foxbat

Sounds like back in the day with University of Oklahoma's running attack. They wouldn't even allow refs to throw the ball to the sideline between plays and had someone run it over.

This is a school district that looks very similar to Carmel. Singular high school that grew organically to its size. Sitting north of a major metropolitan area. Close enough for all the benefit and far enough north to mitigate the problems. Small, singular community feel with lots of resources at its disposal. Old stomping grounds before moving up this way ... less than 5 minutes from the high school ... takes about 10 minutes now with all the traffic. Incidentally, FRL is roughly around 12% there.

I suspect there are about 63-64 other folks that hold a different opinion about LCC re-visiting 1A.

They'll be returning a few next year too, but on the offensive side. The elder Metzger, Clayton, and Gutwein are just juniors. Meister's just a sophomore.

Guerin's been an odd bird to try to figure out this year. They beat McCutcheon 18-10 earlier this season, but I didn't expect it would have been that close looking at the other games they've played this year. Granted, McCutcheon looks much better this year than they did last year, but given Guerin's 3A rating, I expected a wider range.

LCC's playing at home. LaRocca's mix of bermuda and bluegrass is durable and quite resilient and lasts long into playoffs when other grass fields look like parking lots. You can take a look here: https://www.maxpreps.com/in/lafayette/lafayette-central-catholic-knights/football/media/videos/ and click on the Winamac video to see. It also drains really well, so unless it's a monsoon, you're not having to walk the field looking for water hazards before the game. The one "disadvantage" is that on nights like this past Friday, where there's a high degree of moisture in the air, but not raining, the dewpoint puts a layer on mist on the grass ... kind of like the oil and sand that sits on top of the highway at the start of an April shower ... and makes it really likely to slip/hydroplane. One of the refs can attest to this as he slipped and fell on his butt chasing an LCC receiver on a breakaway into the endzone. I noticed several times, Winamac having footing issues and slipping ... not so much for LCC; then again, they know that grass intimately.

Statistically, LaVille has the stronger of the three schedules, but not by much over LCC. I believe that most of LCC's starters are healthy. Not sure about the other two schools as I haven't followed them to that level of detail.

2 POINT GAMES West Lafayette @ Rensselaer Maconaquah @ Hamilton Heights Rochester @ Central Catholic Tipton @ Eastern Brownsburg @ Ben Davis Plainfield @ Harrison Clinton Prairie @ North Vermillion

And they've all played at least one other team in the sectional already.

Andrean's QB rating was less than TV and LCC for the season. Matter of fact, only had three games over 100 rating for the year. Not much of a running attack to set up the passing attack, a TD every roughly 23 carries, unless they had lights-out receivers ... which doesn't seem supported by the stats. Granted, they played teams higher classification teams.

Tipp Valley and LCC's QB ratings are close, but LCC's seem more consistent and with more 100+ games. On the nine season games, excluding the sectional, LCC had three games in a row under 100 and all three were the losses against their 3A opponents and six above. TV, which won all of their season games, had five under 100 and four above ... excluding the sectional against Chatard. I wouldn't say that Metzger is a "fluid" out-of-pocket QB, but he's really good about not giving up and quite dangerous ... especially against defenses that get excited when the QB is flushed out of the pocket. What I mean by that is that some QBs, when they get flushed out of the pocket, tend to lock in on someone as they run for their lives and then try to force that ball in ... often to someone close by. Metzger does a nice job of continually scanning his targets and is just as likely to hit the closest guy or the farthest guy or someone in the mid-range. He's particularly effective against defenses that see a QB flushed and then everyone, DBs included, want to get in on the QB tackle ... and he makes you pay for looking in the backfield when you should be living in the receiver's jersey.

