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North elevated assistant coach Anthony Lindsey to the head-coaching position. He was a former three-sport athlete at North.

North elevated assistant coach Anthony Lindsey to the head coaching position. He's a North grad and was a three-sport athlete there.

I never saw him play, but his numbers have been incredible. He certainly deserves the honor so congratulation.

I'm not close to the North program so I really have no idea in which direction they will take. Bless is staying at North as a teacher and assistant athletic director. The North AD, Andy Hodson, said the replacement search would be both internally and externally and that was his only comment on a replacement search.

Bloomington North's Scott Bless has retired after 19 years at North. His team went 9-1 in his last season. He was the last of the Bless brothers to hang it up.

He's retiring from calling games after this season if my memory is correct.

Final pick'em standings: LC_Bears_04 (0-1) 39-6 ptr (0-1) - 39-6 Frozen Tundra (1-0) - 39-6 MuleDriver (0-1) - 31-14 Bulldog 15 (no pick) - 32-8 THPD262 (no pick) - 24-3

It should be an interesting game between DC and Snider. I haven't seen Snider play, so I don't know their strengths and weaknesses. DC obviously has been pretty much one-dimensional with their run game and they pretty much say stop it if you can. They had 362 rushing yards against Whiteland and 408 yards against South on the ground, but was 1 for 11 in the passing game against the Panthers. If Snider can slow the running game down, you have to like their chances. In looking in my crystal ball right now about next season, I have to think the frosh Duncan Combs will be under center next season and he has gotten a lot of hype. He guided the JV team to an 8-0 record with most of the wins being blowouts. I saw comments that JV running back soph Braylen Townsend was impressive on the JV team, at least from some of the comments I've seen since I haven't seen him in person. With seniors Adams and Morrison 1-2 on the varsity squad, Townsend got some more "seasoning" playing with the JVs waiting for his turn. That's two players I see as possibly being starters in the backfield next season, but they will still have to earn it leading up to the new season. If I'm not mistaken, there will be a veteran o-line with four of five starters back.

Absolutely. The Hawks were definitely the better team tonight and I posted on the score thread that I thought the DC defense would be the MVP of the game if they gave one out. South gave up quite a few yards on ground in the first half between the 30-yard lines, with two big runs on edge runs, but they did a good job on stopping the runs between the tackles for the most part. However, the 2nd half was a different story, with DC's defense keeping the Panthers offense on the sidelines for much of the 2nd half, and our defense appeared to just run out of gas, giving up chunk runs between the tackles. I don't know how many times the Hawks ran through tackles in the 2nd half. South will lose quite of few players since they were senior-dominated, especially on defense. If my memory is correct, they will have four of five offensive line starters back, and Bryce Taylor should be back healthy doing the kicking chores. The defense will have to be rebuilt. The JV team went 8-0 and the freshman team was 5-0-1, so we have some good players coming up to the varsity next season.

Decatur Central 24 Bloomington South 12 (final) Congrats to the Hawks. They were certainly the better team tonight and if I had to give out an MVP award, I would give it to the DC defense that simply kept the South offense on the sideline for much of the 2nd half, which led to South's defense getting gassed and giving up chunk run after chunk run in the 2nd half. DC's run total was huge on the game especially in the 2nd half. I believe I saw that DC had 408 yards rushing on the game, and I would have never thought they could do that against the South defense, but like I said, South's offense spent way too much time standing on the sideline.

Decatur Central 24 Bloomington South 12 (4:38, 4th) South scored on a drive with the two-point conversion attempt no good. Down two scores with the time left, it doesn't look good for the Panthers. On-side kick by South didn't work also after the score.

Decatur Central 24 Bloomington South 6 (7:54, 4th) DC probably put this game out of reach with another time consuming drive and a back breaking TD. With DC defense shutting down South's offense in the 2nd half, they have been picking up chunk run after chunk run with the Panthers defense looking gassed after spending much of the half out on the field. DC defense has been the big difference in this game.

Decatur Central 17 Bloomington South 6 (end of 3) South blocked a 47 yard FG attempt by DC and has the ball at the DC 40-yard line to start the 4th.

Decatur Central 17 Bloomington South 6 (6:16, 3rd) South gave up two big edge runs in the first half, and they gave up another in the 3rd which went for 40 yards, and it set up DC's 2nd TD of the game.

Decatur Central 10 Bloomington South 6 (half) Defenses for both teams have kept this to a low scoring game so far. The play in the 2nd qtr where South went for it on 4th and a half-yard at their 35 yard line, and it was a fake to the RB in which Alley the QB was sacked, was the difference in the first half and it gave DC a short field TD. If Alley had actually handed the ball off the RB they would have easily had the first down. That's the way it goes and it's still anyone's game going into the 2nd half. DC gets the ball when the 2nd half starts.

Decatur Central 10 Bloomington South 6 (5:00, 2nd) South scored on a 61-yard drive. The PAT was missed.

Decatur Central 10 Bloomington South 0 (7:57, 2nd) South had a 4th and half-yard at their 35 yard line and they went for it with the QB faking a handoff which didn't fool anyone and he was sacked, giving DC the ball at around the South 30 yard line. DC was able to score with the short field to take a 10 point lead. DC defense has done a terrific job on the Panthers so far.

Decatur Central 3 Bloomington South 0 (end of 1st) DC has the ball on 3rd and fairly long around midfield. With South's primary kicker limited to kickoffs, the Panthers backup punter has given DC good field position on short punts.

Decatur Central 3 Bloomington South 0 (7:43, 1st) South had the ball first and after a couple of first downs their drive stalled near midfield. DC got a big running play on their first play from scrimmage and went deep in Panther territory, but South held and DC kicked a 40 yard FG.

Semi-state pick: Bloomington South @ Decatur Central - This is a tough game to pick and DC has really been rolling in tournament play and will be playing at home. After giving up quite a few points on defense in their first seven games of the season, the Hawks have really clamped down and have given up just 6.2 ppg over their last five games to include a couple of shutouts. It's time that the Panthers get off the schneid when it comes to semi-state games. South has gone 0-4 in their last semi-state appearances since winning the state with Rex Grossman back in 1998. Their best showing in those games was an overtime loss to Cathedral back in 2014 with the Irish going on to win state. South has gotten off to slow starts in their last two games, letting both Seymour and Ev. North take very early 7-0 leads before South took over the games. South is averaging 46 ppg which is 5th in the state, while giving up 13.4 ppg on the season. South has not had a turnover in their last four games. The Hawks ran all over Whiteland to the tune of 362 yards on the ground last week and the question is, can they run on the Panthers' quick and speedy front seven with any consistency. We will see, and I see South winning a hard-fought game by 7 points.

As far as video streaming, the IHSAA has sole rights to it. The South football site has WGCL as carrying it, but they have listed them on their schedule page even though there were multiple stations covering some of their games. I was surprised that WVNI didn't also cover the regional game with EN, but they may be there for the semi-state game and their play-by-play coverage is light years better.

You're right and I don't know how I missed that game and I will chalk it up to a brain fart. The Columbus North game was DC's season opening opponent and DC won 18-14 (8/18) and South played CN near the end of the regular season and won 49-14 (9/29) in a game where South caught the Bull Dogs really flat. Yes, DC has had some injuries early in the season. South lost their starting center for the season in the season opener and after that, they stayed pretty healthy up until late in the season where as you pointed out, we lost our top DB and also our kicker who has been a big weapon, although he did return against Ev. North just in a kickoff role.

Some info on Bloomington South (11-1) and Decatur Central (10-2) Both teams enter the game on an 8-game winning streak. They faced only one common opponent this season in Martinsville and those were early season games with South beating the Arties, 35-6 (8/23) and DC losing to the Arties 25-24 (9/8). Here are some offensive stats for both teams. I was unable to come up with the defensive stats. Offensive stats: Passing: South - 190.2 ypg DC - 136.0 ypg Rushing: South - 151.2 ypg DC - 242.8 ypg Total offense: South - 341.3 ypg DC - 378.8 ypg Turnovers on the season: South - 5 turnovers (1 lost fumble and 4 picks) DC - 17 turnovers (11 lost fumbles and 6 picks)

Pick'em results for the regional games: LC_Bears_04 (2-0) - 39-5 ptr (2-0) - 39-5 Frozen Tundra (2-0) - 38-6 MuleDriver (1-1) - 31-13 Bulldog 15 (2-0) - 32-8 THPD262 (no picks) - 24-3 Just the southern semi-state game pick this time: Bloomington South @ Decatur Central

@MuleDriver I watched the archived Decatur Central/Whiteland regional championship game yesterday. Not having seen either team play this season until yesterday, I was surprised to see both teams having their QB under center for much of the game that I watched, and especially in the first half. I watched just the first three quarters since DC had a big lead going into the 4th and I didn't see the need to watch anymore of it. DC stayed under center in their opening possession of the game, and did nothing but hand the ball off to one of their RB either right into the gut of the line or off both tackle spots and they picked up one big gain after another and they scored their first TD without putting the ball in the air (if my memory is correct.) They passed the ball just two times (again my memory) up until late in the first half when they went to the shotgun down inside the Whiteland red zone. In the first qtr, Whiteland was under center and had some nice runs, and scored on a long TD run when their RB ran right up the middle and broke the line of scrimmage and had clear sailing for the TD which would be their only score of the game. The Warriors did have occasional nice runs during the game but it was between the 30-yard lines and they never really threatened to score again. Nothing in-depth there on my part, but it was what I saw on the surface in the game. Here's the link to the archived game if you want to take a look: Decatur Central (ihsaatv.org)