When it comes to high school football rivalries in northeast Indiana, there may be none better
than East Noble and Leo.
The Lions have controlled the rivalry in recent years, having won seven of the last eight contests entering 2024, including six straight.
However, this fall, the Knights have exorcised some Lion-sized demons.
East Noble knocked off Leo in an epic regular-season showdown that saw the Knights win a high-scoring affair, 35-29. The Knights then completed their first season sweep of the Lions since 2019 with a dominant 21-0 victory in the sectional semifinals on Friday.
“It’s big for us,” said Mason Treesh, who had a touchdown grab and an interception in Friday’s win.
“It gives a lot of momentum.”
The Knights proved Blitz wrong in his weekly prediction (sadly), picking up their fourth shutout of the season and their first of Leo since a 10-0 victory in the 2020 playoffs. They did it by picking off Grayson Esguerra three times and allowing just two plays of over 20 yards.
“This is a big rivalry,” said Coach Alex Stewart after the game. “Last year, it was a high-scoring affair 45-42 in the playoffs… on the defensive side of the ball, we had eight returning starters off of last year’s team and they didn’t want to go out that way again this year.”
“There’s just so much motivation from every single grade level on our team,” said quarterback
Rylee Biddle, who rushed for two touchdowns and had an interception on Friday. “We’ve all experienced a loss from Leo, and we didn’t want it to happen to us again.”
With the win, East Noble has now solidified itself as not just a threat in the sectional, but also in
the state in Blitz’s mind. According to John Harrell, the Knights now have the second-best
odds among area teams to win a state title at 13.69%.
However, Coach Stewart and his team aren’t thinking that far ahead and are instead just focused on beating a solid Bishop Dwenger team next week in the sectional final. The Saints are peaking at the right time, especially a defense that has shut down Columbia City and Wayne in consecutive weeks.
“We definitely feel like we can make a deep run, we’re hungry to make a deep run” Stewart said. “But right now all we’re doing is we’re gonna focus on Bishop Dwenger, try to win the sectional and we’ll take it 1-0 the week after that if we’re lucky enough to come out on top.”
These opinions represent those of Blitz and Outside the Huddle. No opinions expressed on Outside the Huddle represent those of any of our advertisers. Follow Blitz on Twitter at Blitz_OTH
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