Bears62

Lafayette Jeff 51 Michigan City 33 Final

Jeff 429 rushing yards 

Lafayette Jeff 22 Michigan City 7 1Q

Harrison 16 Plainfield 7 Half

West Lafayette 27 McCutcheon 3 3Q

Guerin Catholic 33 LCC 3 3Q

Eastside 21 Adams Central 17 4Q

HSE 24 North Central 0 Half

Westfield 21 LC 14 Half

Pike 17 Fishers 14 3Q

Ben Davis 30 Avon 13 3Q

Penn 17 Portage 0 Half

Mooresville

Adams Central

Carroll

Roncalli

Cathedral

Owen Valley

LaVille

Crown Point

Reitz

Brebeuf

How New Pal isn’t receiving all first place votes and apparently received enough 3rd or lower votes to be ranked below Roncalli is head-scratching.

5 minutes ago, BDGiant93 said:

I mean, I hope so, but I don't think there's any way that's right.

Really? BD kept it real close with Brownsburg. Avon came back late to make it close with LN, who I imagine is a few steps below BD. And BD won by 24 last year in the regular season

3 hours ago, CoachDurham said:

2 Point Games

North Newton @ Rensselaer

Seeger @ Benton Central

Clay @ Twin Lakes

Tipton @ Elwood

West Lafayette @ McCutcheon

Western @ Western Boone

3 Point Games

Maconaquah @Cass

Northwestern @ Eastern

Hamilton Heights @ North Montgomery

Guerin @ Central Catholic

Attica @ Tri-County

Sheridan @ Clinton Central

 

 

Rensselaer

Seeger

Twin Lakes

Tipton

West Lafayette

Western Boone

Cass

Eastern

Hamilton Heights

CC

Tri-County

Sheridan

Back for another week, tons of great games all around the state. Drop your predictions or let me know if you think any of my spreads are way off.

GOTW: Cathedral(-8) at Brownsburg

Ben Davis(-23) at Avon

Brebeuf(-14) at Tri-West

Carmel at Center Grove(-10.5)

Castle(pk) at Evansville Mater Dei(pk)

Chesterton at Warsaw(-6)

Columbus East at Columbus North(-9.5)

Crown Point(-3) at Andrean

Decatur Central at New Pal(-14.5)

Detroit King (MI)(-15) at Warren Central

Eastside(pk) at Adams Central(pk)

FW Dwenger(-8.5) at FW North

FW Luers(-11) at FW Wayne

FW Snider at FW Carroll(-5.5)

Franklin Central at Roncalli(-7)

Guerin Catholic at LCC(-4.5)

Lafayette Jeff(-8) at Michigan City

Lawrence Central at Westfield(-5)

Lawrence North(-2) at Whiteland

Lebanon at Zionsville(-20)

Merrillville(-25) at Hobart

North Central at HSE(-32)

Northridge at Elkhart(-10)

Penn(-15.5) at Portage

Pike at Fishers(-8)

Plainfield at Harrison WL(-4)

Speedway(-7) at Indy Scecina

West Lafayette(-34) at McCutcheon

7 hours ago, temptation said:

Trying to get back on track this week now that we have some data on all teams, lol.

Avon @ Ben Davis:  Both teams looking for a win after near misses in week 1.  BD always seems to peak later while Avon licked its wounds all season last fall.  It’s more important for Avon but I don’t like their chances.  BD wins 30-21.

Cathedral @ Brownsburg:  I think the Irish are the best team in Indiana and it’s not particularly close at this point.  Possibly a bold statement at the stage as CG will undoubtedly improve weekly.  Brownsburg’s win last week should not be overlooked but BD was shorthanded at QB so take it with a grain of salt.  I think the Irish make a statement this week.  Cathedral 34-17.

Franklin Central @ Roncalli:  Possibly one of the most underrated games on the schedule for this weekend.  I think this will be a one possession game and show how far the gap has been closed on the south side of Indy.  I’ll still take Roncalli but it’ll be close.  27-21.

Lawrence Central @ Westfield:  Two of the best 0-1 teams in the state square off and the loser possibly becomes the best 0-2 team.  Lawrence Central should walk away feeling good about themselves as HSE got a lot of offseason publicity but Westfield is likely still shocked.  They had better not be because the Bears are good enough to pull this one off.  I don’t think they will though.  Rocks win 24-13.

