Sectional 39

[Miner_Pride]

A little late but never too late--

Sectional 39 in Southern Indiana begins friday.  A new configuration of teams, but still some old rivalries.   3 of the current top 10 in class 2A find themselves in the bottom bracket.  First a little history--  From the sectional 39 roster of 23-24 only 1 team remains!  The Brown County Eagles.  Brownstown Central, Clarksville, Eastern (Pekin) and Switzerland County got moved to Sect 40 joining existing members Paoli, Crawford County And Tell City.  Salem, down from 3A joined them.  From 40 to 39 went Mitchell and 2023 2A Runner ups North Posey.  Mater Dei went up, and both Forest Park and Perry Central went down.  From 39, Triton Central went up to 3A Christel House disappeared from the tournament.  From Sectional 37 to 39 came Greencastle, Linton, South Vermillion and Sullivan.  I  could go on but it gets crazy. I mean 37 is completely new as Cascade went 3A, North Put and Southmont to 34, North Knox to 1A and everyone else to 39.  NOW.... 37 has the likes of Lutheran, Scecina, Monrovia, Heritage Christian etc...  I guess the days of being in a sectional year after year have gone by the wayside.

The draw was what it was.  I'm not a fan of blind draw but am a fan of all inclusion.  I would think any of the teams that landed in that top bracket are ecstatic about their draw.  Greencastle starts off travelling to Petersburg to face the Pike Central Chargers.  By Sagarin rankings the TIgercubs are 4th ranked in Sectional 39 (S39) with a 44.42 with the Chargers at 6 (33.03).  Schedule strength certainly favors the 3-6 Cubs.  They have been up and down, but you gotta think they are feeling confident after a 49-28 win on the road over 7-2 North Putnam in week 8.  NP had only previously lost to unbeaten Cascade.  This ended a 3 game skid for Coach Stephens. Of those 6 losses,  5 are to ranked teams in various classes- 4A 8-1 Northview, 3A 9-0 Cascade, 2A 7-2 Linton and 7-2 Monrovia, and 1A 7-2 South Putnam.  Besides the topple of NP, they own wins over 4-5 West Vigo and an overtime win over 4-5 Indian Creek 17-14.  Coach J J Howard's Chargers, in his 2nd year,  have a chance to reach 4 wins in a season for the 1st tie since 2016.  The big win for these guys was a 22-0 win over 4-5 Tell City.  They opened 2-0 with  wins over Clarksville 35-0 and 1A Tecumseh 49-20 but those 2 are a combined 0-17.  Still, these were games they had lost in the past.  Playing in the Pocket meant games with 7-2 3A Southridge and 7-2 North Posey both big losses, and Mt Vernon (3A 5-4) and Washington (4A 5-4) had 20+ point wins.  They were in games with 1A 5-4 Forest Park (28-21 L) and 1A 5-4 South Spencer (27-19 L). It's about a 2 hour jaunt to PC high school and it will be just the 3rd road game of the year for Greencastle. History wise-  The Tiger Cubs last sectional crown was in 1991 (2A) after they had captured 1A in 1990.  Pike Central is still searching for a Sectional Title in football.  They actually played for a title in 2022 after going 1-8 in the year, reaching the finale with 2 wins before a 569 loss to Owen Valley in Championship.  

