It is going to be a busy week for Blitz.
With sectionals getting under way, breakdowns of each field will be coming through the next several days.
But before we completely turn the page to the postseason, let’s wrap up Week 9 with some Bear Necessities.
SAC
• It has been a season to largely forget when it comes to results on the field for the • Panthers, but Friday showed that this team isn’t cashing it in.
Down 20-3 to North Side in the second half, Coach Kurt Tippmann’s team scored the final 21 points of the game in a 24-20 victory that ended the program’s longest losing streak, four, since 1967.
Sophomore • got the start once again at quarterback, throwing a pair of touchdown passes, including the eventual game winner, a 36-yard strike to Brishawn Johnson in the final few minutes of the fourth quarter.
Suffice to say it has been a very un-Snider like campaign, but this team was never going to pack in it like some other squads have. And it also makes the rematch with Northrop on Halloween all the more interesting.
• On the other side is North Side, which in the last two weeks has been shut out by Homestead and beaten by Snider after blowing a 17-point lead.
After hauling in 12 touchdown receptions through the first five weeks of the season, Maalik Moore has just one touchdown in the last month. Meanwhile, sophomore Brandon Sanders got the nod at quarterback, finishing 12-of-18 for 160 yards, a touchdown and an INT.
Week 9 can and is used as a maintenance week for players of teams with nothing much on the line, so perhaps North Side was taking this route. But two-straight losses does raise some concerns on North’s chances in Sectional 11 against the likes of Concord and Warsaw.
• Sure, anything can happen in the playoffs when it comes to players making big statements, but it feels like the battle for Outside the Huddle Player of the Year is nearly over.
Jaidon Van Pelt concluded the regular season with a six-catch, 130-yard effort against Bishop Luers on Friday, with half of those receptions going for touchdowns.
The performance for the Carroll senior puts him over the 1,000-yard mark in receiving yards, all the more amazing considering Van Pelt didn’t play in Week 1. His low for catches in a game is four, while he has surpassed the 100-yard receiving mark five times.
For the year so far, Van Pelt has 52 receptions for 1,088 yards and 15 touchdowns. He is AVERAGING nearly 21 yards per reception.
And he has next to no FBS interest. Blitz understands size is everything but what Van Pelt is doing you would think a MAC school would take a flyer on him.
Either way, his candidacy for OTH Player of the Year grows more solidified with every passing week.
• To say Bishop Dwenger football fandom was restless entering this season would be an understatement. Coach Jason Garrett and his staff put a lot of effort, including some newbies added to the staff such as Offensive Coordinator Jason Russell and defensive assistant coach Jon Zolnik, into figuring out what the Saints needed to do to break the cycle of mediocrity that had seen the team lose four or more games in each of the last four seasons.
Garrett and the staff pushed all the right buttons, culminating in Friday’s 28-12 win over South Side and earning Bishop Dwenger its first SAC title since 2018.
What’s the saying? “Adapt or Die.” Bishop Dwenger has and continues to adapt to how the game is played as to how it used to be played, both on and off the field. It has been rewarded with the Victory Bell.
Now, a challenging Sectional 19 awaits, beginning with a showdown at Leo next Friday.
• Northrop put an exclamation point on the regular season in Friday’s rout of Wayne. The Bruins’ seventh win is the most victories prior to the playoffs since the 2003 campaign when Coach Matt Stinson’s team also went 7-2.
It was also a night for individual accolades. With a pair of touchdown receptions, Jerquaden Guilford now has 11 on the season, breaking the school record formerly held by Ryan Hahaj set in 1999.
Meanwhile, David Callison broke the single-season passing record for yards in a season formerly set by Colin Brockhouse in 2012, as the senior now has 2,312 yards through the air through nine weeks.
Blitz can’t express how huge this year has been for Northrop football. Here’s hoping it’s not a one-year thing.
NE8
• Speaking of teams exceeding expectations, DeKalb’s seventh win of the season gave it its most victories in a regular season since 2019.
The hero in Friday’s 31-28 win over Leo was sophomore kicker Ryker Ball, who nailed the game-winning field goal with eight seconds left from 27 yards out.
