foxbat

WeBo only burns about 30 seconds off the clock before being forced to punt. End of half. LCC leads 21-7.

Meister with a 4-yard run. LCC up now 21-7 over WeBo with 41.9 seconds left in half. LCC will receive at the start of second half.

LCC seems to be figuring out WeBo's run game. Forces a punt that's blocked. Sitting in WeBo territory now with about 3:40 left in Q2.

LCC gets a stop and forces WeBo to attempt a 37-yard FG that bounces off the upright. No good. Knights take over with 8:30 left in Q2. Still tied at 7. Edit: Metzger flushed out of the pocket and runs for a 65-yard TD. LCC 14 - WeBo 7 with 8:07 left in Q2.

WeBo responds with a 56-yard drive to tie the Knights 7-7 with 4:06 left in Q1.

LCC forces WeBo to punt on their first possession. Drives roughly 70 yards for first blood. Leads WeBo 7-0 with 6:19 left in Q1.

2 Point Games Logansport @ Lebanon West Lafayette @ Northwestern Twin Lakes @ Maconaquah Guerin @ Hamilton Heights Rensselaer @ Bremen Western Boone @ Central Catholic Tipton @ Alexandria Riverton Parke @ North Vermillion Tri-County @ Taylor Griffith @ Knox

You can never count out Pioneer, even when they are the underdog, but I think of the teams that Pioneer has faced, not including Knox, Carroll will look most like NJSP.

Very true, but I'm more than happy to wait to see if they attain a high performance level and would not be interested in bumping either one of them into 2A until they've had proven performance.

Coming out of the North, I see NJSP or Madison Grant, with Carroll being the spoiler. Some folks have said Pioneer, but I just don't see them having the staying power through regionals. On the South side, I think it's South Putnam's to lose. Maybe Providence has an outside shot of playing spoiler, but South Putnam is just so big and I think, should they meet, SP starts pulling away in the 3rd if they don't shock on the front end.

So it'll be the earlier Scecina route? School admin will likely keep them there. Scecina was, at one time, back in the early 1990s I believe, 2A back-to-back state champs. When enrollment dipped, they decided to stay in 2A despite the size, but eventually moved back to 1A. Enrollment ended up on the rise again, but not before they were SF'd into 2A after dropping two 1A state championship games in a row to LCC, who was also part of that first SF class. Scecina's enrollment continued upward and, by the time of next reclassification, they were big enough to remain in 2A on enrollment alone. Up until this last cycle, Scecina was the only program that was SF'd that did not have a blue ring in the process of getting SF'd. Adams Central has now joined them in that distinction.

Drop down to 2A first, then back down to 1A if they get tripped up in 2A on the way down ... assuming they kept their 1A enrollment. If not, they would go the way of folks like Linton and Scecina that went up, didn't get enough points, but by the time reclassification rolled around they had enrollment growth that kept them in their SF'd class.

It's interesting that folks seem to be saying this, but it's not accurate. Only seems that way because the traditional idea that ALL privates have ALL the advantage and dominate, especially in 1A is a little more nuanced than a bumper sticker. Still a few remaining in 1A: Providence (9-0 currently) - Still in it. May have a shot, but more likely than not to be eliminated by South Putnam if not earlier. Greenwood Christian (7-3) - Just got eliminated last week in first round by Eastern Green, a public school. Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian (1-8) - Just got eliminated last week in first round by North Miami, a public school. Faith Christian (2-5) - Not eligible for post-season. Given that they lost 68-0 to 3-7 Clinton Central, I'll go out on a limb and say, if they were eligible for post-season, they would have been eliminated last week. Also some homeschools that are in there, but not eligible for tourney and would last long if they did. A couple of charters in there too. Bowman's 0-10 and eliminated in first round by 3-7 North Newton who has two of their wins courtesy of Bowman. Irvington Prep is 0-8 including a first-round exit, 60-0, at the hands of now 5-5 Clinton Central.

With the new rule, they could make it out of sectionals two years and still end up moving down. New rule, which I think is a mistake, now requires 3 points to stay up.

Going to end up going the Scecina and Linton route and probably the Adams Central route? SF'd, then grew into it?

That sounds like Luers and RCHS, right @Coach Nowlin? 😀

In the youth program at LCC, there was a running joke that, under the equipment shed, were the bones of a 3rd grade player who forgot to bring his helmet to practice one day. Typically in the first couple of weeks of a season, the 4th graders would play that prank on a new 3rd grader who had forgotten some piece of equipment. Always "nice" to walk up to the shed early in the season before practice and see some poor 3rd grader crying and worrying, with a bunch of 4th graders in the background snickering, that the coaches would bury him under the shed.

