Frozen Tundra

Columbus East blocks a Franklin punt and then goes 40 yards in two plays for the TD. Tied at 14 with 1:12 left in the first quarter.

After a blocked punt, Villarreal throws a perfect deep pass to the 1. Villarreal with the sneak on the next play for a TD. Tied at 14 with 1:12 left in the first quarter.

After an East three and out, Franklin’s RB goes 60 yards for a TD on the second play. 14-7 Franklin with 5:22 left in the first quarter.

After an East three and out, Franklin’s RB goes 60 yards for a TD on the second play. 14-7 Franklin with 5:22 left in the first quarter.

Franklin goes 65 yards on one play. The receiver was the only player on the other side of the 50. Completely blown coverage. Columbus East and Franklin tied at 7 with 6:29 left in the first quarter.

1 yard QB sneak for a TD. Columbus East 7, Franklin 0 6:44 left in the first quarter. Franklin goes 65 yards on one play. The receiver was the only player on the other side of the 50. Completely blown coverage. Columbus East and Franklin tied at 7 with 6:29 left in the first quarter.

1 yard QB sneak for a TD. Columbus East 7, Franklin 0 6:44 left in the first quarter.

Still need picks from @mamasa

Week 11 Picks 6A #7 Center Grove (5-4) at Jeffersonville (6-3): Ever since the addition of 6A in 2013, the Trojans have won this sectional every single year. Meanwhile, aside from the first four years New Albany was in 6A sectional 8 in which they went winless, the Red Devils have been the worst team. They have a record of 2-8. I’ll take Center Grove 63-7 in this one. Center Grove leads the all-time series 4-0 and all four meetings have been in the postseason. This is their first meeting since 2016. Franklin (3-6) at Columbus East (6-3): This game makes me nervous. The Grizzly Cubs have a 3-6 record but that’s a bit deceiving considering how good the Mid-State Conference is. I’m cautiously taking the Olympians because I feel we’re on a hot streak and have the offense clicking at the right time. East leads the all-time series 3-0. All three meetings have been sectional first round games and all have been at Franklin. This will be Franklin’s first visit to Stafford Field, and this is the first time these teams have played since 2015. East has lost four straight postseason games and has not beaten a non-conference foe since 2020 when they defeated Franklin Central in the first round of 6A sectionals. They’ve lost 16 in a row. 5A #9/#7 East Central (6-3) at Seymour (4-5): The Trojans won the last two 4A state titles but this year’s team is nowhere near the caliber of those teams. They are definitely vulnerable. Nevertheless, the Owls don’t pose much of a threat. I could see a running clock being needed. East Central leads the all-time series 9-4 and has won the last six. Seymour hasn’t won since before the turn of the millennium (1999) and they haven’t scored more than 8 points in any game during that time. This is the first meeting since 2016. East Central leads the postseason series with Seymour 9-2. New Albany (3-6) at Evansville North (4-5): If the game wasn’t enough of a challenge, the Bulldogs get to make the long drive to Evansville. New Albany’s three wins were against teams with a combined 2-28 record, and the only reason BNL has two wins is because of their two games against Jennings County. The Huskies might not be the greatest team but they’ll feel like it against New Albany. Evansville North leads the all-time series 2-1 and all three meetings have been in the postseason. New Albany actually won the last time these two played and that was in 2009. 5A #8/#6 Castle (7-2) at Floyd Central (6-2): The Highlanders have proven this year they can really score points. However, the Knights can really put up points too and they’ve done so against stiffer competition. Could we see a shootout? It’s possible, but I don’t think Floyd Central will get enough stops to make it a game. Castle leads the all-time series 6-1 and all seven meetings have been in the postseason. This is the first meeting since 2016. Castle has won three straight with Floyd’s last win being in 2009. Ironically, this is Castle’s sixth straight visit to Floyds Knobs in the series. The first two meetings were in the 90s at Newburgh. Since the turn of the millennium, every meeting has been in Floyd County. BNL (2-8) at Greenwood (3-7): Both teams are pretty rotten defensively but, again, the Woodmen play stout Mid-State Conference competition while the Stars play the lowly HHC. Greenwood will likely feel pretty good about themselves in this game. It could be bowling shoe ugly. This is the first meeting ever between these two teams.

Took us nearly 5 years to do but we did it and it’s so beautiful 🥹

Apparently Ripley County moved theirs up a day to tonight to avoid the weather. A woman my wife works with who lives there was freaking out that she had to buy candy after work because she hadn’t gotten any to give out yet.

Why did they move it to Friday?