Lebanon @ Zionsville:  I could see Lebanon being a player at the 4A/5A level in the coming years based on population trends and growth but they are still a ways away.  Eagles roll here.  34-7.

Noblesville @ Benet Academy (IL):  A solid win for the Millers last week to break in their new facility.  Do not know much about their opponent other than the fact that they don’t show up in Max Preps’ top 25 for Illinois but they do have a next level player at TE according to 247.  I’ll just go homer here.  Noblesville wins 23-20.

North Central @ Hamilton Southeastern:  A huge thud on the north side of Indy last weekend as my sleeper pick in 6A didn’t even score.  The heat is now firmly on O’Shea.  HSE meanwhile went on the road a narrowly held off a feisty LC team.  Won’t have to sweat as hard this week.  Royals win 34-10.

Pike @ Fishers:  Pike took a solid Zionsville unit to overtime last week but could not seal the deal.  The long bus ride to Fishers will tell us a lot about them.  The Tigers rolled last week and could be poised for a big season.  Fishers wins 27-17.

 

38-10 BD

35-20 Cathedral 

28-21 Roncalli 

20-17 Westfield

45-14 Zionsville

35-28 Noblesville 

49-7 HSE

21-16 Fishers

IMO Mooresville is too high.. I would still take Indy teams like LC, Zionsville, Pike, Chatard, Roncalli to beat them. Otherwise I think the list is great. Would also probably have schools like Merrillville and LC above Decatur Central but I think those would be closer games.

48 minutes ago, PHJIrish said:

The Cathedral Irish won 43-12.  The mercy rule was never invoked and the Irish played a lot of players.

Jeff pretty much controlled time of possession in the 2nd and 3rd quarters.  The Irish got out to a 22-0 lead after the 1st quarter.

I think Cathedral is as good as advertised. I will give Jeff some credit, they competed better than I thought they would, just clearly overmatched. Cathedral’s offense is pretty loaded.

13 minutes ago, Grover said:

Yes.

Too many.  Warren is good.  CG has to prove itself all over again.

That's fair. I don't think anyone is doubting Warren can win, we'll see if 11 was too much tonight. I try to keep the spreads interesting.

What would you create the spread at? Just curious

1 hour ago, Grover said:

That’s crazy talk. 

Too many points or not enough? I originally had it at -8 for CG and bumped it up a little

1 hour ago, foxbat said:

I'm hoping it's more like Harrison (-14).

Been going back and forth on who I think wins this game. I know both lost a lot of key pieces form last year, truthfully I think WL ends up winning due to a longer-running culture of success. I set the line at -2 for Harrison because the raiders seem to be the more popular choice in pick 'ems

I did this last year for most weeks and it seemed to generate some good discussion so I've decided to bring it back for this season. I know some people frowned upon the idea of creating fake point spreads for high school games, but I truly don't see the harm in it and think it gets people excited about games.

For those who aren't familiar with spreads, I will provide an example: Indiana at Purdue(-10). This is saying that Purdue would be favored by 10 points. It could also be written as Indiana(+10) at Purdue. If Purdue were to win by more than 10 points, they would "cover". If Indiana loses by less than 10 or wins outright, they would cover. If Purdue wins by exactly 10, it would be called a "push". "PK" is slang for "pick 'em, meaning there is no point spread and the teams are considered to have an equal chance of winning.

Feel free to let me know what you think about some of these spreads or drop your picks for some of the games. It's week 1 so bear with me, a lot of these teams I do not have much info on besides how they did last season. There are tons of great games this week so some are going to get left out. This is just for fun, any input is appreciated.

