Warsaw (2-0, 0-0 NLC) at Plymouth (1-1, 0-0 NLC)
When: Friday, 7 p.m., The Rockpile, Plymouth.
Series (last 35 years): 17-17.
John Harrell’s prediction: Warsaw, 31-7.
Last meeting: Sept. 2, 2022, Warsaw, 70-0.
About Warsaw: Coach Bart Curtis’ 6A Associated Press No. 15-ranked Tigers won 8-6 at Chesterton in Week 2 … Mason Smythe’s 38-yard field goal with 25 seconds to play was the game-winner … Warsaw’s defense stuffed the Trojans for a third-quarter safety and Smythe booted a 26-yard field goal at 4:45 of the fourth period to pull the Tigers within 6-5 … With a 20-yarder being his longest run, Reed Zollinger rushed for 118 yards on 23 carries and Warsaw picked up 265 ground yards on 58 totes … Warsaw lost three of four fumbles … Chesterton finished with 166 passing yards and 23 rushing … The Tigers have won the last three meetings with Plymouth.
About Plymouth: Coach Adam Handley’s 4A Rockies lost 42-14 at Columbia City in Week 2 … Exxander Ramirez completed 10-of-15 passes for 83 yards and one interception and rushed 16 times for 113 yards and one touchdown while Grady Metsker had three carries for 46 yards and one TD and Blake Mackey gathered five receptions for 45 yards.
Per Coach Bart Curtis:
On Plymouth — They’re a much-improved team. They present some issues … (Ramirez) is huge, big-time threat. He can run. He can throw a little bit … But it’s no disrespect to anybody we play. We need to worry about Warsaw. If Warsaw can get better we’ll play well against Plymouth … We’re going to continue to strive for perfection. If our ultimate goals is perfect goals and perfect execution we’re never going to be pleased until those things happen.
Red Zone woes — If we can just finish some darn drives, we could be decent … We’ve had the ball inside the 20 in two games 14 times. We have one touchdown, three field goals and 10 empty stockings with lumps of goal … It’s frustrating, but it’s not something to cancel the rest of the season for yet … Here’s the deal: How’d you like to work a 38-hour work week and you’ve got two hours to go and you get your paycheck. You mess it up and now you don’t get the paycheck for the first 38 hours you worked. We put in all this work and pay for real estate – sometimes twice — and we end up not cashing in. It’s an all-or-nothing deal.
On Chesterton game — We ended up with two triples and a double to win it … Our defense is playing so well. We’ve got to continue to improve.

Twin Lakes (2-0) at Tippecanoe Valley (2-0)
When: Friday, 7 p.m., Smith-Bibler Memorial Field.
Series: First meeting.
John Harrell’s prediction: Valley, 35-10.
About Twin Lakes: The Indians, 3-17 over the previous two years, are off to a 2-0 start in their first season under Indiana Hall of Fame coach Kevin O’Shea thanks to wins of 37-14 over Northwestern and 28-7 at Delphi. … O’Shea, who became the first head coach ever to win four straight Indiana state titles when he guided Lafayette Central Catholic to 1A crowns each year from 2009-12, more recently spent the last six seasons at Indianapolis North Central. His final two teams there went a combined 1-19, but his overall mark spanning 31 years and five stops is 241-110 with five state titles. …. Sophomore QB Ethan Need is 21-of-42 throwing for 298 yards over Twin Lakes’ first two games with three touchdowns against two picks. Classmate Colton Robertson has carried 36 times for 136 yards and a pair of TDs. Receivers Landon Arthur and Leo Dellinger have divided eight catches for 161 yards and two scores virtually evenly. … Defensively, sophomore linebacker Carson Wagner and Dellinger, a junior safety, have been in on 19 tackles apiece. Four players have picked off passes. … The Indians are in Class 3A, same as Valley, and members of the Hoosier Conference. Twin Lakes is in Monticello.
About Valley: The Vikings are playing their home opener. They’ve won 12 straight regular-season home games dating to September 2020. … Twin Lakes is the first of four first-time opponents on the Valley schedule this fall (the others being Tipton next week at home, and West Lafayette and Glenn late in the season on the road). That’s thanks to the Vikings competing this season as an independent before joining forces with five other schools in a six-team Northern State Conference next year. … Led by senior quarterback Cody Eastgate’s four touchdown passes, Valley rang up a 39-8 Bell Trophy win at rival Rochester last week, scoring the final 39 points after the Zebras took an 8-0 lead midway through the opening quarter. Eastgate connected twice each with Wade Jones (37 and 46 yards) and Nate Parker (48 and 16) for aerial scores and finished at 256 yards on 10-of-16 throwing. Parker added an 82-yard TD run on his way to 184 rushing yards. … Sophomore No. 2 QB Jamison Phillips suffered a shoulder injury on special teams and is expected to miss “quite a few games,” per coach Steve Moriarty. Parker becomes the likely No. 2 in Phillips’ absence.
Valley coach Steve Moriarty:
On last week — “The kids came out and played hard. I was proud of the effort and the conditioning was much better. We took advantage of some turnovers (fumble recoveries by Cameron Mason and Cody Black) and had a good night.”
On Twin Lakes — “They’re 2-and-0 for a reason and Coach O’Shea is a legendary coach in Indiana. He knows how to win and they’ve played like it. We’ll have our work cut out. They’ve been good on both sides of the ball. They do a good job throwing it around with some mis-direction on where they’re going to throw and to who. That will be a challenge for our defense.”
On Eastgate’s big night — “It’s been a long time since we’ve had four (TD passes in a game). It was nice to see him have a good game (after a quiet opener). When he throws like that, with the composure he has, it gives us a great opportunity to be successful.”

Wawasee (0-2, 0-0 NLC) at Goshen (0-2, 0-0 NLC)
When: Friday, 7 p.m., Foreman Field, Goshen.
Series (last 35 years): Goshen, 23-12.
John Harrell’s prediction: Wawasee, 21-17.
Last meeting: Sept. 2, 2022, Goshen, 23-12.
About Wawasee: Coach Jon Reutbuch’s 4A Warriors lost 20-12 at West Noble in Week 2 … Mason Shoemaker threw touchdown passes of 20 yards to Bradyn Pike in the second quarter and 37 yards to Hunter Tinkey in the fourth quarter … The Warriors have lost the last two meetings with Goshen … Wawasee looks to snap a nine-game NLC losing streak …
About Goshen: Coach Tom Wogomon’s 5A RedHawks lost 29-10 at New Prairie in Week 2 … Drew Elliott rushed 13 times for 102 yards and one 39-yard TD … Aaron Mounsithiraj kicked a 33-yard field goal … Elliott (12), Jace Hershberger (9) and Hampton Rivera (8) led in total tackles.
Per Coach Jon Reutbuch:
On Goshen — They’re well-coached. They’re fundamentally-sound. They’ve got a pretty good defense, especially that front seven … Offensively, they like to run the ball, but they’re very capable of throwing the ball as well. We’re going to have to play well to win.
Season so far — We’re definitely more athletic. We’re definitely a team that’s physical. We have the tools to win. We’re just not mentally doing those things it takes to win. We’re making silly penalties or turning the ball over or not doing our assignment … It’s something the kids have to work through. They know they’ve had the opportunities and they’ve let them slip away. We’ve got to stop that. It’s more concentration on their part and we as coaches making things a little bit easier and simplified.
On West Noble game — Disappointing. We didn’t execute. We had untimely penalties … We were again wondering ‘what if?’ … West Noble did a great job of keeping the ball away from us in the second half.

Wabash (0-2, 0-1 TRC) at Manchester (1-1, 0-0)
When: Friday, 7 p.m., Squire Field, North Manchester
Series: Manchester leads 13-8
John Harrell’s prediction: Manchester, 42-24
Last meeting: Sep. 2, 2022, Wabash 28-27
About Wabash: The Apaches enter their second Three Rivers Conference game at 0-2 after being trounced 42-0 by Alexandria-Monroe last Friday. Wabash’s week one result was not much better, as the team lost 56-7 to Rochester at home. The Apaches are quarterbacked by senior Izaak Wright, who threw for 124 yards on nine completions last week. 108 of those yards went to receiver Trevor Daughtry, who is nearly at 200 yards receiving already this season. Keaton Fields rushed for 57 yards in the week two loss.
About Manchester: After beginning the season with a dominant 34-24 win over North Miami two weeks ago, the Squires suffered a setback in week two, falling 56-14 to 2A powerhouse Bluffton. Quarterback Logan Eastgate threw for 123 yards and two touchdowns in the loss, with one score going to Colten Nelson and the other to Eli Metzger. Metzger led the team in receiving for the second straight game with 67 yards. Preston Duffy led Manchester in rushing with 35 yards, while Mason Rooney added 29. Reiss Gaerte made eleven tackles on defense.
Manchester head coach Eddie Fields:
On last week: From the time you get to Bluffton to the time you leave, it’s all first class. 20 of their 22 starters were seniors. They have great facilities and a great coach. It might sound weird but one of the biggest positives I took away from this game is we saw what a first class football team looks like. We rolled in there with three seniors and only a handful of starters returning and when you do that, you just aren’t going to win those games very often. We needed to see what it takes to be a quality program.
On this week’s home opener: It’s going to be really cool for our kids and their parents. Our kids have put in so much work so its going to be great for them to show it off in front of their people. It’ll be cool for me too, I’ll definitely have my people there, so I’m pretty pumped. Obviously with my son being a freshman playing his first home game I’m really proud too.
On Wabash: They’ve got really nice skill position players and Wright at quarterback is an exceptional athlete. Our main game plan is to eliminate the big plays. We know they’re going to get yards and have some success but if we can take away their shots and establish the run game like we did in week one we should be able to compete.

Rochester (1-1, 1-0 TRC) at Whitko (1-1, 0-1)
When: Friday, 7 p.m., Huff Stadium.
Series: Rochester leads 26-12.
Last meeting: Rochester won 70-0 on Sept. 2, 2022.
Last Whitko win: 28-7, Sept. 4, 2020.
John Harrell’s prediction: Rochester, 38-10.
About Rochester: Though the host Zebras were ambushed 39-8 by rival Tippecanoe Valley last week, they’re a veteran-led club coming off a share of last year’s Three Rivers Conference title and a 10-2 overall record. … Senior fullback Alex Deming has gone over 100 yards in each of this season’s first two games to stand at 256 on 28 carries and two touchdowns. Sophomore Brant Beck’s added 207 yards on just 15 attempts and three TDs. Deming powered for 1,619 yards on 252 tries (6.4 average) with 28 touchdowns and no lost fumbles last year as a junior. … Rochester’s 70-0 win over visiting Whitko in Week 3 last season was the Zebras’ most lopsided victory over anybody since at least 1933. The hosts led 56-0 by halftime and limited the visitors to one first down on the night.
About Whitko: The Wildcats play their home opener and will be looking for their first home win since 21-14 over North Miami in Week 5 of 2021. … Whitko fell 42-6 last week at Peru. The Tigers led 35-0 by the break, triggering a running clock for the second half. Senior quarterback Jack Hill scored the Cats’ lone touchdown to give him three of his team’s four on the season. Trevor Freel rushed for 32 yards, while fellow junior Riley Harman led the defense with six tackles to go with a 27-yard reception offensively. … Whitko’s 70-0 loss to Rochester in Week 3 a year ago was the second-most lopsided defeat in program history (exceeded only by 93-7 against Fort Wayne Luers during the Cats’ 1973 maiden season). It was also the final game before then-coach Chip Coldiron was relieved of his duties mid-season. A group of assistants coached in Week 4, before current coach Brad Sprunger took charge prior to Week 5.
Whitko coach Brad Sprunger:
On last week — “We kind of showed our youth a little bit. I’m not going to say we were timid, but we were kind of on our heels waiting to see what (Peru) would do. It was the first time for a lot of our guys seeing that offense, so we had some trouble reading our keys, and as I said before, they just had a lot of good athletes.”
On Rochester — “The kids are really excited for this week, maybe the most excited I’ve seen them in awhile. What was nice last week is we didn’t give up like we would last year. They kept plugging away to the end, and I think that’s going to transition into this week.”
On Zebras being ground-oriented — (with eight pass attempts, three completions over two games) “Our emphasis is on just making the tackle, and not just making it, but having a second guy and a third guy come up and finish. They have backs who run the ball really hard, so you gotta get ’em down.”

Caston (0-2, 0-1 HNAC) at Triton (1-1, 0-1 HNAC)
When: Friday, 7 p.m., Trojan Field, Bourbon.
Series (last 35 years): Triton, 18-10.
John Harrell’s prediction: Triton, 35-10.
Last meeting: Sept. 2, 2022, Triton, 46-6.
About Caston: Coach Ulerick’s 1A Comets lost 52-7 at North Judson in Week 2 … Gavin Mollenkopf completed 8-of-16 passes for 75 yards with two interceptions … Jabez Yarber ran 15 times for 51 yards and Grant Yadon two for 43 with a touchdown … Yarber (7), Yadon (5) and Kyle Roudebush (5) led in total tackles.
About Triton: Coach Zach Whittaker’s 1A AP No. 14-ranked Trojans lost 22-16 at LaVille in Week 2 … In his first career start, Jayden Overmeyer had a pair of four-yard touchdown runs. Cole Shively booted a 40-yard field goal and two extra points … Wayne Reichert ran 19 times for 89 yards and Vinnie Prater 12 for 59 … Overmeyer (9 with a fumble recovery), Shively (9), Colton Reynolds (6) and Esai Lemler (6) led in total tackles … The Trojans have won the last six meetings with Caston.
Per Coach Zach Whittaker:
On Caston — Every single year Caston gives us a battle … We have to make sure we are preparing the best we can … We need to continue to work on the small details for us and get better week by week.
Improvement — (Our offensive line is) continuing to learn how to be physical and stay on blocks … We want our identity to be a physical team that controls the clock. The less time (the opponents’) offense is on the field the better.
On LaVille game — It was a physical battle … We made some crucial mistakes with untimely penalties and some missed opportunities … They’re one of one toughest opponents and we’ve got a lot of respect for them. They’re strong and fast. Overall, we matched them physically and we gave 100-percent effort which (made me) extremely proud.