Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. Friday at Tiger Field

Coaches: Scott Bibler (Valley), Phil Jensen (Warsaw)

Records: Valley 1-0, Warsaw 1-0

Last game: Valley 44, North Judson 14; Warsaw 30, Columbia City 14

Last year: Warsaw 27, Valley 0

Notes and stats: (Warsaw) TB Jose Esquivel 18-118, TD ... QB Greg Seiss 6-14-107-0, 2 TDs ... Joe Sittler and Steve McKinley led Warsaw with 12 tackles each against Columbia City ... In season opener, Warsaw had only one turnover and two penalties (for 10 yards) ... (Valley) HB Eric Prater 8-151, 4 TDs ... QB Brandon Eaton 6-11-66-1 ... Valley had four fumble recoveries last week ... TV senior DE Charlie Wise sacked North Judson Lou Jorczak early in the second quarter, then posed as if he were swinging a baseball bat, a la Denver's Neil Smith ... Valley DE/SE Dax Snyder is out for 2-6 weeks with broken bone in the forearm.

Bibler: "It has always been a big game for us. It is not our biggest rivalry, but it is big for us. It is like a David vs. Goliath, 5A vs. 3A stuff. I expect emotions to be pretty high. It should make for a little more hype. Warsaw is very much a larger team than we are. They also have more team speed than we do overall. Their size and speed is tough to match up with. And they don't have anybody going both ways, so they can keep people fresh. ... I feel we gained confidence, that is for sure. I know, we as coaches, we have a long way to go. There were some great plays out there at times, but there were also some glaring mistakes. There are some things we are not doing well."

Jensen: "Prater catches the ball well and runs out of the backfield well. The quarterback does a good job of running the option. Valley's defensive tackles up front do a nice job. People talk about how North Judson helped them so much, but I see how Valley helped themselves. Valley created those turnovers. I guess it's a matter of perspective. Sometimes when a 3A plays a 5A, there's a psychological disadvantage. That's not the case here. Valley has probably won a majority of the games in the past."

WAWASEE AT CARROLL

Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. Friday at Huntertown

Coaches: Joe Rietveld (Wawasee), Mike Cheviron (Carroll)

Records: Wawasee 1-0, Carroll 1-0

Last game: Wawasee 50, Whitko 26; Carroll 14, Leo 0

Last year: Wawasee 26, Carroll 14

Notes and stats: Wawasee TB Rustin Mikel may have already turned in the performance of the year by an area player in the first week of the season. He carried the ball 17 times for a school-record 332 yards against Whitko ... Wawasee beat Whitko by 24 points despite having 115 yards of penalties ... After Mikel, teammate Jimmy Meyer didn't turn in a bad game, either, rushing for 78 yards on 11 carries ... Wawasee QB Adam Brown completed 5 of 12 passes for 36 yards ... Carroll featured three running backs last week. Jon Dove had six carries for 46 yards, Alex Hall 10 carries for 41 yards and Isaac Branning six carries for 41 yards. Carroll QB Mike Auer was 2 for 4 for 30 yards. He threw two interceptions. ... LB Scott Styles led Carroll with 13 tackles.

Rietveld: "(Carroll's) big and pretty physical. They're in the run and shoot, but they like to run more than throw it. Unfortunately when they do throw it, they have some good receivers. They have one receiver, a 6-5 kid (Kevin Clopton) who can jump seven feet. They have a pretty good running back, and they seem to give him the ball in crucial situations ... I couldn't have asked for anything more. It was a tremendous game. I would have taken a half-point victory. The majority of (Mikel's) runs were on the same play. We were going to keep running it until they stopped it. I thought for sure we would have to throw the ball a lot more than we did."

Cheviron: "I don't think Wawasee realized (Mikel) would be that good. Coach Rietveld seems like he's a good young coach. Their offensive line is very big. They have more guys going two ways (offense and defense), something they didn't do as much under (former coach Gene) Mitz ... We didn't execute as well as we should have. We had a few fumbles. Our defense played tough and is a bright spot early on. We're eager to face (Wawasee's) high potent offense."

NORTHWOOD AT BREMEN

Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. Friday at Bremen

Coaches: Rich Dodson (NorthWood), Marty Huber (Bremen)

Records: NorthWood 0-1, Bremen 0-1

Last game: Jimtown 21, NorthWood 20; Plymouth 34, Bremen 0

Last year: NorthWood 28, Bremen 7

Notes and stats: NorthWood lost 21-20, but the Panthers had two chances in the last six minutes to win. They missed a two-point conversion attempt with about six minutes left. Then in the last minute, a bad snap caused them to botch a 23-yard field goal attempt ... NorthWood QB Charlie Roeder completed 10 of 21 passes for 199 yards and rushed for 97 yards on seven carries ... NorthWood TB Aaron Huber, who had over 1,100 yards last year, rushed for only 59 yards on 12 carries

Dodson: "Bremen has a solid defense, even though it might not have shown by the score against Plymouth. Their defense is certainly a challenge to us. Offensively, they struggled against Plymouth, but the Pilgrims are a pretty good team. ... We didn't help ourselves against Jimtown. We had plenty of mental mistakes. We had things like that in critical times. We didn't take advantage of opportunities, and that puts you in a bind against a team like Jimtown. We need to be mentally sharper against Bremen and get more kids involved. We want to give (Charlie) Roeder and (Aaron) Huber more rest."