I think it's by 14 at the half. Carroll's showing around 50 players on the roster ... including eight 8th graders? Frontier's showing 28 including 2 8th graders? When did 8th graders start showing up on varsity rosters? But I digress. As a program, Carroll's been to regionals the last three seasons and brings some that with them into the contest this Friday. I see Frontier playing them relatively tight, but just that little extra allows Carroll to get in a surprise play for TD and a turnover that causes a two-TD differential going into the locker room. That roster size helps to wear down Frontier come the second half. Frontier's had a good season and, like others have said, glad to see them coming back after a tough last decade or so, but I think Carroll controls this one from 12:00 left in the first to 0:00 in the fourth.

All three of Guerin's TDs came after LCC turnovers ... including a pair of picks where LCC had driven down to the Guerin 5 and 3. In the second half, LCC had zero turnovers. Actually, I'd argue that 2014 was the closest for a 2A title. LCC pretty much breezed through the 2A post-season before losing to eventual state champ, RCHS, in semi-state 17-14 after trailing 14-0 at the half at RCHS. RCHS went on to put on a show at LOS convincingly beating Mater Dei 45-21. Given LCC's team that year, and being at LOS, it's very likely that, had they pulled off the upset over RCHS, they would have also easily handled Mater Dei and picked up a 2A blue ring. It was only questionable because it had been happening all game and wasn't called, so it might have looked questionable. The thing that makes it a whole bunch less questionable is that LCC had been applying pressure all night long and, as long as the Guerin QB had to make that pass on that play, either LCC rushed one player or there was holding on that play. Remember, that Nay did the same thing to Lutheran with even more on the line in the state championship game in 2019. Trailing with under a minute left in the game, LCC scored, to bring the game to 28-27, then opted for a successful two-point conversion with less than 10 seconds on the clock.

2 Point Games Muncie Central @ Logansport Frankton @ West Lafayette Benton Central @ Northwestern Western @ Twin Lakes Hamilton Heights @ Speedway Central Catholic @ Delphi Eastbrook @ Tipton Carroll @ Frontier Culver Academy @ Lebanon Western Boone @ North Putnam

Bishop's Cannon

Bishop's Canon ... LCC and Guerin The Sword ... Harrison and McCutcheon

According to the IHSAA rules, it looks like Jeff, being in a four-team section, will play both of its games on the road. It looks like Concord would play its sectional championship at home. Jeff, being non-host in the sectional championship and in an even-numbered sectional should get home field if they end up facing Concord. Of course, that depends on whether or not there's a white buffalo born between now and Halloween and, the more important sign from the gods, Purdue is able to score a TD in the first half of its game with Northwestern.

See below. Pretty much should be mainly tune-up through sectionals. Ended up with the easiest draw of the four teams in their sectional and Kokomo and McCutcheon, both beaten already by Jeff this season, will end up meeting each other in first round. McCutcheon lost to Kokomo earlier this season, in a road game, 28-20, so that should be a tough game for both teams while Jeff will be playing the 2-7 South Bend Eagles. McCutcheon played Jeff close this last weekend, losing 21-14 at home. Figure Jeff will likely face #1 5A Concord in regional ... will likely be like playing a state championship early in the season ... kind of like when #1 and #2 LCC and Pioneer would square off in sectionals or regionals. If they get past Concord, probably looking at facing Merrilville unless Michigan City, and maybe Valpo, get it together, by that point of the season.

Final blow was in the East end zone. Two-point conversion had that same spread setup they used against Lutheran in the state final I think, but they threw to the left side back flag instead of to the right. LCC definitely lived up to your moniker tonight in the second half. I think Guerin picked up only one first down in the second half that wasn't by penalty. LCC had two 4th down stops in a row on Guerin's last two drives. This worked out to be a perfect game for LCC to end the regular season on. Lots of adversity, overcoming the shooting themselves in the foot and the opponent capitalizing on it, outstanding second half adjustments, defense that rose to the occasion shutting down the opponent on critical 4th and 1 type plays and giving the ball back to the offense, and an offense that found its running game as something to lean on rather than as something to open up the passing game. Lots of tests tonight and LCC's got to be feeling good about this one and their performance ... outside of the three turnovers that all led to points.