tied exactly for total yards. Not sure I’ve ever seen that. A 65yd TD drive in under 2min by the Jays to tie it at 16 right before the half and a goal line stand with less than 2 minutes left were the difference. Hopefully another good one with Pioneer at North Miami on Friday

Pioneer over Caston easily. 7 NM fumbles (3 lost) kept the Comets in it. Was impressed with the physicality the boys in Fulton played with. Caston will be very solid in 2026! But Pioneer will roll this week. North Miami will have to play better/cleaner to have a shot this week. Trojans can pick the score Give me the Maxinkuckee Madmen over Winamac in a close one this week. No particular rhyme or reason why. Just a feeling down in the gut. Side note… Last North Miami home game (week 2) the farm ground to the north had a fresh layer of manure spread on it that day. Don’t foresee any in the forecast this week!

Pioneer has to feel snubbed

Hopefully a visitors locker room! No more mile and a half hike for visiting teams🎉

Had to cut (not drastic) to get to 215. Kid takes lifting/diet very seriously

Top 4 from last year remain at the top. Can't quite put my finger on an order yet. Jays lose a lot but the cupboard has no shortage. Pioneer returns a lot from a very solid team. Whooping Carroll then turning around and getting cold-cocked by Taylor still racks my brain. Rans will be the fastest/quickest/shiftiest player in the conference Triton at this point in the calendar year is probably my pick to be 4th. Very interested to see/hear of any movement into/out of Bourbon. Ham Salad Sandwiches WILL be back unless there are unforeseen circumstances. The 2025 red and black Warriors look to be solid. All 5 OL are back in front of over 3000 returning rushing yards. Only offensive loss due to graduation was the FB who was probably the least dynamic toter of the pigskin of the 4. Hoover, the QB was a wrestling state qualifier at 215 and will probably beef up for the fall. Defensively, it seems that they return 7 of their front 8. Weakness will again be defending the air. Both corners from 2024 are set to graduate in May. Pretty confident Winamac is 5th (could see them sneaking into the top 4). Caston looks to be improved, but will still out of the top 5. 7th will be decided week 9 in Culver when they play the Satellites I wouldn't be shocked to see 1A north once again be represented in Lucas Oil by the HNAC

Is it true that Maconaquah can't use a drone on their home field because of being close to Grissom Air Force Base?

South Adams at North Judson: After seeing both teams in person, I don't see NJSP having much problem this week. Well over 2 hour trip for SA to what I think will be a very fired up Liberty Field. Weather forecast looks cold and windy. SA only really stopped North Miami 1 time inside the 5 yard line early. NM stopped a lot of their own drives with turnovers and penalties putting them well behind schedule. NJ will have a physicality advantage. SA team speed is very solid, but so of course are the Jays'. Interested to see which poison the Starfires choose. You can gameplan to take away either 48, 7, or 5. Incredibly tough to take away 2 of them. And I don't see any 1A team in Indiana having enough horsepower to take away all 3. NJ defense will be tested in a way it hasn't been this year. But I'm confident in saying they'll pass the test. 48-20 Boys in Blue

I was saying if the Warriors held onto the ball (4 turnovers) and tackled well in space (they did not), they had to like their chances. 10 penalties and 4 turnovers don’t win a regional. Didn’t play well. Such is life!

North Judson at Taylor - Limiting Pioneer to 6pts is certainly not nothing. Titan defense must be solid. However, too much Jays as the game wears on. 44-14 Blue Jays North Miami at South Adams - I don't know why the little ol' Warriors should even bother showing up. Ink the Starfires into next week. Beating sectional champion Sheridan was a fluke. Beating Triton in week 9 was a fluke. Beating the Trojans with 390 rushing yards three weeks later was a bigger fluke. NM hasn't had to make a long bus trip this year. This group hasn't gotten any experience on turf in the TRC the last couple years. Heck, they only have 4 backs at or over 900 yards on the ground. ... Jokes aside, if the Fighin' 'Wiches can hold onto the ball and then tackle in space on the other side of the ball, they have to like their chances. They seem to be improving every week, and they seem to like their spot under the radar. I do think a bit of a shootout is gonna take place in Berne on Friday night. Give me the all HNAC semi-state and bring your ham salad appetites! 41-35 Warriors

Laville at North Judson: The metal/rock music at Liberty Field plus the team in the home locker room are too much for the Lancers. 41-14 Blue Jays Taylor at Pioneer: Taylor has come on strong in the last few weeks. However, Pioneer is clicking and focused. Running clock sometime in the 4th Q. 49-13 Panthers Triton at North Miami: Both teams are fired up for a rematch. Both fan bases are fired up for ham salad! Last time, North Miami had their way with the Trojan defense for the first 30 min. Trojan defense had their way with the North Miami offense the last 18. Triton will have had 3 weeks to prepare by 7pm on Friday. This one comes down to situational football (3rd/4th down and redzone conversions mainly). If North Miami can take away Triton's big plays from last time, I think they win. If Triton has been able to put in some wrinkles, they will be tough to tangle with. Always hard to beat a good team twice. Unfortunate that someone has to lose this one. I'll go with the home team. 27-21 Fightin' Ham Salad Sandwiches I think it's pretty cool that there's a strong possibility of 3 HNAC schools representing the final 4 in 1A north.

North Judson @ Culver: Close game early only because it starts 0-0. NJSP early, often, around, and through. 62-6 Blue Jays Pioneer @ Carroll: If Pioneer is healthy and mistake free, we'll have ourselves a dogfight. If one or both of those isn't the case, Carroll will be too much. I'll roll with the Cougs 35-17 Southern Wells @ Three Towns: Raiders will reluctantly make the trek north and put up very little resistance. Rough several years for them...6-73 since the start of 2016. Game features schools with 2 of the best small school gyms north of Indy. I'll put the 1st half over/under at 48.5. 63-0 Trojans North Miami @ Fremont: North Miami better come off a 2 hour bus ride ready to play. Fremont's record might be a little deceiving as they've pounded teams the last couple of weeks. Were up 28-7 around halftime last week at Northfield before the Norse staged a late comeback attempt. NM has seen their fair share of seasons end in the far NE corner of the state in the last 30 years. I think the Warriors do enough in the battle of last year's baseball regional to get revenge. 35-20 Warriors

Carroll 32-14. Frontier is possibly quite solid and maybe close to being as good as Carroll. However, by the time they get past the inevitable shock of the difference in the quality of opponent, it will be too late. Not a lot Frontier can do about it, but only having to show up for 8 weeks in a row makes for an incredibly tough week 10. Falcons got the worst possible draw. As Bobby Boucher above said, Carroll's schedule isn't exactly a gauntlet, but they've had to be ready to play more weeks than not. Glad to see Frontier having a great season! Maybe they can prove us wrong.

Hypothetical: 1) North Judson 2) Maconaquah's arial assault probably too much for rest of HNAC 3) Rochester (maybe) - I think games with Pioneer, Triton, NM would be fun Have to remember the weird scheduling with the TRC. I think Pioneer, Triton, NM would all finish with same conference record as Northwestern if they played NW's TRC schedule. Saw them in a scrimmage this summer. They didn't blow me away. Long time has passed since the summer though. Winamac would have good games with Manchester, Peru, Cass this year.