The first really cold night of the football season is in the books, as is the regular season entirely. As mentioned in Thursday’s GameTracker, conference championships were decided last night all over the state. Here are some of the highlights from the final week of regular season action in football.
- Penn will have to share – When Mishawaka upset Penn a few weeks ago, ending a 153 game conference winning streak for the Kingsmen, it appeared that Penn’s 24 year reign atop the Northern Indiana Conference was over. Thanks to another upset, Penn will at least get a share of the crown. Nolan Dieter threw for 172 yards and had both a rushing and passing touchdown as South Bend Washington upset previously undefeated No. 4 Mishawaka 24-0. The win also gives Washington a share of the conference title with Penn and Mishawaka, a first for the Panthers since 1976.
- Carmel is king of the MIC – The Greyhounds are on a roll, beating Ben Davis 21-7 behind 117 yards rushing from Devin Brinson. It is the first outright Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference championship in school history for Carmel, who finished conference play 7-0.
- Heritage Hills hangs on – Speaking of long conference winning streaks, Heritage Hills got back in the swing of things with a 13-7 overtime victory over South Spencer to win the Pocket Athletic Conference. Heritage Hills had nine straight undefeated conference seasons before stumbling to a fourth place finish last year. The Patriots reclaimed the top spot with a two yard touchdown run by Jordan Luebbenhusen in the overtime.
- Perry Central goes down – The news was not all good for perennial conference winners. Class A No. 3 Perry Central saw its streak of five straight Patoka Lake Conference titles and 27 straight conference games end at the hands of Class 2A No. 5 Paoli. An 8-yard touchdown pass from Logan Laswell to Tate Smith with 7:10 left was enough to deliver a 14-13 victory for Paoli.
- Fishers claims Hoosier Crossroads Conference title – Senior running back Tommy Huser ran for 150 yards and two scores as Fishers beat Brownsburg 33-25 to finish 8-1. The Tigers will share the conference title with bitter rival Hamilton Southeastern, which is the schools Fishers was created out of before the 2006 season.
- 17 unbeatens remain – Heading into the tournament 17 schools carry unblemished records. Class 5A has the fewest with just Kokomo and Columbus East carrying spotless 9-0 marks. The undefeated regular season is a first for Kokomo since 1996, while the Wildkats lone sectional title came in 1984. Here are the remainder of your undefeated teams in 2009:
Class 5A
Kokomo
Columbus East
Class 4A
Delta
Evansville Reitz
Fort Wayne Dwenger
Jasper
Plymouth
Class 3A
Batesville
Eastbrook
Indian Creek
West Lafayette
Class 2A
Monrovia
Paoli
Wheeler
Class A
Fountain Central
Pioneer
Lafayette Central Catholic (is 8-0 after Friday’s game at Clinton Prairie was cancelled due to a flu outbreak)
There will be at least one fewer undefeated team after round one of the tournament since Pioneer and Lafayette Central Catholic drew each other in the opening game. Batesville is also guaranteed to stay undefeated, as they drew one of just two byes in the entire tournament. That will be very interesting as well, since Central Catholic is the state's highest scoring team with the largest average margin of victory, while Pioneer is fourth in scoring and third in margin of victory. Central Catholic averages over 58 points per game and has given up just 10 points in eights games, while Pioneer averages 51 points per game and has given up just 33 in nine games. 21 of those 33 came in the season's first week too.
- One last bit of good news – It wasn’t all about winning streaks last night. Perry Meridian ended a 22 game losing streak dating back to September 21, 2007 with a 17-14 win over Bloomington South. Sam Haughton provided the winning touchdown and 130 yards rushing for the Falcons.
Comments: