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There are four games in CI for Week 7 and here is how I see them going. I don't see any of the games this week looking as blowout wins for the winning team, but we shall see. My favorites are in the boldface. Bloomington South @ Columbus North This game is for the championship of CI and it may be a game where it goes down to the 4th qtr before one team or the other pulls away, South (6-0) is on the road, but I believe they are the more-rounded team. Columbus North (4-2) relies more on their passing game while the Panthers are more of a running team that likes to use clock on drives when they can, although Panther QB Duncan Combs can certainly pass the ball with efficiency when needed. The Bull Dogs are averaging 280.5 ypg passing while averaging 113.2 ypg rushing, while the Panthers are averaging 186.5 ypg passing while averaging 248.2 rushing ypg. South has a solid front seven on defense and I see them trying to pressure Bull Dog QB Asher Ratliff while keeping him contained in the pocket to help out the Panther secondary which while not bad, is probably the weakest area of the Panthers defense. I haven't seen the Bull Dogs play so I can only go on their game scores and what game articles I can find on them. South has two running backs that you could call running back 1a and running back 1b in Braylen Townsend and speedster Shaun Cooper. Townsend came up gimpy while running out of bounds early in the Terre Haute South game and he did not play in the Southport game this past weekend. Cooper has had big games for the Panthers all season long and if Townsend is not ready to go, Cooper will more than compensate for his absence. The Bull Dogs are at home so they and their fans will be fired up, but I see the Panthers winning this game by 7-10 points. Harrell's site prediction: Columbus North 32 Bloomington South 31 Columbus East @ Bloomington North The Olympians (3-3) travel to Bloomington to play an improved Bloom. North (3-3) team. I made the comment before the season started that the Cougars will be an up and down team that would be thin on experience at most positions, and they have been just that. The O's are averaging 268.2 ypg passing while averaging 117.3 ypg rushing. The North Cougars are averaging 167.8 ypg passing and 101.3 ypg rushing, with their numbers being skewed downward when they played Terre Haute South without their starting QB and with a linebacker under center, and they had just 91 yards of total offense in that game. North is a different animal with Illinois transfer John Bargen under center and I see the Cougars winning this game by two TDs. Harrell's site prediction: Bloomington North 38 Columbus East 21 Terre Haute North @ Southport Both teams are 0-6 so something has to give here as far as winning a game. I'm not going to spend much time on this since it's a game of two really bad teams, but I've seen both teams play and I'm reluctantly going with the home Southport team to win this game by a thin hair. If TH North loses this game, they will not win a game this season since they are in a sectional that has Bloom. North, Bloom. South, and TH South as the only other teams in the sectional. At least if Southport loses, they have a shot at drawing a bad Indy Tech team in their sectional. Harrell's site prediction: Terre Haute North 31 Southport 28 Terre Haute South @ McCutcheon Okay, I don't know a thing about McCutcheon (2-4) other than perusing their scores on the season. The TH South Braves (4-2) have the better record so I will go with them to win a close road game. Harrell's site prediction: Terre Haute South 31 McCutcheon 24

I can't help but think that the football coaches in the HHC would have to be or be somewhat lukewarm to having Bloom. South and Col. North joining the HHC. It could be a case of those two programs dominating the football side of things, unless there is more student involvement, player-wise, from the other HHC programs. I know that South had 93 players report for the first official practice this year in grades 10-12, so they still have a lot of involvement from students. I don't know what the numbers were like at Col. North. Maybe I'm all wet on this, but I could see that being the case.

I might add that the Bloomington North freshman team had a home game this past weekend with the Jeffersonville freshmen and for whatever reason that game was canceled and I assume it's because they don't have a freshman team. Bloom. North substituted a game with the Bloom. South freshmen and I haven't seen the results of that game. Frozen Tundra indicated that there were only two teams fielding freshmen teams and that was East and FC. Jeffersonville is another 6A team with a big enrollment that should be able to field a freshman team.

I normally stay out of the conversations on this thread unless there is something I can contribute. While the Olympians were beaten by the Bloom. South JV team, 38-14, back on 8/23, the Panther freshman team lost to the O's freshmen team 14-0. The South freshman team played the O's a second time on 9/6 and again lost to the O's 14-6. I haven't seen a roster on the South freshmen and have not attended any of their games, so I don't know if the better freshmen players on that team have been elevated to the JV team or what. It has absolutely nothing to do with the HHC, but this past weekend after the Southport game at South, the JV team was scheduled to play the Roncalli JV team and I have not seen a score on that one yet, while the freshman team was scheduled for another game with the Bloom. North freshmen which was delayed to another date. The whole point of this is that Southport is a 6A school with a large enrollment, and their football program has dropped to such a low level that they can't field a JV team or a freshman team.

