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A minor correction to your games. Terre Haute South is at Whiteland tonight.

Picks for sectional championship week: Warren Central @ Southport - Warren Central has a 4-6 record going into the game against a difficult schedule and three of their six losses were by four points or less. Southport managed two wins on the season counting their sectional opener win over Indy Tech which is a tiny improvement over the last two seasons where they went a combined 0-20. Their two wins this season were over opponents that finished a combined 0-20 on the season. I honestly don't know the situation there at Southport, but HC Alex Bettag is a combined 2-28 over three seasons going into this game, so one would have to think he is on thin ice there. The Warriors will win this game going away. Center Grove @ Columbus North - The Trojans lost their season opener to Ohio-power St. Edward and has since reeled off nine straight wins against a tough schedule. It's goes without saying that it would be a monumentally huge upset if the Bulldogs win this game, and they are probably headed for back-to-back 5-6 seasons. Center Grove wins the game by at least 4 TDs. Terre Haute South @ Whiteland - The Braves (5-5) head on the road to play a good, but not great Warriors team (6-4) out of the highly competitive Mid-State Conference. This appears to be the one game this week involving a CI team that may be pretty competitive. If TH South can get enough stops, they have a good enough offense to spring what would be a small upset. Whiteland is 3-1 on their home turf, so I'm going with them to win by 10-13 points. Bloomington South @ Seymour - South shut out the Owls on the Panthers' home field in game nine of the season while winning 47-0. I expect the Owls to change up a few things after reviewing tape of the first game, and probably try to spring some gadget plays on the Panthers. However, I think the Panthers balanced pass/run attack will still be too much again for the Owls. The Panthers would be wise to not take the Owls lightly after the first game, and I don't expect another shutout, but I do see the Panthers winning by 3+ TDs.

@MuleDriver I mentioned that it seems like we always play at Castle in the playoffs. If we get past Seymour, we will host either Evansville North or Castle in the regional championship. I kind of hope it's Castle since we have had to travel down there to Newburgh six straight times since 2015 in either a sectional or regional game. It's time they had to make that long trip. Even though we shut them out earlier, it wouldn't be smart to come out flat at Seymour because of the earlier game. The Owls will be the Panthers fourth straight game against a pass happy team, although I believe I saw that the Owls were able to run the ball on Col. East on Friday.

Yes, the key injuries going into the game at Castle (don't we always play there during playoff matchups) last year are another example of what seems like a jinx. D'Andre Black was having a huge year last season when he went down with the ACL tear in what I believe was game five. He's having a great season this year and has made some circus catches so far. He and Waldon have been a nightmare to cover this season.

One thing that was left out is they have also had some really bad luck with injuries to key players in recent playoff years. For example, a couple of years ago, we found out just before the kickoff of the 2021 regional championship game at New Albany that our starting QB for the game would be the JV QB and our primary running back would also be a JV player after injuries sustained in the sectional championship game. Injuries are obviously part of the game and just about every team usually has to deal with it, but the Panthers seem to have more than their share. This year's team is pretty healthy so far going into the Seymour game, so we will see how things play out this year.

Pick'em results from sectional play: LC_Bears_04 (5-0) - 33-5 ptr (5-0) - 33-5 Frozen Tundra (4-1) - 32-6 Bulldog15 (4-1) - 30-8 MuleDriver (5-0) - 26-12 THPD262 (no picks) - 24-3 (Weeks 3 thru 9) There are four CI teams still alive so we will go one more week with sectional championship picks. Here are the games: Warren Central @ Southport Center Grove @ Columbus North Terre Haute South @ Whiteland Bloomington South @ Seymour

Bloomington South 44 Bloomington North 31 (final) With everybody including their brother knowing that North's Dash King had to throw the ball, he was picked with 39 seconds left to essentially end the game. North certainly had the big edge in passing although South cut into that margin in the second half, but South's ground game which was huge tonight, pretty much salted it away in the 4th. South had 218 yards passing and 258 yards rushing for the game. I didn't get North's passing numbers, but at one point in the 4th, they were at 442 yards passing in the 4th and counting. South had no turnovers, but too many key penalties. North had two turnovers (picks.)