Huber: "NorthWood has a strong-armed quarterback, a good tailback and big receivers. This NorthWood team is big, strong and fast like all NorthWood teams. Why NorthWood is so tough to defend is because they keep you off balance with all their offensive weapons. You have to try to outguess them ... We were beat up front last week. We're a young team, especially on our offensive line. We replaced our whole offensive line. It will take them a while."

HERITAGE AT MANCHESTER

Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. Friday at North Manchester

Coaches: Bob Yager (Heritage), Al Bailey (Manchester)

Records: Heritage 1-0, Manchester 1-0

Last game: Heritage 49, New Haven 35; Manchester 19, Mississinewa 6

Last year: Heritage 19, Manchester 0

Notes and stats: Heritage RB Brandon Robinson, who tallied 2,100 rushing yards as a junior, had 22 carries for 311 yards against New Haven. He also scored five touchdowns ... Heritage QB Eric Hite was 3 for 7 with 30 yards passing ... LB Doug Werling led the Heritage defense with 13 solo tackles and seven assisted tackles ... Manchester TB David Barrett had 189 rushing yards on 20 carries ... Manchester QB Rex Reimer completed only 2 of 6 passes for 27 yards ... Manchester CB Annon Gaerte had two interceptions ... Manchester LB Greg Groombridge led the Squires defense with nine tackles.

Yager: "I think Manchester is a veteran team. They have a lot of returning kids, a solid line and a good tailback (Barrett). You have to find a way to stop both Rex Reimer and Barrett when you play Manchester."

Bailey: "We've played against Heritage the last three years, and the way it's always worked is Robinson does everything. Last year he had almost all their rushing yards, receiving yards, punt returns and kick returns against us. He plays offense and defense. You can get him running parallel to the line of scrimmage, then the next thing you know, he gets outside, turns a corner or cuts back inside. He has Big 10 schools looking at him. He just has that instinct, and now he's 20 pounds heavier than last year. We have to find some way to stop him. I'm thinking about sending them the flu. We were able to control the ball on the ground, which helped. New Haven was able to run the ball against Heritage last week."

TRITON AT NORTHFIELD

Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. Friday at Wabash

Coaches: Rod Wildman (Triton), Tony Uggen (Northfield)

Records: Triton 0-1, Northfield 0-1

Last game: Caston 53, Triton 13; Wabash 13, Northfield 7

Last year: Northfield 9, Triton 6

Notes and stats: By beating Triton, Caston already has one more win than all of last year. The Comets, 0-10 in 1997, are 1-0 in 1998 ... Triton had nine turnovers in the 40-point loss to Caston ... Triton RB Andy Price had 20 carries for 112 yards ... Triton QB Kenny Miller was 0 for 5 passing ... Triton DB Matt Wanemacher had an interception that he turned into a touchdown ... Northfield RB Jason Culver had 13 carries for 59 yards ... Northfield QB Brian Hoffman completed 6 of 15 passes for 54 yards. He threw three interceptions ... Shane Haecker led Northfield's defense with 11 tackles.

Wildman: "We lost Nate Setser to an injury Wednesday night. He tore an elbow ligament and is out four weeks. That hurt us because we lost a linebacker, a running back and our team leader. We needed someone to take control of the team. That didn't happen ... Northfield has some big linemen, guys who go 230 and 240 on the offensive and defensive lines. They're a team that likes to do a lot of blitzing. Offensively, they run a lot of splits and dives. I don't see them having the strong running back we faced last week."

Uggen: "We're similar teams. Neither played well last week, and neither has a whole lot of depth. We counted five touchdowns that they just gave to Caston. Us, we marched the ball to inside the 30-yard line and turned it over five times once we got there. We should have scored 40 points. Triton is run-oriented, although we expect them to throw more after they watch our first game. Our defensive backs have to be better prepared this game."

COLUMBIA CITY AT WHITKO

Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. Friday at South Whitley

Coaches: Ron Frickey (Columbia City), Bryan Sprunger (Whitko)

Records: Columbia City 0-1, Whitko 0-1

Last game: Warsaw 30, Columbia City 14; Wawasee 50, Whitko 26

Last year: Columbia City 33, Whitko 12

Notes and stats: Wawasee TB Rustin Mikel rushed for 332 yards against Whitko last week. When asked the last time one back had 300 yards against Whitko, Sprunger said, "It's been a long time. I don't know if it's ever happened." ... Mikel had only 370 rushing yards all last year ... All told, Wawasee rushed for 448 yards against Whitko.

Frickey: "Wawasee didn't stop them (Whitko). That was a track meet. Whitko turned the ball over a few times, or it would have been 50-49. ... The key for us is we have to come out ready to play, and we didn't against Warsaw. They showed some great experience and composure when we came back on them. We have to come out and play physical."

Sprunger: "We only surprised us last week. We didn't tackle very well. Their tailback had four runs for 230 yards. Every one of those runs we had people in position to make the tackle, but we just didn't make the tackles. We gave away three touchdowns. We had 380 yards of offense ourselves, and 60 more was called back on an inadvertent whistle ... (Columbia City) is going to try to run the football with their tailback and fullback. They run inside, outside and run some option. They're good at making you have to defend the whole field." [[In-content Ad]]