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New Pal - This team would probably be the favorite if there was a contest between the winner of 6A and them. Here's hoping South plays a competitive game against them. However, my feeling is that James Bomba, Jordan Meeks, and Jalen Peck will be scrimmaging with the basketball team on Saturday. There may be some other football players that will transition over that I'm not mentioning.

I don't think they have come out with the preseason polls yet, but South, as well as some other teams, opens their season on Nov 26. The South/Culver game should be pretty good with each team having an IU recruit. That game at Southport is part of a one-day tournament involving several pretty good teams that have high profile recruits and recruiting prospects.

As a fan, I have to have at least some positive thoughts. However, I think J.R. Holmes will get some of his basketball players back after this game of which several are on the team, and that's a team which is a threat for the 4A title.

Harrell's site has New Pal winning the game by 39 points. If I was a betting person, I would say that New Pal won't cover that spread.

IMO, in order for South to win this game, they will need to play a mistake-free game, while getting some key turnovers and timely penalties against New Pal. New Pal is clearly on a different level from other 5A teams this season, and it will take a game like that. Having said that, with the exception of South's game against TH South, South has had a propensity to commit big penalties this season, especially of the 15-yard variety, and they will need to clean that up. They did do that in the 2nd half of the FC game. If they can get Maveric Thiery going and control the clock on the ground, they might have a punchers' chance in this game. Going on the road doesn't help much either, although I think that home field advantage in the sport of football may be a bit overrated.

FC played a very good first half and was error-free in that I don't recall any penalties and they didn't have any turnovers. South was having problems with their short passing game, especially the swing passes and short passes to the flanks, and they were committing some major penalties. South appeared to get stronger as the game wore on, while FC seemed to run out of gas in the 2nd half. FC does have a good team and deserves all of the kudos for having a great season.

Bloomington South 40 Floyd Central 14 (final) FC was the better team in the first half and played error-free ball in that half with no penalties that I can recall and no turnovers, but the 2nd half was all South as the Panthers seemed to get stronger as the game wore on while FC seemed to run out of gas. South has the unenviable task of playing New Pal in the semistate.

Bloomington South 40 Floyd Central 14 (6:32, 4th) Maveric Thiery picked up huge chunks of yardage running the ball to tack on another score for South.

Bloomington South 33 Floyd Central 14 (11:19, 4th) South took just two plays to score from the FC 24 yard line. PAT was good. FC appears to have run out of gas on both sides of the ball.

Bloomington South 26 Floyd Central 14 (end of 3rd) South will have the ball 1st and 10 at the FC 24 yard line when the 4th starts.

Bloomington South 26 Floyd Central 14 (3:27, 3rd) South scored on a 43 yard pass play. PAT was good.

Bloomington South 19 Floyd Central 14 (6:35, 3rd) The FC QB fumbled the ball deep in his territory and South ran it in for the go ahead TD. The two point conversion failed.

Floyd Central 14 Bloomington South 13 (half) South is having trouble defending FC's passing game, especially their swing passes and short passes to the flanks. They certainly need to figure some things out at halftime.

The winner of that game will certainly be the favorite to win it all.

Floyd Central 14 Bloomington South 13 (4:37, 2nd) South RB Maveric Thiery scored on a 29 yard run. PAT was no good.

Floyd Central 14 Bloomington South 7 (0:13, 1st) South gave FC a major gift when they roughed the punter giving FC a first down in South territory, and they were able to drive it in from there. South has had a problem with major penalties this season and it was costly early on tonight. Two point coversion was good. Initially the conversion was no good but South was called for PI, another penalty.

Bloomington South 7 Floyd Central 6 (4:51, 1st) On their first possession of the game, South went on a long drive to take the lead. PAT was good.

Floyd Central 6 Bloomington South 0 (8:57, 1st) FC opened the game with a 40 yard pass play to move quickly into South territory and took it in from there. PAT was no good.

Bloomington South - It's a home game for South, but I would have picked them also if it was a road game.

Out of curiosity, do you know if James Bomba is planning on playing basketball this season? He has the scholarship to play FB at Miami (OH), and I know that a lot of kids in multi-sports, will spend their senior year concentrating on getting ready for the one sport they will be playing in college.

The Castle coach was quoted as saying that South was too big and had too much speed for them and I'm paraphrasing on that. It's been awhile since South was described as too big since they usually have had undersized teams in recent seasons. With all due respect to Floyd Central, I think that South has played the better schedule up to this point. While CI is certainly no juggernaut of a conference, I think it is somewhat a step up from the HHC. Outside of Columbus East, their conference games have been exclusively against teams that have losing records. Outside of TH South, all CI teams have had at least a .500 record. With that said, I hope South's team is not thinking like I am, and will be mentally ready for a team that comes in 9-2. When they build a record like that, they really have a lot of confidence in what they do. South is really rolling right now, and playing at home, I think they should win this game by at least two TDs. Maybe I shouldn't count my chickens before they are hatched, but that's how I see it.

At least for the Castle game, South's D was pretty good holding Castle to negative rushing yards on 19 yards on 28 carries. They also had numerous sacks in the game. South and Castle know each other, and things got real chippy with both teams picking up numerous penalties.

Bloomington South 32 Castle 6 (final) South will host Floyd Central next week in the regional. This was South's sixth straight sectional championship. Unofficially, South's Maveric Thiery had 244 yards on 27 carries tonight, and he had one long TD run called back because of a hold.

Bloomington South 32 Castle 6 (3:56, 4th) South punter couldn't get a punt off because of a bad snap and he took off with the ball and ran 45 yards for a TD. PAT no good.

Bloomington South 26 Castle 6 (end of 3rd) Castle has the ball in South territory to begin the 4th.