Bloomington South 44 Bloomington North 31 (1:52, 4th) South put this game away barring a miraculous comeback by the Cougars with an almost 80-yard drive that was exclusively on the ground until the last play of the drive which was a 9-yard TD pass. A two-point conversion attempt was no good.

Bloomington South 38 Bloomington North 31 (6:17, 4th) North connected on a 33-yard FG to pull within a TD of South.

Bloomington South 38 Bloomington North 28 (8:01, 4th) South scored on a 21-yard pass play to D'Andre Black from Alley.

Bloomington South 31 Bloomington North 28 (start of 4th) On the last play of the 3rd, North scored on an 80-yard pass play to close back within one score of South.

Bloomington South 31 Bloomington North 21 (00:3, 3rd) After North missed on a 40-yard FG attempt, South marched down the field and scored on a 38-yard pass play to Lucas Waldon, his 3rd TD reception of the game.

Bloomington South 24 Bloomington North 21 (10:00, 3rd) North received the kickoff to start the 3rd and on a 3rd and long, Dash King made his first mistake of the game by throwing a pick at his 26 yard line. North's defense held and South kicked a 32 yard FG to retake the lead.

Bloomington South 21 Bloomington North 21 (half) North missed on a FG with 21 seconds left in the half which was set up by another major penalty (unsportsmanlike) on South. In the two years that I've seen North QB Dash King play as the starting the QB, this is probably the best first half of his career with his passing being very sharp and his ability to get out of trouble when the pocket broke down. South had a problem with the penalties in the first half and also getting off the field on 3rd down. North converted several 3rd downs on their side of the field to include some 3rd and very long situations. King was 17 of 26 for 246 yards in the half, while South's Alley was 8 of 16 for 118 yards. South's Gavin Adams carried 8 times for 80 yards.

Bloomington South 21 Bloomington North 21 (3:00, 2nd) It looked like the Panthers had North penned deep into their territory with another 3rd down and fairly long, and North hit the Panther's pass defense with another long pass of about 35 yards to get out of the hole and they went on to tie the game with more crisp passing by Dash King.

Bloomington South 21 Bloomington North 14 (mid 2nd) After holding North to a 3 and out, South went on about a 55-yard drive to retake the lead on a 28-yard TD pass. After South hurt their cause in the first qtr with penalties, North hurt themselves with a PF penalty on the South drive.

Bloomington South 14 Bloomington North 14 (9:00, 2nd) After North's TD, South went on an 80-yard drive with a balance of runs and passes, scoring on a 12-yard TD pass.

From what I can tell, the penalties were well-deserved and it's really on the Panthers to shore that area up real quick also.

Bloomington North 14 Bloomington South 7 (11:22, 2nd) The Cougars relied on their passing attack to take the lead. South has to shore that area up quickly. North's QB Dash King has managed to escape a couple of times when the pocket broke down on two long runs.

Bloomington South 7 Bloomington North 7 (end of 1st) South had two drives impacted by penalties with the penalties at 4 for South to 0 for North. North managed to convert two 3rd and very long situations to keep drives going and their passing has been really crisp to keep drives going.

Bloomington South 7 Bloomington North 7 (5:29, 1st) North converted two 3rd and longs to keep a drive going to tie the game.

Bloomington South 7 Bloomington North 0 (9:25, 1st) South received the ball to start the game and was hit with back-to-back penalites on the first two plays and were forced to punt. The Panthers held North to a 3 and out and the Panthers went 50 yards in two plays to open the scoring with Gavin Adams going 38 yards on the ground to set up the TD.