The two lowest sagarin ranked teams drew each other in the next matchup.  5-4 Brown County hosting 1-8 Mitchell.  By Sag numbers the Eagles would be favorites with a 16.78 to 2.41 rating advantage.  But we are all 0-0 with fresh starts in post-season, and a draw that could have been bad for either team has to give each hope.  In Coach Tony Bell's 1st season, the Eagles vastly improved from a previous 2 year mark of 1-19.  Granted, their wins came against a combined 4-38 opponent WL.  They were outmanned in games versus 7-2's North and SOuth Putnam 59-6 and 55-6.  Also lost to 4-4 Cloverdale big 42-6 and 4-5 West Vigo 50-29.  Wins came over 3A Owen Valley 30-21 1-8 Crawford County 24-0, winless Irvington Prep 57-0 and...well.. Mitchell.  The Blue Jackets are also under a 1st year coach with Zach See.  Their lone W came against 1-8 Crawford  County 45-21.  that 45 was about half the total points they scored all year. Looking at their scores for year, the one game that looked competitive was the 21-12 loss to the Eagles in week 6 at BC.  In fairness, there were losses to 8-1 1A Springs Valley, 6-3 3A Scottsburg, 5-4 1A Perry Central and to 9-0 Paoli.  Neither team could have asked for a better pull of the ping pong balls because a win in this game sets up a game with either Greencastle or Pike Central... which is better than perhaps a game with unbeaten South Vermillion, or 7-2 Linton/North Posey.  But Post Season is where crazy things can happen. I suppose it's the whole point of the blind draw.  historically- Mitchell has a 1983 Sectional title, Brown County has 1 as well in 1995 (3A).

The bottom bracket starts off with a doozie.  Probably the game in Sectional 39 on Friday Night.  Unbeaten South Vermillion to host the Vikings of North Posey.  The Wildcats under long time coach Greg Barrett have run the table in 2024, Barrett's 8th at SV.  They average 44.0 points a game while holding opponents to under 10 (9.9).  They have Clinton fired up.  Yes, I am that old.  It's not that SV hasn't been successful in recent seasons because they have- 8-2 last year, 7-3 in 2022, 7 wins in each 2019 and 2017. I've not seen a 9 win season in their history...or at least as far at John Harrell goes back.  I've not seen SV hoist a sectional trophy in school history.  They've come close a couple times- 2019 losing to WeBo in championship 56-14, in 2003 losing 34-6 to Cloverdale as well...in a 2-8 season under Rene Foli. The last 4 years have been one and done with losses to Cascade (24) and Linton (23).  They will have the sentimental pull for the region.  North Posey has been on a run since a 9-3 2021 season, with another 9-3 season in 2022 both ending with losses in sectional championships to Evansville Mater Dei. We, in Linton, can sympathize.  in 2024 Coach Waylon Schenk led the Vikings as well as all of Poseyville, Griffin, New Harmony AND my momma's home school of Griffin (Go Tornadoes) on a ride to the state finals.  Unfortunately they ran up against Fort Wayne Luers who won with a dominant 40-3 win.  Still...as with all small towns hitching up for the ride, it's always a lifetime experience that gets talked about for generations.  Coach Schenk had his Vikings hot with a 4-0 start with a 7 point win over 5-4 4A Mt. Vernon 35-28,  48-7 over 1-8 Princeton, 28-16 over 5-4 1A S.Spencer and 34-14 over 4-5 Tell City. The first big test was a failure in a 43-7 loss to power house 8-1 3A Heritage Hills.  The 2nd big test was another blowout loss in a 42-0 battering from 3A 7-2 Southridge at Huntingburg.  The Viks beat up 1As Tecumseh, Forest Park and 2A Pike Central last week 45-14. Course it goes without saying that both the Raiders and Patriots have put the hurt on many a quality team over the years.  Folks will say they won 5 games against teams with sub 500 records, and 2 others over 5-4 teams.  They still beat those teams with dominance.  You can't talk about schedule strength without mentioning SV's trek in 2024.  They have been in the Wabash River Conf for as long as I can remember.  That is a conference mainly of small 1A schools, and thus their schedule locks them in 7 games vs 1`A schools. So you know schedule comparison favors North Posey.  Not that SV plays nobody, and again, in these games the Wildcats generally dominated.  The put the only loss on 8-1 North Vermillion easily 48-6, and had a dominant 49-0 win over 4-5 West Vigo to start the year.  The only games that looked liked challenges were in week with 3-6 Sullivan, a 34-25 win, and a 20-7 win over 6-3 1A Riverton Parke.    They also dispatched 5-4 Covington 48-14, and 4-5 Fountain Central 55-14.   Look at the Sagarin numbers and you see dang near even numbers.  SV 123rd in state at 57.53 NP 124th t 57.46.  That makes it a pretty tough pick. I would imagine Anderson Field would be hopping rowdy which should give the Cats a boost as well...but the Vikings have been in big games, so I doubt that rattles them.   As mentioned, no titles for SV, but NP has 5 including last year. but you gotta go back to 2005 for the next one.  