Injuries are always a big part of the game and teams/coaches learn to deal with them, but I saw that East was down several starters, either before or during the game with FC. I saw that CE lost their leading receiver to a broken collarbone during practice leading up to the game. Another starting receiver and defensive back Mykel Jones was missing with no reason given. Also, a third starting receiver and punter Kamden Shelley was hurt in the first half. Starting offensive lineman Gabe Burton and defensive back Blake Moss went down during the game and did not return. I don't know what kind of injuries FC was dealing with, but there are probably some since football is very physical game in a huge understatement and it's almost impossible to play the game without some injuries.

Having seen both Southport and Terre Haute North play, it looked to me that the Cardinals are just a thin hair better than the Patriots and the game will be at Southport. The Panthers played their starters just in the first half against Southport with a running clock to start the 2nd half. The subs and JV players (in the 4th for the JV) taking over in the 2nd half and it was the JV squad that scored the only TD by either team in the 2nd half. South's starting running back Braylen Townsend came up gimpy on a run out of bounds in the Terre Haute South game last week and he sat out the game last night. Hopefully, he will be ready to go at Columbus North next weekend.

Bloomington North 36 Jeffersonville 3 (final) Terre Haute South 37 Northview 26 (final)

Bloomington North 36 Jeffersonville 3 (final)

Columbus North 42 Terre Haute North 0 (start of the 4th and a running clock)

Bloomington South 54 Southport 7 (final) The 2nd half went by in a flash with the running clock. South played almost all backups in the 2nd half to include JV players in the 4th qtr. Southport got their first points of the season in this game.

Bloomington South 54 Southport 7 (5:20, 4th with a running clock) With mostly JV players in there in the 4th to include the QB, South tacked on another TD.

Columbus North 35 Terre Haute North 0 (half)

Beech Grove 6 Edgewood 0 (half) Bloomington North 21 Jeffersonville 3 (half) Whiteland 27 Martinsville 6 (half) Floyd Central 21 Columbus East 7 (half) Terre Haute South 10 Northview 6 (half) Sullivan 28 Owen Valley 0 (half)

Columbus North 21 Terre Haute North 0 (8:30, 2nd)

Bloomington South 47 Southport 7 (half) With the clock winding down, the Panthers kicked a 27-yard FG to closeout the first half. Obviously, a running clock will take place at the start of the second half with the Cardinals getting the ball to start the 3rd. You can expect the Panthers go with their backup QB for the 2nd half with other subs out there also.

Bloomington South 44 Southport 7 (3:56. 2nd) A muffed kickoff by Southport gave the Panthers possession deep into Cardinal territory and a short pass completed the drive for another score.

Bloomington South 37 Southport 7 (4:05, 2nd) I was congratulating South for not have any major penalties in the 1st qtr and halfway through the 2nd qtr which is something they haven't done this season so far, but they then had a TD called back for a holding call and they ended up kicking a 20 yard FG.

Bloomington South 34 Southport 7 (6:05, 2nd) Well, someone was going to give up a score to the Cardinals and the Panthers were the ones to do it. On a corner blitz, two Panther defenders sandwiched the Cardinal QB, but he threw up a prayer as deep as he could just a millisecond before he was hit, with a Cardinal receiver getting a couple of steps on a safety and he outraced the defender to the end zone.

Bloomington South 34 Southport 0 (7:45, 2nd) South scored on a four-play drive with backup RB Shaun Cooper scoring on a six-yard drive. The PAT was no good.

Bloomington South 28 Southport 0 (2:03, 1st) South forced a punt and the punt was muffed by the Cardinals with the Panthers recovering the ball at the Cardinal five-yard line. South backup RB Shaun Cooper scored on a five-yard run.

Edgewood 0 Beech Grove 0 (end of 1st)

Bloomington South 21 Southport 0 (4:19, 1st) South forced a Southport punt down near their goal line and the Panthers scored on the first play from scrimmage after the punt on a 45-yard pass play. South's QB Duncan Combs already has three TD passes on the game.

Bloomington South 14 Southport 0 (7:07, 1st) On the Cardinals' very first play from scrimmage they fumbled the ball away at the 18-yard line and the Panthers scored on the first play from there on an 18-yard pass play.

Bloomington South 7 Southport 0 (7:17, 1st) The South Panthers opened the game with a 80 yard drive to take the early lead. The Panthers scored on a 6-yard pass.

I can't believe that Indiana Sports Network in Terre Haute is televising the Col. North vs TH North game and not the Northview/TH South game. It's like staring at an accident while driving by. Here's the link to the televised broadcast if you want to peek in (no charge.) H O M E | ISN