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Bloomington North 17 Terre Haute South 13 (6:03. 2nd)

Bloomington South 23 Terre Haute North 0 (3:50, 2nd) After two straight drives by South being stymied by major penalties, the Panthers finally had a "clean" drive and scored on a 24 yard TD pass from Duncan Combs to WR Myles McCay. A bad snap on the extra point try caused the holder to get tackled on the try.

Bloomington South 17 Terre Haute North 0 (end of 1st) South connected on a 36-yard FG just before the end of the 1st after a drive was stalled by two penalties.

Bloomington South 14 Terre Haute North 0 (10:25, 1st) TH North is having a terrible time snapping the ball and on their first down after the South kickoff after their previous score, the ball was snapped into the end zone with South recovering the ball of a TD.

Bloomington South 7 Terre Haute North 0 (10:32, 1st) TH North received the ball to open the game and on a 3rd down, a bad snap got by the Patriot QB and South recovered at the THN 7 yard line. After a five yard penalty, RB Braylen Townsend scored on a six yard run.

It's the TV dollars that are driving it and the conferences are being paid big for network coverage. Still, I hated that they have encroached on the night that had been reserved strictly for high school games. I'm taking in the Bloomington South/TH North game tonight and I am recording IU's game for later viewing.

I meant to add JH's prediction on the games so here they are: Bloomington North 35 Terre Haute South 28 Columbus North 42 Southport 14 Bloomington South 45 Terre Haute North 21

Week 3 in CI: All games are within the conference this week so there are just three conference games. Both Bloomington South and North finally play at home against the Terre Haute schools after being on the road for two straight games to start the season, while Columbus North travels to Southport. Terre Haute South (0-1) @ Bloomington North (1-1) - This looks to be a tough game to call. From an offensive standpoint, this came has the makings of a possible shoot-out with both teams capable of putting up points quickly. After opening the season with a narrow loss at Mooresville, the North Cougars are coming off a 45-0 blowout win at Bedford NL. North took an early 14-0 lead and never looked back with the game going to a running clock in the 3rd qtr. I didn't get any stats to speak of, but North senior QB Dash King had a 50-yard TD run in the 2nd qtr of that game. TH South had their home game with Floyd Central canceled and ruled a no contest, so they are coming off a two-week break after losing their season opener at Plainfield, 31-27. The Braves doubled the yardage on the Quakers but lost the game because of three thrown picks. Good luck to anyone trying to predict the score of this one. Columbus North (2-0) @ Southport (0-2) - This game sure has blowout city written all over it. It may be a quick game with a good chance of a running clock to start the 2nd half. The North Bull Dogs are coming off their 2nd big game of the season and shutout city rival East, 42-0. North outgained the Olympians, 470 yards to 59 for East. Bull Dog junior QB Asher Ratliff had a big game, passing for 178 yards and two TDs, while also rushing for 137 yards and two TDs on just 8 carries. East did manage two picks in the game with that pretty much being their only positive to speak of, considering it sounded like their defense spent a large part of the game on the field. Southport lost to rival Perry Meridian 42-7 after losing to them 40-10 last season, for their fourth straight loss in that series. The Cards have lost big in their first two games of the season, and they had similar offensive problems to that of Col. East in their game with North. Southport's junior QB Gavin Combs was just 4 for 10 passing for 24 yards and the Cards rushed for just 26 yards total and had 50 total yards of offense in the game. Terre Haute North (1-1) @ Bloomington South (1-1) - With the Patriots coming off a big win over Mooresville at home to snap a 14-game losing streak, they naturally will be pumped up as they travel to South in the Panthers first home game of the season. I still believe South will win this game somewhat comfortably, but they better be wary of the Patriots. Against Mooresville, THN junior QB Harrison Wetzel was 8 for 14 for 158 yards and two TDs and no picks, while senior RB Zyeiar White carried the ball 33 times for a big 239 yards and two TDs. They had 470 yards of total offense in that game. South lost a heartbreaker on that road at Martinsville, giving up the winning TD with just 18 seconds left in the game, 41-35. South soph QB Duncan Combs has been a pretty steady QB so far and it appeared the coaching staff finally started opening up the pass attack with him in the 2nd half of the Arties game. His numbers on the season have been good but not great so far as they break him in, and I believe they will be more aggressive with him in the TH North game. Panther junior RB Braylen Townsend has been great in the first two games of the season, and he has 388 yards rushing in those two games for 5 TDs (1 receiving TD.) TH North will certainly be keying on Townsend to try and slow him down and good luck with that. South needs to shore up their protection on punts since the Artesian blocked one that went into the end zone and was recovered for an Arties TD, and they almost got another on in the game. South will certainly work on that this week. South's young secondary had all kinds of problems with the Arties and their veteran senior triplets on offense, and that's certainly a work in progress.

Actually, I found out later today that Cruz did play in the TH North game and had guided them to the 20-0 early lead before ending up losing the lead and game.