The Football Gods must have conspired in Football Heaven to pit these two long time rivals against each other in the opening week of Sectional 39.  If you live south of Terre Haute, West of Bloomington and North of Evansville you probably are aware of the Sullivan/Linton rivalry somehow...be it Golf, Tennis, Girls  Volleyball, Baseball, ....anything.  Purple and Gold, and Red and Blue just don't mix well.  This will be the 112th meeting between these schools, a mere 15 mile trek separating them on Indiana 54.  For the Arrows, this is divine opportunity to end Linton's season at the Roy in Linton in the face of adversity.  The Miners have taken the last 7 meetings, including a 42-20 win in week 4 at the Roy, as well as 10 of the last 11 games.  Some of these games have come down to last possessions, or a single big play that changes the outcome.  In terms of Rivalries, it's hard to beat this one; especially in small town football.  Sullivan fan block showed up at the earlier game with a huge sign stating "Nobody Likes Linton...But you"... a play on the infamous Youll Like Linton signs coming into town.  Well that may be true.  Coach Mike Caton is in his 3rd year at command of the Golden Arrows, and it surely hasn't gone as he'd like it.  A promising start with a hammering of 1A 2-7North Knox 48-6 bode well, but they lost their starting QB in that game.  Next up a battle with the aforementioned Wildcats of South Vermillion fell to the black n gold 34-25. thus begun a tough stretch of 4 total losses, but very good competition- 8-1 4A Northview 35-0, 7-2 Linton 42-20, and 9-0 3A Cascade 42-6.  that's a WL opponent of 33-3.  Against lesser quality Sullivan thrived and dominated in back to back wins over 0-8 3A Owen Valley 56-0 and 2-7 3A Edgewood.  THey've been in battles in the last 2 games of the season, each 1 score losses-  4-5 Indian Creek 21-14 and 4-5 3A West Vigo on a last second 1 yard plunge for the Vikings to pull out a 12-6 win.   The Arrows have h ad recent success, having won a sectional in an 8-4 2020.  They also played a whopper of a game against Linton losing 33-24 in sectional finale 2022.  Reality says that this 3 win season is their lowest since a 3-7 2010 season, but no doubt the chance to turn the tide on Linton will have them more rejuvenated that had they drawn anyone else.  Linton opened up with a doozie facing Marion Local from the cornfields of western Ohio. Who were they you ask? Just a small school from Maria Stein that had won 3 state titles in a row, 10 of the last 12 years!  They came in  with the nations longest win streak at 48, which now stands at 57.  Certainly a challenge, and the Flyers demolished the Miners in front of the home folks 45-6.  Like Sullivan, Linton saw their returning QB leave the game with injury.  Linton's turning point came the following week in a 22-20 tough hard fought win over always stout Monrovia (7-2).   They would have run the gauntlet except for a hickup at Boonville where the Pioneers (4A 4-5)nipped the Miners by one 21-20. Now, to be sure you don't accuse me of favoritism...I will point out that Linton's wins have come against a combined 11-34.  Slightly improved if I count Phalen's win in week 9 as the Falcons were 5-2 I believe (16-36).  But yes, Linton played only 2 teams with +.500 records, but as I have said with other teams...they took care of business when they were supposed to.  THe Miners had a lot of success as a 1A school coming up the ladder of respect. They moved up to 2A with success factor in 2017 after 14 1A sectional titles, and it took to 2022 to get their 1st 2A title.  They did reach the championship last year losing in an eternally memorable OT to Southmont 36-34 at Linton.  Mater Dei has been the thorn in post-season 3 years straight 2019-2021 as well as Regional 2022.  Coach Brian Oliver will undoubtedly have Linton ready in his 12th season at the helm.  The thing is....these two teams know each other so well.  112 meetings.  There really are never any surprises.  Linton has the top Sagarin ranking in this sectional at 64.34, but the 3rd lowest Schedule Rating.  THe Miners are 89th in the state of all classes in that rating.  Sullivan is 5th in S39 at 42.30with the 2nd toughest rated schedule in this group behind only Greencastle.   