Ball, who plays soccer, was the Barons’ back-up kicker going into the season. Yet all he has done since being promoted to primary is hit 33-of-35 extra points and all three of his field goal tries.
Just another young weapon that the Barons have for the playoffs and into next season.
• While we aren’t going to put an asterisk next to DeKalb’s victory over Leo, it does deserve to be noted that Nathan Foster did not play for the Lions due to injury.
Foster, who has rushed for 1,401 yards and 18 touchdowns this season to go with a pair of interceptions on defense, is to do-everything player for Leo. Without him in the lineup, Coach Jason Doerffler’s squad is a completely different team.
It was more of a get-right night for Foster, who has been dealing with a lingering injury. He will be good to go for Bishop Dwenger next week.
• Huntington North entered Friday’s game with New Haven averaging under 135 yards per game on the ground. While the passing game with Lathen Janes had been effective, the run game had struggled.
That’s what made Friday’s 406-yard effort so encouraging for the Vikings entering the postseason. Coach Mike Eshbach’s team averaged 9.2 yards per rushing attempt, with Christian Jemison going for 278 yards and his first two touchdowns of the season on 31 carries.
Offensive balance is key if you want to make a deep run in the postseason. For one week, at least, Huntington North found some.
ACAC
• Is if the Flying Jets need reinforcements entering the playoffs, Adams Central saw a key member of last season’s state championship team see his first action on Friday against Woodlan.
Hayden Bluhm, who was an All-ACAC Second Team selection last year at linebacker, hit the field for the first time and immediately made an impression. Bluhm, a senior, picked off a pass that he returned 32 yards for a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter.
You can bet that as Bluhm shakes the rust off, he is going to be more of a factor on offense as well. That’s bad news for Class 2A foes.
• Coach Eddie Fields has his work cut out for him in building back up the Jay County football program, but the former South Side head coach saw his Patriots secure a big win on Friday.
Facing a fourth-and-goal with 7.4 seconds left, Nick Laux found Aiden Phillips for a touchdown that brought Jay County within one. Instead of kicking the extra point to tie it, Fields decided to go for the dub. Laux took the snap and ran it in for the two-point conversion and the 15-14 victory.
Jay County has now beaten Woodlan and Heritage in the last month, a significant step forward after losing to Southern Wells in its ACAC opener in Week 3.
• A team to watch in the playoffs? South Adams.
After Friday’s action, the Starfires will enter the postseason with three losses to teams a combined 26-1 – Marion Local (OH), Bluffton and Adams Central.
South Adams’ six victories have come by an average of 36.8 points, and with Tytus Lehman back healthy behind center and a winnable sectional, Coach Grant Moser’s team may be the favorite to make it two sectional titles in as many years.
NECC
• With an emotional win over West Noble in Week 8 and a showdown with one-loss Bluffton set to open the playoffs, Blitz thought that Churubusco may stumble at Fairfield on Friday.
Instead, the Eagles shut out Fairfield 27-0 in a dominant performance to wrap up the regular season. Brody Lawrence threw two touchdown passes, one each to Weston Ott and Bryce Lawrence, while Bryce Lawrence and Carson Tonkel ran for scores.
The defense came up huge in coming up with its first shutout of the season and first of Fairfield since 2021.
This is a team with six-straight wins that is an extremely dangerous foe for the high-flying Tigers of Bluffton.
• Central Noble has struggled this season, but has still seen some individual records set.
With 1,188 receiving yards, Conner Fish has broken the single-season record for yards, previously held by Drew Pliett (934 yards).
Treyton Fletcher has set the single-season passing yards record with 1,846, breaking the record formerly held by Brody Morgan (1,465 yards).
QUICK HITS
Shane Bardwell has scored nine touchdowns this year for Homestead, seven of which have come in two games – three against Northrop and four on Friday against Concordia…East Noble gained 10 yards per play in its 60-7 win over Bellmont…Bluffton has eclipsed the 40-point mark six times this season…Angola’s Hawk Hasselman scored all four of the team’s touchdowns in Friday’s loss to Eastside…Garrett’s 69 points against Central Noble was its most points in a game since a 98-0 victory over Sturgis (MI) in 1919…Prior to Friday, DeKalb had lost all 12 matchups with Leo by a combined score of 439-114.
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