Attended the LCC game last night. Metzger had 345 passing last night against Winamac. Hit a lot of different guys and was dangerous in long ball plays. I think LCC had at least three TDs on pass plays of 50 or more. The thing of interest was that LCC seemed to be good at was not abandoning something that had promise. They had a crossing play that misfired for the first 3-4 time they tried it. Most teams would have given up after the first two times it didn't work. Just when the fans were probably thinking that they would put that thing back in the play chest for another weekend ... BAM ... 6 points. And it wasn't the first time it produced fruit last night. Just to indicate that quick strike potential, first offensive play of the second half was a 65-yard pass to Clayton; sending the game to running clock. If folks are expecting Rochester to only put up a couple of touchdowns, then Rochester will need an outstanding pass defense. Prior to last night, LCC's putting up 32 passes a game with a 60%+ completion rate. They put up about a TD every eight completions. By contrast, Rochester's had 43 passing attempts for the whole year. Rochester is the complete opposite of LCC with a huge running game; putting up about 40 running plays per game with a TD about every nine carries. LCC's a bit off that mark on rushing putting up a TD about every 13 carries, but only running an average of 18 times a game. LCC's three losses have all come against 3A teams: #7 in class Sagarin Guerin, #11 in class Sagarin Hamilton Heights, and #17 in class Sagarin West Lafayette. All three advanced in their initial sectional game. Rochester has two losses: #10 in class 3A Tipp Valley and #16 in class 3A Peru, who both lost their sectional contests last night in the Sectional of Death. Guerin defeated Peru 27-19.

Winamac scores one at the very end of the game and lets the clock run out before attempting the PAT. LCC 42 - Winamac 14. Final.

Winamac gets on the board. 2-point conversion is good. LCC leads 42-8 with 10:19 left in game.

LCC sitting on a 21-0 lead over Winamac with 2:30 left in 1st half.

Just curious besides AC?

With just 32 teams in 6A, Indiana conferences, and not being in the Indy metro makes it brutal trying to prep for 6A post-season.

Or a blind bat ...

Sound strategy, but it amazes me how many teams break off from what is working in a game to what they had in their original plan. Can't tell you how many teams I've seen have success with the run early, only to abandon it to go to the pass and then get themselves in trouble all of a sudden.

2 Point Games Mississinewa @ Western Twin Lakes @ Boone Grove River Forest @ West Lafayette Rensselaer @ Griffith Northwestern @ Maconaquah Hamilton Heights @ Oak Hill Winamac @ Central Catholic Benton Central @ Seeger Blackford @ Tipton Hobart @ New Prairie Tri-Central @ Frontier

What's surprising about this is that, for all of the talk about 1A and competitiveness there are four current 1A schools right there in the mix of the Elite Eight and all four make it to the Final Four. Also toss in just one p/p making it to the regionals ... and without the impact of SF. Would be interesting to see this in simulation over time.

Not sure which two p/p would be yo-yoing up and down given the reality that most are big enough to be in the new 2A the others aren't much of a threat to begin with ... and the one that is is very unlikely to move back down out of the new 2A. I saw Faith Christian play Indiana School for the Deaf in 8-man ball a couple of weeks ago. Faith lost 80-2 on Senior Night ... that's not a misprint. Even if they ended up in the new 1A in 11-man, I'm not sure there'd be an issue with yo-yoing as there's a LOT of "up" that has to happen to begin with before yo-yoing can happen.

Scecina won none during SF and remained up in 2A ever since.

The Sectional of Death appears to be a force of nature. The proposed Sectional 20 is pretty much just missing Brebeuf from Sectional 21 and/or Chatard from Sectional 22 to make it similar to the traditional Sectional of Death.

Not really a reason to move them out, IMO. SF would take care of them in a two-year span anyway ... if not before as Lutheran's headed to current 2A anyway via SF. That way, you just let things play themselves out via the guidelines. Realistically, there's very little chance that Lutheran would slide back down to 1A in this scenario anyway if SF stays in place ... small chance they would head back down to 1A under the current organization too unless the IHSAA gets cute and sticks them in the same sectional with LCC ala Chatard - Roncalli. LCC wouldn't likely be coming down even under a 32-team 1A scenario. They are currently, without a 32-team 1A ranked around #38. With SF, LCC's likely to stay up in 2A, even under the proposed sectional scheme, with Carroll being the current spoiler to take them out of acquiring the two points needed to stay. Again, even without SF, LCC would be 2A, under the proposed scheme, by enrollment. Very nice work on this!