You have to look at the first meeting as well... I know a 42-20 win looks convincing, but Sullivan had taken the lead with 32 seconds before half on a 77 yard pass play, and were going to get the ball to start 3rd.  All the momentum in purple.  But Voigtschild returned the ensuing kick off 95 yards in one of those momentus talked about forever plays that put Linton up 14-12.  Linton came out strong in 3rd with 2 scores to jump up 28-12.  But as usual the Arrows did not pack up shop.  They would score with just under 10 minutes left and bring the game to within 8 on a 2 point run.  After a Miner punt they drove to the Miner 32 before imploding with a couple penalties and a bad snap. They punted to play field position, but Linton drove 69 yard scoring at 2:10 and taking a 36-20 lead.  Linton would add a late TD after Sullivan fumbled the following kickoff for the final margin.  Total yardage wasn't a blowout--366-295 Linton.  First downs 20-16 Linton.  miners with 177 rush 189 (surprisingly) passing... Sullivan 155 rush and 140 pass.   It sets up for a classic rematch between old rivals whose older brothers, Dad's, uncles, Grandfathers....all could have played against each other at some point in this long history.  Should be mighty electric at Roy WIlliams.

There ya go.. just like the old days of super long posts by your old pal Miner Pride!!!

Be Safe!! 

 

 

 

 

 

[Miner_Pride]

South Vermillion with an incredible win...  they earned a ton of respect from me, and I'm sure a lot of folks...who like me, wondered about schedule strength come time to march deep in post season. I say this with the complete memory of people saying the same thing about Linton year in and year out when we were in Southwest Seven and on a huge run of unbeaten seasons etc I remember the frustration.  The back n forth with the Vikings was awesome, and I thought NP had gotten the win with that last score so late.  The poise Dom showed, and the receiving unit and Oline as well...  that was truly an awesome thing to watch unfold.  I know it was terribly hard for NP and their fans... but this senior class from SV is in uncharted territory.   

Linton came out strong against Sullivan, jumping up 14-0 quick... and up 30-7 at half.  That's how it ended... so the 2nd half wasn't as dynamic.  Defense for the miners was very stout... but I have to admit Sullivan's QB didnt play due to concussion on the final play of regular season.  Defending the pass with SVwill be a task.  Miners will have to be able to put points up, and hopefully in doing so utilize time off the clock and keep #1 off the field.  Clearly... he doesn't need time lol... 43 TDs against 4 ints is impressive.  I also think Miners need to pressure and hit the QB.  

Greencastle has to be favored against BC... and I honestly know little about the Eagles.  Greencastle has been hit n miss, but they may have hit their stride at the right time for sure.  

[Miner_Pride]

So you know who we are facing! Be sure to go to Rader Media Sports LLC. for real time stats and facts as the happen.

 

QB 1 Dom Garzolini 12 6'2 205 154-233-2868 66.1% 43-4

A 25 Alex Shryock 12 5'10 190 45-249-5

H 8 Dallas Coleman 12 5'10 190 68-431-9 / 32-505-7

z 9 Parker Weir 12 5'9 165 27-148-2 / 39-847-13

x 5 Aden Wallace 12 6'2 175 3-25-0 / 54-975-14

y te 7 Dylan Hill 12 6'2 190 15-263-7 rec

LT 72 Lane Griffin 10 6'2 240

LG 60 Lane Milner 12 6'6 295

C 73 Dakota Spivey 12 6'0 255

RG 52 Noah Pope 10 5'10 180

RT 75 Kaylob Mendoza 12 6'4 270

 

