Duke of Denham

With two weeks left in conference play the contenders have started to pull away from the rest of the pack. Winamac, LaVille, Pioneer, and North Judson will all have a say in how this conference championship will be decided. This week we have some great matchups. Pioneer has been red hot since a slow start. LaVille keeps finding a way to win. North Judson and Triton played a really tough 1A game that should prepare them both for the upcoming tournament. Caston and Knox have not had the seasons they envisioned at the start of the year, but both are coached well enough to turn it around and rally these last few weeks before the sectional begins. Culver has rebounded since the early issues with Covid to get a few wins. With all that said.....who ya got!? Caston @ Winamac Pioneer @ Culver LaVille @ North Judson Triton @ Knox

Culver at Caston- Caston has yet to win a conference game in 2021. Hickle and Smith will be the two most athletic kids on the field in this game. Culver has the advantage in the trenches. Culver will have to grind to secure this win and I think they will in a close one. Culver by 2. Knox at Pioneer- It has been a long year for Knox and it will be an even longer night. Pioneer by 28. LaVille at Glenn- With covid I am just not too sure about some of these games. LaVille by 7 North Judson at Triton- The Jays are coming off back-to-back losses. Triton has played North Judson tough since the inception of the conference. This is a great matchup across the board, but I think the Jays will pound the ball all night and secure the win on the road. Seems like Judson is always on the road as they've has only had two home games this season. Judson by 24. Winamac at West Central- Another stiff test for the warriors. Winamac by 35.

Can you believe that we are half way through the regular season schedule? While most of the teams in the HNAC have only played a handful of conference games so far we are starting to see North Judson, Pioneer, and Winamac begin to separate themselves from the rest of the conference pack. I am interested to see how LaVille rallies and finishes the season in preparation for a tough sectional which includes Bremen and Pioneer. We have some great non-conference and conference matchups this week. It would be really nice to see every team in the conference play this week, but I am not going to hold my breath. Caston @ North White- North White has had issues with Covid this season; who hasn't? Caston has had issues when teams are able to shutdown Hickle and Smith. I think Smith explodes this week for a couple hundred on the ground and a few touchdowns. Caston by 14. Triton @ Pioneer- Pioneer is back at it again. Triton will have a long night. Pioneer by 21. Culver @ Winamac- Winamac hasn't played in weeks, but lots of practice in the meantime. If the game is played I have Winamac by 28. If it's not played then Covid by 19. Knox @ LaVille- LaVille will have the size advantage and it's not even close. Knox will need Watson to be a magician at QB to pull this off. LaVille by 21. North Judson @ CMA- North Judson comes off a loss to a tough and undefeated Tippy Valley team on short notice. It didn't end the way the Jays would have liked, but come playoff time facing stiff competition will pay off for the Bluejays. CMA has lost to some really tough teams this season. CMA can throw the ball around and they have size and speed where it matters. It was a close game last year at Liberty field. I think we are in for another tough game this week. Judson by 3.

A lot of excitement in the air for the matchups this week. Two of the top 1A schools battle it out at Liberty Field when Winamac travels to North Judson. The Jays are 4-0 under Coach Lambert while Winamac rolls in at 3-0 after their game was cancelled last week. Pioneer welcomes Hammond Central down from the region and continues to claw their way back to health and positioning in the HNAC. LaVille and Culver look to get healthy and back on schedule. Knox welcomes Glenn to Starke County while recovering from their loss to their rivals the Bluejays. Hammond Central @ Pioneer- Pioneer continues to get healthy and win games. I believe they get the job down this week in a close. Pioneer by 7 LaVille @ Caston- Caston has taken their bumps in the conference to start the season. LaVille seems to be fighting to get back on the field. My gut says Caston by 1. Triton @ Culver- This is a good test for both teams. Culver needs to get things rolling. Triton wants to get back in the win column. Triton by 7. Glenn @ Knox- Knox has been up and down all season. They played the Jays tough last week, but they always play them tough. How will Russ Radtke get this team to respond this week? Glenn by 10. Winamac @ North Judson- A top game in the state comes to North Judson and Liberty Field. Winamac is averaging 36 ppg on offense. Judson defense has been stingy only giving up 9.5 ppg. John Harrell has Winamac by two td's. I'm taking the Bluejays in a tough game by 10.

The HNAC threads have not been the same without the stat guy.

Well a lot changes in a few days. Looks like Winamac is sitting out this week. I guess we should expect an even bigger crowd this week at the North Judson v Knox game. North Judson @ Knox- Judson is rolling and they keep it going this week. Starke County will be electric on Friday night as the Jays end their losing streak to Knox. North Judson wins by 30. Bremen @ Triton- Triton is playing well and I expect that they will show up and give the Lions everything they can handle. Triton by 3. Culver @ West Central- culver hasn’t played in awhile. They explode on offense and get a running clock. Culver by 35. Pioneer @ Caston- pioneer seems to get a little healthier each week. Panthers by 28.

Big conference matchups this week. Who ya got? North Judson @ Knox Pioneer @ Caston Winamac @ LaVille Bremen @ Triton Culver @ West Central

Caston v Triton- Trojans by 1. We saw Caston last week in person and they have made huge improvements. Smith is the real deal. Triton will be jacked to play and honor their friend and teammate who passed away suddenly. It’ll be an emotional night and game. No fridays off this season in the HNAC. North Judson V North Newton- Judson by 30. Judson still has penalities to clean up. They take another step forward this week. Allen and Harper exploded last week for a huge offensive night for the Bluejays. They’ll keep that rolling this week as they head out to Newton county. Winamac V North white- Winamac by 35. Running clock early and starters will be sucking Gatorade for most of the second half. Pioneer v LaVille- Laville by 2. Given that both teams played with a roster in the teens last week who can predict what this week will bring? I’m still waiting to see the real Pioneer.

Winamac by 21 since they’re playing the Pioneer JV tonight. A killer run by the panthers since the inception of the HNAC. The football season is a marathon and I have no doubt that Pioneer will get it together in time for Sectionals. Judson by 30. Unlike west central, the toss isn’t going to be as effective against the Jays defense. Judson will clean up some errors and penalities and it’ll be another great night to be a Bluejay. Laville by 10. LaVille has the size advantage upfront and will in most HNAC matchups this season. Culver is out. Knox by 1. I have little confidence in the team from Knox. I have even less faith in Rochester.

Another big week in the best little conference in the state. Who ya got? Pioneer at Winamac Caston at North Judson Knox at Rochester Culver at SCUM Triton at LaVille

LaVille over Bremen- lancers got the beef on the line and that never goes out of style. NJSP over Cavs- Jays will come out and show an explosive offense and solid defense. Get used to hearing Harper, Frasure and Allen’s names as they cross the goal line. Triton over scum- I like the way the boys from bourbon show up every week win or lose. Caston over WC- Caston keeps moving forward smith has about 20 tackles before the nights end. Winamac over Knox- not much will be gleamed from this game. Knox is bad. Winamac should be good.

Several thoughts on this fine Thanksgiving morning. First, I am grateful for the season that we had. From week to week it was stressful with covid and contact tracing. I’m probably not the only person who was relieved when the games would actually kickoff. Sometimes getting to Friday was the biggest challenge this season. For those couple hours on a Friday night things almost seemed normal. Second, obviously Pioneer is the conference champion and if they aren’t printing shirts from the Winning Edge they are missing out on a golden opportunity to celebrate another great season. Finally, the conference itself should have done a better job outlining how this season will go from the jump. They should have discussed the various outcomes with schedules and how teams would be rewarded with all-conference selections at the end. But they didn’t and that is how you end up here. I look forward to a season of normalcy, hopefully, in 2021. Until then stay safe.

Pioneer by 40 North Judson by 28

You have had two weeks to prepare. Two weeks to get healthy. No excuses after this one buddy.

Whatever you’re smoking pass it this way.

Judson by 40 Calumet by 6 Pioneer by 28 Triton heading fishing. Caston heading fishing Winamac stringing up their poles for next week.

I don’t believe that every team gets better throughout the year. I believe players can develop and progress on an individual level throughout the season. Plenty of teams are lost to injury, mental attitude, and poor coaching.

Totally agree! It’s the same conversation that was had last week. Judson didn’t score on Knox in week 4 so how could they ever score on another team in week 9? I dunno maybe we practice and get better. It’s like every team is in stasis in the eyes of the trolls. Coaching is fluid. You’re either getting better or worse as the season goes on.

Knox 42 Caston 14 Laville 38 Culver 8 Triton 28 Winamac 20 Judson 24 Pioneer 22

I have sent the check out with my winnings from the Triton game. Judson keeps winning and I'll keep donating.

In the example, North Judson would have played LCC at Logansport. It’s a nice field don’t get me wrong, but it ain’t the Brickie Bowl. The facility at North Judson is significantly bigger with more space for additional seating. The home and away stands are just as big. When Judson hosts a regional they typically bring in additional stands for the endzones Also, to drive to Logansport on a bus isn’t that much shorter of a distance than to just drive to Lafayette. I would know I drive it all the time. Hosting a regional or semi state also means an influx of revenue for your town for that evening. Fast food, restaurants and bars all see the windfall of additional people in town for a few hours. All that revenue should go to a bigger town and not help either school? I might be a homer, but from an economic standpoint it’s a terrible idea. Why should some other town receive the benefits of the success of some school 45 minutes away?

I don’t like the neutral site for regionals or semi-state. Small community schools sometimes wait a lifetime to host one of those games. The opportunity to create memories in your hometown forever is priceless.

Wait are we supposed to let everyone know when we stop trolling a forum? If so, I have to go back to a WWE forum from 1999 and let everyone know that I won’t be trolling them anytime soon. What was my login? Oh yeah! Macho_Madness_69

The last week of conference play is finally here! An entire season of speculating would we have a conference champion? Would some team separate themselves from the pack? Those questions will be answered when Pioneer and North Judson face-off on Friday night at Liberty Field. Predictions, discussions, and of course smack talk is most welcome this week. Caston at Knox ©, 7:30 pm LaVille at Culver ©, 7 pm Pioneer at North Judson ©, 7:30 pm Winamac at Triton ©, 7 pm

It’s a fine line to walk. You can have an opinion for sure about your local program. However, at some point, negative opinions can cause division amongst supports or within the team itself.