Week 11 Schedule 6A #7 Center Grove (5-4) at Jeffersonville (6-3) Franklin (3-6) at Columbus East (6-3) 5A #9/#7 East Central (6-3) at Seymour (4-5) New Albany (3-6) at Evansville North (4-5) 5A #8/#6 Castle (7-2) at Floyd Central (6-2) BNL (2-8) at Greenwood (3-7) This very well could be the final week of games involving HHC teams. Based on the standings, there is the potential for a tie atop the standings. Therefore, I want to add a tiebreaker. If you are one of the eight people that has picked every game every week, please add a score prediction to ONLY ONE of your picks. Should this be the last week of HHC pick ‘em, and if there’s a tie for first, I will use score predictions of those tied for first to break the tie. If there is no tie or if we end up having another week of pick ‘em then this will be all for naught. How the tiebreaker will work: 1. Did you predict the correct winner of the game? If this doesn’t break the tiebreaker then we move on to #2. (For example, if two were tied and you both picked the right winner or if you both picked the wrong winner then we move on.) 2. The person whose score prediction is the closest to the actual total points is the winner. (For example, person A predicted a 35-21 score for a game with a 42-21 result. Person B predicted a 52-7 score for a different game with a 70-14 result. Person A would win because their total score of 56 was 7 points off the actual total of 63. Whereas, person B’s total score of 59 was 25 points off the actual total of 84.) If the tie still isn’t broken, we move on to #3. 3. The person whose score prediction of the winning team is closest is the winner. (For example, two people were off by 4 points in their total score predictions in #2. Person A predicted a 24-21 score for a game with a 28-21 result. Person B predicted a 35-3 score for a different game with a 34-8 result. Person B would win because they were off by 1 point on the winning score while person A was off by 4 points.) I hope this all makes sense. Please let me know if you have any questions.

HHC Pick ‘Em Standings (after week 10): @SPARKS 39/42 @LC_Bears_04 38/42 @boilerfan87 37/42 @Frozen Tundra 37/42 @gonzoron 36/42 @Bulldog15 35/42 @Uncle Bubba 35/42 @mamasa 34/42 @Bluejacket1 33/38 (.868) @Impartial_Observer 32/38 (.842) @Fkfootball 24/29 (.828) @Owls2005 21/29 (.724)

BNL 38 Jennings County 6 Final

BNL 32, Jennings County 0 Halftime So much for JC putting up a fight.

Still need this week’s pick from @Uncle Bubba

This conspiracy theory is from a fan perspective. From 2015-2018, Columbus East played in one of the very few five-team sectionals in 5A. That means three teams got a first round bye and two teams didn’t. Therefore, you had a 60% chance of getting a bye each year. In those four years, Columbus East never got a bye. If you do the math, the probability of never getting a bye in that four-year period is 2.56%. Bob Gaddis was the coach of Columbus East at that time and if you knew him well enough or played for him you knew how much he hated for his players to get out of a routine. He felt like it could affect the team mentally. So once the season started, the routine was that you had a game every Friday night. If you had a bye, that threw the routine off. Because of this, some of his former players and I would joke around that he used his influence as a key member of the coaches association to ensure Columbus East didn’t get a bye so that the routine didn’t get thrown off. Let me be clear. We have zero evidence that this happened. We just thought it was quite the coincidence that the routine never got thrown off in those four years despite the 2.56% chance of never getting a bye.

Week 10 Pick Jennings County (0-9) at BNL (1-8): Our only game this week is a repeat match-up from week 6. Just like everyone else, I don’t see the victor changing. I’m mostly interested in the margin though. The Stars jumped out to a 41-0 lead four weeks ago before the Panthers scored 14 points in the fourth quarter against the back-ups in a 41-14 game. This was one of six straight games in which JC had been shut out by starting defenses until finally breaking through last week against Jeff. With their season (and their pride) on the line, I think they score on the starting defense this week too. Will they keep it close though? Probably not. I’m guessing they still lose by at least three TDs. BNL leads the all-time series 45-7 and has won the last eight games. This is the third postseason meeting between the two teams. BNL won at Jennings County in 2011 and at home against them in 2012.

Yeah I feel those visits really amped up the atmosphere at games. I miss it. Dang. Didn’t even think about that. You’re right. I miss the visits though. Made the atmosphere even better.

It hit me the other day that I haven’t seen a news station fly a helicopter in for a high school football game in maybe a decade. I remember going to Columbus East games as a student and also in the subsequent 5-7 years where Dave Calabro from WTHR 13 or Anthony Calhoun from WISH-TV 8 would fly in on a helicopter with a cameraman or two, fire up the student section, throw out some t-shirts, and record some game footage for their Friday night football segments on the news. Seemed like it happened all the time back then and sometimes they’d both be there at the same time. There was an excitement knowing they were coming and then when you heard/saw them coming. The chopper would circle overhead and then land on the baseball field or on some open land near the football field. I know the Louisville stations would sometimes cross the Ohio River and do this as well at big games on the Indiana side of their coverage area. Did the news stations stop doing this completely or did they decrease the number of visits drastically?

The shooting in New Albany took place before 10 PM.

Dang man. That’s like the second time in ten days that an Indiana high school football player has died from a gunshot. Happened in New Albany the previous weekend to a Corydon Central player at a fall festival.

Columbus East and Columbus North play for the Pigskin Scramble Trophy in the “Crosstown Confrontation”. Jennings County and Madison play for the Railroad Trophy in the “Battle of the Railroad”.

Week 10 Schedule Jennings County (0-9) at BNL (1-8)