My Oct 27th sectional picks for CI: Southport @ Indianapolis Tech - I made the comment when the Cardinals beat TH North that it was their first win of the season and probably their only win of the season. I didn't take into consideration that they were in the same sectional with Indy Tech which is who they drew. Southport appears to be the better team and should win this game over a winless Titan team by two TDs. Jeffersonville @ Columbus North - Jeffersonville (0-9) is probably the worst team in the HHC this season and weren't competitive in any of their losses until the last game of the regular season where they went 2 OTs before losing to Jennings County. The Bull Dogs are easily the better team here and could win this game by 4+ TDs at home. Whiteland @ Terre Haute North - Whiteland finished the regular season at 5-4 in what was probably the most competitive conference in the state this season in the Mid-State Conference. There was so much parity in the Mid-State Conference that it was difficult for anyone to predict outcomes from one week to the next. The Warriors could enter the 2nd half of this game with a running clock over a Patriot team that is headed for a winless season. Whiteland by 4+ TDs. Franklin @ Terre Haute South - Franklin is another one of those Mid-State Conference teams that is entering this game with a 5-4 record. However, the Grizzly Cubs seemed to regress some over the latter part of the season and were shut out by a good, but not great Decatur Central team, 36-0, and they went 2-3 over that period. TH South went 4-2 over the latter part of their schedule including a close 2-point loss at Col. North. This game will be close and I'm going with the home team by 7 points. Bloomington South @ Bloomington North - Both teams will be fired up for their crosstown rival, but the Panthers have a little extra incentive to reverse a loss to the Cougars in the fourth game of the season. In that game, the Panthers went through North's defense on their opening possession like a hot knife through butter to take a quick 7-0 lead, but then all of a sudden had all kinds of problems snapping the ball which would last for much of the rest of the game. Even with all of the snap problems, South took the game into overtime with the Cougars successfully rolling the dice on a two-point conversion to win it in the first OT. The Panthers didn't have any snap problems leading up to that game and haven't had any snap problems since that game. I see South winning this game by at least 7-10 points.

I posted earlier that 10 of North's 17 points scored in regulation came after snaps that went over the head of Alley, with one traveling 25+ yards pinning the Panthers against their goal line and requiring a punt out of the back of the end zone. South didn't have any snap problems leading up to that game and they have had none since that game. North deserved to win that game since mistakes are a big part of the game, but it left me with a bad taste that the better team didn't win. Overall, I think this may, and I repeat may be South's best team since the Rex Grossman-led Panther team that throttled Homestead in the 5A championship game quite a few years ago. However, they have to prove it on the field starting with the North game.

Odds of winning the 6A and 5A tournaments for CI teams according to Harrell's site. They have Bloom. South with the best odds of winning the 5A title at 27.39 percent with Mishawaka, Valparaiso, and Ft. Wayne Snider with the next best odds and their odds are bunched together closely between 13 and 14 percent. Col. North and Southport are given little to no chance to make it past the 6A sectionals. How they came about their analytic formulas on this I have no idea although they said it was based on ratings, draw, and home field. SECTIONAL 7 SECT REGN SEMI STATE Warren Central 62.77% 16.27% 2.82% .84% Perry Meridian 29.26% 4.73% .46% .08% Southport 6.90% .25% Indianapolis Tech 1.06% .02% SECTIONAL 8 SECT REGN SEMI STATE Center Grove 71.50% 62.25% 30.78% 20.73% Franklin Central 18.90% 12.87% 3.11% 1.22% Columbus North 9.48% 3.61% .30% .04% Jeffersonville .11% .01% SECTIONAL 14 SECT REGN SEMI STATE Whiteland 51.91% 21.07% 7.46% 2.73% Franklin 25.04% 9.13% 2.92% .95% Terre Haute South 22.61% 7.90% 2.43% .76% Terre Haute North .44% .02% SECTIONAL 15 SECT REGN SEMI STATE Bloomington South 61.47% 52.32% 39.27% 27.39% Bloomington North 21.63% 15.36% 8.60% 4.13% Seymour 14.70% 7.83% 2.86% .84% Columbus East 2.20% .67% .12% .02%