Co-GOTW: Westfield(-4.5) at New Pal

Co-GOTW: Warren Central at Center Grove(-11)

Andrean at Merrillville(-9.5)

Avon at Lawrence North(-2)

Brownsburg(-4) at Ben Davis

Fort Wayne Carroll(-6.5) at Fort Wayne Luers

Evansville Memorial(pk) at Jasper(pk)

Fishers(-9) at North Central

Fort Wayne North at Fort Wayne Snider(-8)

HSE(-7) at Lawrence Central

Harrison WL(-2) at West Lafayette

Cathedral(-38) at Lafayette Jeff

Chatard(-13.5) at Brebeuf Jesuit

Louisville Trinity at Carmel(-4.5)

Mount Vernon at Noblesville(-8.5)

Valpo(-4) at Penn

Zionsville(-8.5) at Pike

Columbus North at Decatur Central(-19)

Elkhart(-11.5) at Concord

Hobart at Chesterton(-7.5)

Kokomo(pk) at Leo(pk)

Michigan City(-18) at Warsaw

Speedway(-2.5) at Covenant Christian

Whiteland(-14) at Columbus East

On 8/16/2022 at 3:58 PM, wvigo13 said:

I'll provide the 10 games below and you can make your picks. Picks are due by Friday at kickoff. I'll update the scores and everyone's record the following day.

 

Andrean @ Merrillville

Brownsburg @ Ben Davis

Chatard @ Brebeuf

Harrison v. West Lafayette

Linton-Stockton @ Parke Heritage

Warren Central @ Center Grove

Carroll (Fort Wayne) @ Fort Wayne Luers

Evansville Memorial @ Jasper

Cathedral @ Lafayette Jeff

Lawrenceburg @ East Central

Merrillville

Brownsburg

Chatard

West Lafayette

Linton-Stockton

Center Grove

Carroll

Ev Memorial

Cathedral

East Central

Another example of why MaxPreps rankings are a joke. If every user on this site made a top 25 i don’t think there would be a single one worse than this. Besides maybe Piratefan.

Can’t speak too much on LCC. I’m sure they will be good as always, I do know that they are replacing some good players so I wouldn’t think of them as championship contenders for this season.

WL will be good again too, but I don’t know if they’ll be as good as last season. Coach Fry is an easy top 10 coach in the state, top 5 for some people, so I’m not going to count them out on being a legit contender. I do know they’re losing their best player on each side of the ball. Still easy Hoosier Conference favorites. If they beat Harrison week 1, I would like to think they’re a top 3 team in 3a.

5 hours ago, temptation said:

Know what keeps me from declaring Merrillville the “easy favorite” right now?

Chatard rolling them in 2020.

Probably unfair on my part, I know…

@BTFknocks me for dropping the phrase “Allen County good” in regards to some of the SAC schools, but I’m fearing Merrillville may only be “Region good” until they prove otherwise.

I’ll take the field in 5A.

“Region good” is good enough to win 5a this year. Biggest threat out of Indy is Decatur Central? DC is strong and worthy of being called a contender, but if that’s the toughest Indy school Merrillville has to face, they are thrilled. I see the FW schools as bigger threats than DC too. DC isn’t a traditional Indy school playing other powerhouses each week. DC’s and Merrillville’s conference schedules are pretty similar in terms of how tough they are.

And that Chatard team was pretty damn good. Definitely a disappointing effort from the Pirates that week, but there was a lot of good teams Chatard would have done the same damage to.

5 hours ago, BTF said:

Lets be honest here. "Allen County good" equates to "no problem competing with" any program outside of the Indy mega schools. And Snider might take exception to that since they had the MIC and the HCC down late in the second half before bowing out in two very close games...........both within the last five years. I get the Homestead/Carroll thing as neither one has enjoyed success against Indy in recent memory. 

Back on topic. Merrillville the "easy" favorite equates to "very naive." If Carroll (SAC co-champs with Snider and Luers) met up with Merrillville last year, it would have been a pick-em game. 

Naive, that’s a good one. News flash: Carroll isn’t in 5a. It doesn’t matter if Carroll was just as good at Merrillville last year. 5a is extremely watered down compared to recent years. 
 

Maybe “clear” would have been a better choice than “easy”, but either way, if Merrillville isn’t your preseason favorite for 5a, maybe you should do some deeper research.

4 hours ago, Boilernation said:

Transfers from Gary/Hammond? To your last point, agreed. 5A playoffs are very wide open. Would not be surprised if the winner didn’t come from Indy and came out of The Region, Fort Wayne, Evansville, Or West Lafayette. Bloomington South and Columbus East have the history. I know nothing about what they return this year. I can’t imagine the Olympians being down for too long.

