We may be on the cusp of the playoffs, but there is still a lot to talk about in the regular season.
Week 8 gave us a lot to break down, so let’s get to it.
SAC
• Entering the final week of the regular season, three teams have a chance to win at least a share of the SAC.
Here is how it breaks down:
Bishop Dwenger clinches the league title with a win over South Side. It holds the tiebreaker over Carroll, the only other team with one loss.
Carroll must beat Bishop Luers AND Bishop Dwenger must lose, as the Saints hold the tiebreaker.
Northrop cannot win the SAC outright. To earn a share, it must beat Wayne AND Carroll AND Dwenger must lose.
By tiebreaker rules, Homestead and Bishop Luers have been eliminated. Both can tie atop the SAC if several teams tie at 5-2, but they cannot win any tiebreaker scenario.
Got all that?
• Entering Friday, Carroll junior quarterback Gabe Frisinger hadn’t been known as much of a running threat, but that changed against Northrop.
Through the first seven games of the year, Frisinger had rushed for a total of 112 yards. He finished Friday with 72 yards on 16 carries, several times moving the chains with his legs in a game where every possession was paramount.
With its wealth of individual talent, Northrop plays man defense. As Carroll sent its receivers out, the Bruins had to account for all of them, opening up opportunities for Frisinger to take off. He did just that time after time. While his best run was just 18 yards, he was integral in keeping the offense moving.
Per usual, Frisinger was also big with his arm, throwing for 313 yards and three touchdowns as Carroll eclipsed 500 yards of total offense in the 48-37 win.
• While Snider was able to move the ball on the ground at times against Bishop Dwenger, the Saints defense stepped up when it needed to most.
Doug Henry has been outstanding in his senior campaign at linebacker. Friday may have been his most complete performance of the year, with 17 tackles and a pair of tackles for loss in Bishop Dwenger’s 26-6 victory.
Henry was one of several returning Saints defenders that had many thinking the unit could be exceptional in 2025. It has lived up to the billing, surrendering just 7.6 points per game. Henry, meanwhile, leads Dwenger with 90 tackles and 10.5 tackles for loss.
The Saints have kept six of eight foes to seven points or less this season, a big reason why Coach Jason Garrett’s team is just one win away from recapturing the SAC Victory Bell for the first time since 2018, and Henry is at the forefront of that.
• Perhaps the most surprising score of Week 8 was at Homestead, where the Spartans shut out North Side 25-0 to move to 5-3 on the season.
The Legends had scored 16 or more points in every game heading to Aboite on Friday, but credit to the Homestead defense for shutting them down. Jaydin Rivers, who had 18 touchdown passes and zero interceptions for the season just a few weeks ago, was picked off twice by the Spartans and held to just 147 yards through the air.
Rivers has thrown all six of his INTs in the last three weeks.
It was the first time North Side had been shut out since a 40-0 loss to Carroll on Sept. 3, 2021.
NE8
• Is DeKalb a threat in the loaded Sectional 19?
We talk up the likes of East Noble, Leo and Bishop Dwenger in the field, but the Barons are now 6-2 after a 55-0 thrashing of Bellmont, their fourth-straight win.
Remember, Coach Ryan Robertson’s team had East Noble on the ropes late in their Week 4 matchup, but the Knights were able to make plays and escape with a 21-14 victory.
The six regular-season wins are the most for DeKalb since 2019, and a Week 9 date with Leo is one of the best games on the docket in the area and will be very telling for the Barons.
• Huntington North made easy work of Norwell in Friday’s 48-7 victory, with the highlight being a record-setting throw and catch.
Midway through the third quarter, quarterback Lathen Janes hit his favorite target, James Linker, for a 99-yard touchdown. It broke the previous program record for the longest pass play, which was a Bob Derr to Tom Schenkel 81-yard score against Peru way back in 1967.
Janes and Linker came close to breaking the record just a few minutes earlier on Friday when they connected for a 75-yard touchdown.
Janes finished the night with 346 yards passing and four touchdowns, with Linker hauling in five receptions for 235 yards and three scores.