LB 7 Dylan Hill 12 6'2 190 91 tackles 6 Tfl

LB 25 Alex Shryock 12 5'10 190 106 6.0 TFL 5 SACKS

SAM 8 Dallas Coleman 12 5'10 190 62 T 3 INT

ROB 59 Kyle Higgins 12 5'10 185 95 t 10 TFL 5 Sacks

DE 20 Christian Peace 11 5'10 180 27 T

DT 60 Lane Milner 12 6'6 295 2 T

DT 79 Logan Fiock 12 6'2 250 35 T

DE 72 Lane Griffin 10 6'2 240 40 t 11 TFL 3 sacks

S 5 Aden Wallace 12 6'2 175 20 T

CB 9 Parker Weir 12 5'9 165 29 t

CB 4 Ben Shryock 9 6'1 175 45 T 4 Int

 

LB 17 Inzelis Royal 11 5'11 205 44 T 8 TFL 3 sacks

DE 29 Logan Smith 12 6'0 180 31 T

DT 63 Colt Chilton 9 5'9 185 31 T

 

11 Bryson Lemmons 2-2 FG (I saw a 33 yd) 42-53 PAT (79.2%)

 

SV- 387.5 per game-- 98 rushing 289.5 passing.

Garzloni numbers- 24-38 last week vs Nposey 407 yds 5 TD

Has thrown for 5+ TDs in 6 games, 3 of those 6 TD games

Eclipsed 300 yards passing in 4 games, 2 of those over 400.

Highest Team rush game-144 vs Park heritage week 3. all other games 127 or less. They pass 52.7% of the time, still run 47.3.

Defensively (i have 9 of 10 game info) give up 242.5 158 rush 84.5 pass... Sullivan ran for 255 and 3 TDs in week 2.. also threw for 162 in the game SV won. Riverton Parke ran for 205 yards, North Posey for 224 and 5 TDs last week. Fountain Central had 206 passing yards in their meeting in week 7. North Vermillion...who is 9-1 at this point and only loss was big to SV... ran for 132 and passed for 11-26-106 with 3 picks.

 

They have a strong kicker in #11 Bryson Lemmons 2-2 FG (33 yarder) and 42-53 (79.2% PAT)

 

QB 7 Braylon McBride 12 5'9" 165 276 rush 932 pass

RB 8 Jesse Voigtschild 12 5'7" 165 808 rush

WB 6 Russell Goodman 11 6'2" 185 296 rush 111 rec

WB 2 Cooper Smith 11 6'2" 175 312 rush 188 rec

WR 15 Hayden Feltner 12 6'3" 170 71 rush 337 red

WR 13 Paul Oliver 11 6'4" 215 213 rush 491 rec 337 pass

 

LT 54 Tyler Franklin 10 5'11" 195

LG 61 Tanner Scharbrough 10 6' 175

C 59 Dresden Kenworthy 11 5'11" 185

RG 52 Corey Andrews 11 6'3" 250

RT 69 Hank Gennicks 12 6'2" 250

 

ILB 6 Russell Goodman 11 6'2" 185 81 T 8 TFL

ILB 52 Corey Andrews 11 6'3" 250 123 T 13.5 TFL

OLB 2 Cooper Smith 11 6'2" 175 42 T 20.0 TFL 6/5 Sacks

OLB 13 Paul Oliver 11 6'4" 215 15 T

DE 69 Hank Gennicks 12 6'2" 250 31 T 9.5 TFL

NT 53 Trentin Howard 12 6' 235 36 T 7 TFL

DE 72 Aidan Sparks 11 6' 210 32 T 7.5 TFL

 

CB 15 Hayden Feltner 12 6'3" 170 36 5 INT

CB 7 Braylon McBride 12 5'9" 165 29 T 3 Int

SS 20 Collin Webster 12 5'9" 155 25 T

FS 8 Jesse Voigtschild 12 5'7" 165 52T

 

75 Chris Lyons 11 5'11" 185 33 T

26 Tyson Walker 12 6' 180 12 T

11 Harrison James 10 5'10" 155 38 T

55 Jacob Bredeweg 11 5'10" 165