Harrison is losing some key players from last year. I don’t know if people are aware of that or not but people should pump the brakes on them when it comes to being a legit contender. They will take a step back this season. Merrillville is the easy favorite in my books. They’ve still got a couple studs coming back and they’re arguably the hottest program in 5a now. After them, Snider, Dwenger and Decatur Central should be the next best teams.

I have been going back and forth on 4a, but I think I have landed on New Pal as my favorite to win it. I know Brebeuf lost a lot, don’t know how Roncalli will be but I’m sure they will be one of the top teams as well. Memorial and East Central should be up there too. We will see how Kokomo does, they’re only 4 years removed from a state title appearance. 
 

Definitely leaving some contenders out but 4a is probably the deepest class in terms of programs who can win it all.

20 minutes ago, Piratefan101 said:

Crown point has a lot of talent returning. They started using underclass me. To start late in season. And they scrimmaged teams from Illinois all summer. Big schools like boilingbrook. They don’t have speed outside of there RB. But coach has taught them to play no penalty football. And that are extremely fundamental sound. And I hate saying that being a pirate. They have probably the best coaching staff in state I believe they have 8-9 former head coaches on 1 staff 

Good to know, thanks. Don’t know if they will have the athletes to take down Jeff, but should be a good game. Can’t see either of those teams beating whoever comes out of sectional 2 though. I am happy that one of those teams will get a sectional to their name with Merrillville out of the picture. Both have solid programs

6 hours ago, Piratefan101 said:

Crown point I’m thinking may come out north (1&2) regionals. Even though I’m pulling Elkhart. 

Does Crown Point return a lot or what? I would be pretty surprised to see them beat whoever comes out of sectional 2, if CP were to even win their sectional (I don’t think they will).

9 hours ago, Ballhawk said:

Did leaving the HCC have any influence on the success of the Tippecanoe County teams?  They were pretty much the whipping boys of the HCC, so I can only imagine moving to the NCC improved their participation levels and success on the field, at least during the regular season.  They still have struggled in the postseason.

I’m a strong believer in the benefits of being in a conference where every week you play a good team, but in my opinion, I think them getting booted from the HCC was the best thing that could have happened to them. Jeff, Harrison and McCutcheon were getting smoked by HCC teams on the regular. I think Jeff upset Avon in 2013 and McCutcheon beat Zionsville in 2014, but those might have been the only wins any Lafayette schools had against HCC schools since at least 2010. That’s about a 2-82 record against HCC schools between Jeff, Harrison and McCutcheon if my math is right.

Getting back to my point, the Lafayette trio rejoined the NCC beginning at the 2015 season. Jeff then beat both Westfield in 2017 and Noblesville in 2018 sectional games. Both of those games were followed by (debatably respectable considering all things) losses to Carmel 41-20 and 41-21. Harrison hasn’t broken through by beating an HCC team yet, but they have put up decent efforts against Westfield and Zionsville in recent years. Also, if these teams never get booted, maybe Shanley never comes to Jeff and Peebles ditches for a school with greener pastures. Then these 2 programs would likely not be in nearly as good of a position as they are in now.

You’re 100% correct when saying that this move boosted participation and definitely boosted morale within the programs.

Both these teams have much more manageable sectionals, Jeff should be the favorite in theirs and Harrison should be the 2nd best team in theirs behind Decatur Central.

On 7/3/2022 at 12:38 AM, DT said:

North Central	Conference			Overall			Class
	W-L	Pct.		W-L	Pct.		Sectional
Harrison (West Lafayette)	5-0	1.000		8-2	0.800		5A 12
Lafayette Jefferson	6-1	0.857		7-4	0.636		6A 1
Indianapolis Tech	4-2	0.667		6-5	0.545		6A 6
Kokomo	4-2	0.667		8-3	0.727		5A 12
Logansport	3-2	0.600		5-3	0.625		4A 18
Marion	4-3	0.571		4-5	0.444		4A 20
Anderson	2-2	0.500		2-5	0.286		5A 12
McCutcheon	1-5	0.167		1-8	0.111		5A 12
Muncie Central	1-6	0.143		1-9	0.100		4A 21
Richmond	0-7	0.000		2-9	0.182		4A 21

 

Lafayette schools beginning to dominate NCC play.  Rest of conference in catch up mode.  

1. Jeff

2. Kokomo 

3. Harrison