• With his five-touchdown effort against New Haven on Friday, Rylee Biddle has now accounted for 27 total scores – 15 passing and 12 rushing – through eight weeks.
The East Noble senior star has been held without multiple scores in a game just once – Week 2 against Snider, when he threw for one touchdown and did not have a rushing score.
The Knights’ point differential of 28.75 is the best in the area.
ACAC
• South Adams coach Grant Moser had a decision to make.
With starting quarterback Tytus Lehman nursing a slight injury, would Moser rest his senior gunslinger against Woodlan or put him out there and take the chance that Lehman would be hurt further?
Moser decided on resting Lehman and starting Zaden Baumer, and the sophomore delivered, throwing for 316 yards and three touchdowns while throwing one INT.
It was a win-win for the Starfires, who will have a healthy Lehman ready for the playoffs and got future QB1 Baumer some much-needed starting experience on a Friday night.
• Freshman Ethan Weber got the start again for Heritage, and he had his best showing of his young career in Heritage’s 42-7 win over Southern Wells.
Weber finished 9-of-10 for 160 yards and three touchdowns with one interception.
While sophomore Zeb Tigulis still remains the likely QB1 going into the future for the Patriots when he is healthy, Weber has shown signs that he can be very capable at the position as well.
Tigulis and Weber are both guys to watch in the ACAC in the coming years.
• Some of the area is learning about the ACAC‘s tiebreaker rule.
Previously, the ACAC didn’t have a tiebreaker rule for conference titles and those titles were able to be split across multiple teams that had the same conference record. But somewhat quietly, the ACAC adopted this new rule a few seasons ago.
That is why Friday’s win over Bluffton clinched the ACAC for Adams Central for the fifth straight season. Even if the Flying Jets were to fall to Woodlan next week – something that has not happened since 2016 – they would hold the tiebreaker over Bluffton, who finished 5-1 in conference play.
• Continued credit to Axton Beste, the Bluffton quarterback, who made up some big plays for the Tigers on Friday, both in the second half as the Tigers played even with Adams Central on the scoreboard, but also in the first half as AC built their 23 point halftime lead.
Beste did his best to match Adams Central quarterback Jamison Roach on the ground. And even through Roach certainly pulled off the bigger yardage plays, Beste’s versatility in and out of the pocket moving around showed.
He ended the night running for 96 yards on 16 rushes. It helped Bluffton earn 22 first downs on Friday night, ten more than the Flying Jets procured.
In addition, despite AC’s really strong pass defense and the ability to push Beste’s movement around in the backfield, he still completed 19 of 30 passes, including a pair of touchdowns.
NECC
• Who had Churubusco as the best team in the NECC at the beginning of the season?
With the 24-23 victory over West Noble on Friday, the Eagles staked themselves to that claim in a battle of NECC division champions.
Grant Sievers was the hero, with the touchdown with less than a minute left coupled with the two-point conversion run that lifted Churubusco to the victory.
It has been a feel-good senior campaign for Sievers on offense. He entered this year without a touchdown to his name in his career, but has accounted for seven, six rushing and one passing, this year for Churubusco.
• Kudos to Fremont quarterback Jaret Laughlin, who threw touchdown passes of 46 and 25 yards in the first quarter and followed it up with a pair of rushing scores in the second quarter as the Eagles routed Prairie Heights, 45-6.
It was Fremont’s fifth win of the season, the first time the program has reached that mark in the regular season since 2009.
QUICK HITS
Snider’s four-game losing streak is its first since 1967…Eastside’s 70 points on Friday against Central Noble is its most in a game in program history…Bishop Luers senior Jarron Taylor’s stat line against Wayne – eight tackles, three tackles for loss, three sacks…Adams Central‘s opening drive on Friday went for 99 and a half yards against Bluffton. A Tiger punt took the perfect bounce, going out of bounds at the half yard line when it looked clearly like it was going to be a touchback. The 10 play, 5 minute drive was finished with a Jamison Roach to Joey Everett 33 yard pass on 4th and 2.
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