Week 2 results in CI: Bloomington North 45 Bedford NL 0 - North grabbed an early 14-0 lead and never looked back in getting the shutout. BNL is in for a loooong season, and may not win a game in the HHC. Jeff was thought to be the team most likely to finish last in the HHC, but they already own a win over Seymour. I didn't see any stats on the game. Columbus North 42 Columbus East 0 - I don't have any details on this game but I do know that the Olympians got an early pick on North and that was their highlight of the game for them (I believe.) A blowout was pretty much expected in this game and that was what happened. Martinsville 41 Bloomington South 35 - This was expected to be a close, competitive game and it was as South snatched defeat from the jaws of victory at the end of the game. South scored with 44 seconds left in the game to take a 35-34 lead and then let Arties march 80 yards down the field in 26 seconds for the winning score and South couldn't do anything with the remaining 18 seconds. It was a young South team against a veteran Martinsville team and the Arties triplet seniors on offense in QB AJ Reynolds (19 of 27 for 207 yards and 58 rushing yards with two picks), RB Austin Prior (18 carries for 107 yards) and WR Hunter Stroud (9 receptions for 78 yards and 44 yards rushing) probably accounted for 95 percent of the Artesian's offense, with a big o-line helping the cause. South was led by soph QB Duncan Combs who was 14 for 20 for 143 yards and one TD with no picks, while junior RB Braylen Townsend had another big game with 30 carries for 196 yards and four TDs (one TD receiving.) South learned a lot from this game going forward and Martinsville will have a good season, but being in the highly competitive Mid-State Conference, just how good of a season remains to be seen. Perry Meridian 42 Southport 7 - I thought this game would be close but it followed the same pattern as it has in recent seasons with the Falcons blowing the Cards away. The Falcons will still struggle to win games this season, but they still got their annual win over Southport who accounted for one of the Falcons two wins last season. Terre Haute North 36 Mooresville 32 - I doubt few if any saw this game result coming except maybe folks at TH North. I don't have any details on the game except that Mooresville had a 20-0 lead early in the game and then proceeded to get outscored 36 to 12 by the Patriots the rest of the game. TH North snapped at 14-game losing streak dating back to the 2022 season. Floyd Central @ Terre Haute South - Game cancelled and went down as a no contest.

A big game like New Pal/Decatur Central was called after it was 21-all at the half. Both teams are in the same general area, so why couldn't they have played that game out today instead just calling it a no contest? I was kind of looking forward to see how they game was going to turn out.

I see there were problems with transportation, but before that, why did they find it necessary to try and play the game at Greencastle? Why couldn't they have rescheduled it at TH South where it was scheduled to be played on Friday before the postponement?

Good point. Coach Johnson is a good coach and we can take it to the bank that he will reevaluate everything after going two games deep into the season. Like it is at every level of football, opponents copycat and will be looking/scouting the weaknesses so we have some tweaking to do. He has been rather conservative with Combs at QB and he may want to open things up like he did in the 2nd half of the Arties game. The secondary is the biggest problem right now, and I don't know if there is a quick fix for that other than getting more pressure on the QB.

The way the Panthers responded after the Arties recovered that on-side kick was a bright spot. It came after the Arties had just ran the ball down the Panthers throat for a score in the 3rd. The Arties are going to have a good season, but I agree that they are not that dominate of a team. As you pointed out, their QB is certainly capable of some really bad throws, but he came through at the end for them to pull this game out.

Two starters back from last year (one on the front seven and one in the secondary) on defense really showed. The Arties wouldn't have been able to open the holes up against last year's front seven. There's no such thing as a good loss, but this game was kind of a lessons learned situation for a young South team and the coaches have to take a good hard look in how they managed this game.

Martinsville 41 Bloomington South 35 (Final) Incredible. South let the Arties go 80 yards with under 44 seconds left in the game as they lost a heartbreaker. The Arties scored the same way at the end of the first half. South's young secondary has a lot of work to do to shore things up. Martinsville's experience as well as their big o-line were the difference in the game. Still, the Panthers had no business losing this game the way they did.

Bloomington South 35 Martinsville 34 (0:44, 4th) South scored to take the lead on a nice drive with just 44 seconds left in the game with Townsend scoring on a one yard run.

Yes. They seemed to be pretty careful in the play calling with Combs.

Martinsville 34 Bloomington South 28 (10:41, 4th) South scored on a 14-yard pass play to RB Braylen Townsend.

Martinsville 34 Bloomington South 21 (end of 3rd) South has the ball deep in Arties territory to start the 4th.

Martinsville 34 Bloomington South 21 (6:48, 3rd) Arties answered South's score to start the 3rd with a long drive staying almost exclusively on the ground picking up yardage through big holes made by their big line.

Martinsville 27 Bloomington South 21 (very early 3rd) South's Mckay ran the kickoff of the 2nd half to the 22 yard-line of the Arties. South RB Townsend scored on two carries to cover the 22 yards.

Cruz was hurt late in the game in in their game with Bloomington North and I don't know if he played or not against the Patriots or if he had limitations since I don't know the specifics of the game. Needless to say, THN needed to get that losing streak monkey off their back and they did in surprising fashion and like you said, congrats to them.

Yikes!! Terre Haute North got their first win since 2022 to snap a 14-game losing streak after beating Mooresville 36-32. Everyone outside of the TH North fans and team, had Mooresville putting this game away by halftime. What's going on with the Pioneers? They beat a ranked Bloomington North team last week to open the season and then turned around and went on the road to lose to a team on a 14-game losing streak. The Patriots may be improved, but this just doesn't figure.

The Bloomington South/Martinsville game has finally been postponed with the Arties up 27-14 at the half. The game will resume tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. The JV and freshman games tomorrow have been cancelled.