HOMESTEAD AT WARSAW Kickoff: 7 p.m. Friday in Warsaw Coaches: Chad Zolman (Homestead), Phil Jensen (Warsaw) Records: Homestead 1-0, Warsaw 1-0 Last Game: Homestead 53, H. North 12; Warsaw 20, Columbia City 14 Last Year: Homestead 51, Warsaw 7 Matchup: For the first time since 2009, the Warsaw Tigers go into the second week of the season on the heels of a win. Powered by the rushing attack of junior Tristan McClone, the Tigers scored a 20-14 win at Columbia City Friday. McClone carried the ball 43 times for 295 yards and two touchdowns in his first varsity start at tailback. Junior quarterback Austin Head completed 5 of 7 passes for 50 yards. Warsaw’s opponent this week, the Homestead Spartans, also comes from the Northeast Hoosier Conference. Homestead had little trouble in its season opener, beating Huntington North 53-12. The Spartans have won the last two meetings against Warsaw by a combined score of 103-10 and hold a 9-6 advantage in the all-time series. The Tigers’ last win in the series came in a 2009 second game, a contest they won 10-7. In recent years, Homestead’s high-powered offense has been led by standout quarterback Zach Terrell, who is now playing at Western Michigan University. Senior Matt Skowronek is now the Spartans’ leader, and against Huntington North he completed 12 of 22 passes for 99 yards and a touchdown. Senior running back Grayson Bastin racked up 92 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries. Jensen: “What they try to do is a little different than what they’ve done in the past. Last year, you knew they were going to throw and throw, but now that kid (Zach Terrell) is a Division I quarterback, and from what we’ve seen they’re about 50-50 running and passing. They run their spread, pistol, option game very well. They’ve got so many weapons, and they’re very fast and very balanced.”
TIPPY VALLEY VS. 2A NO. 6 BREMEN Kickoff: 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis) Coaches: Jeff Shriver (Valley), Bob Holmes (Bremen) Records: T. Valley 0-1, Bremen 1-0 Last Game: CMA 27, T. Valley 22; Bremen 42, Plymouth 26 Last Year: Bremen 48, T. Valley 20 Matchup: Two storied high school football programs will collide at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis when the Tippecanoe Valley Vikings meet the Class 2A sixth-ranked Bremen Lions in the Horseshoe Hall Of Fame Classic. Valley, which has lost three of its last four meetings with Bremen, fell 27-22 to CMA in last week’s back-and-forth season opener. Bremen opened its season with a 42-26 at county rival Plymouth. Under the direction of coach Bob Holmes, the Lions have returned the program to the form their fans were so used to. Bremen has a record of 23-5 since Holmes took over and has won 17 straight regular season games. In Valley’s loss to CMA last week, junior Ben Shriver completed 9 of 16 passes for 118 yards and two touchdowns. Junior Tanner Andrews caught a 26-yard touchdown pass from Shriver, while senior Mason Teel hauled in a 4-yard scoring strike. In Bremen’s Week 1 win over Plymouth, Kai Slough passed for 231 yards and four touchdowns, while Ethan Pike had 136 yards receiving and three touchdowns and Reid Zellmer had 138 rushing yards and two scores. Shriver: “No. 1, Bremen has an outstanding football team and program. They’re coming off a super win against Plymouth. They’re very physical up front, and their quarterback is a kid a lot of our kids know. They run and throw well, so from that standpoint, we’ve got our work cut out for us. We’re looking for our first win of the season. We didn’t play as physical or intense as we’d have liked to last week. We had opportunities, we just didn’t get it done. As for playing at Lucas Oil Stadium, it’s a great opportunity for our whole program, but we’re still approaching it like a Friday night varsity football game. It’s very special to have the privelage of playing in a venue that just hosted the Super Bowl, but first and foremost, our job is to go there and win a varsity football game.”
COLUMBIA CITY AT WHITKO Kickoff: 7 p.m. Friday in South Whitley Coaches: Randy Hudgins (Columbia City), Wayne Swender (Whitko) Records: Columbia City 0-1, Whitko 0-1 Last Game: Warsaw 20, Columbia City 14; Wawasee 20, Whitko 7 Last Year: Columbia City 34, Whitko 21 Matchup: Friday’s game at Ryan Huff Memorial Stadium features a pair of Whitley County rivals, both of whom lost to Northern Lakes Conference schools in their respective season openers last week. In their loss 20-7 to Wawasee, the Whitko Wildcats trailed 14-0 at halftime and struggled offensively. The Wildcats maaged just 153 yards of total offense, 123 of which came on the ground. Sophomore Tanner Hughes led the attack with 16 carries for 60 yards, while senior Alex Stoddard added 51 yards on 10 carries. Whitko scored its lone touchdown via a 70-yard interception return by senior Connor Stouder. In a 20-14 loss to Warsaw, the Columbia City gave up 315 rushing yards. Offensively, the Eagles were led by Adam Neely’s 28 carries for 135 yards, while Travis Herbst completed 7 of 12 passes for 87 yards. Justin Bachelder was Columbia City’s leading receiver with three catches for 50 yards. Since the rivalry was renewed in 2010, Columbia City has won the matchups 30-0 and 34-21. Swender: “We know they’re a big, physical team. They’ve got some weapons. (Travis) Herbst is doing well, and (Adam) Neely is a big running back that hits the hole fast. We also know what Jared Murphy can do. He’s going to be a Division I receiver at Miami (Ohio). We need to cut down on our mistakes, we had far too many mistakes last week. We moved the ball on offense, but then we’d shoot ourselves in the foot. Defensively, overall we were pleased with some things. It all goes back to fundamentals. Sometimes we didn’t block and tackle well.”
SB ST. JOE AT WAWASEE Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. Friday in Syracuse Coaches: Ben Downey (St. Joe), Tom Wogomon (Wawasee) Records: St. Joe 0-1, Wawasee 1-0 Last Game: Chesterton 24, St. Joe 7; Wawasee 20, Whitko 7 Last Meeting: St. Joe 12, Wawasee 3 Matchup: Entering the season as the No. 2 team in Class 3A, South Bend St. Joseph suffered a 24-7 loss at Class 5A Chesterton in Week 1. However, the loss doesn’t diminish the talent on the Indians, who are currently ranked No. 8 and defeated Wawasee 12-3 last year in South Bend. The Warriors defense will need to be concerned with the play of St. Joe junior quarterback Matt Monserez, who completed 22 of 37 pass attempts last week, going for 210 yards. However, the Indians defense also gave up 315 rushing yards to Chesterton, and that’s a stat Wawasee must like. In their 20-7 win at Whitko, the Warriors got 292 of their total 306 yards on the ground, led by senior quarterback D.J. Semon’s 130 on 13 carries. Along with Semon’s production on the ground, senior Derrick Sorensen ran for 82 yards on 17 carries and junior Gabe Rhodes finished with 80 yards on 13 attempts. All three runners also scored a touchdown. The Wawasee defense gave up just 23 passing yards, as Whitko senior quarterback Alex Stoddard struggled, completing just 2 of 10 attempts and getting picked off once. However, the passing of the Indians will be much stronger than what they faced in Week 1. Wogomon: “St Joe is an outstanding Indiana football program. Over the course of two years they have played 10 more games than us. That's adds up to an extra season's worth of games, practices and development. They are athletic and disciplined. Their quarterback, Matt Monserez, is a big kid (6-foot-6) with a big arm. He is going to challenge our secondary early and often. St. Joe threw the ball over 30 times last week. This is going to be a game that by the end of the night the most physical team will be celebrating.”
BLUFFTON AT MANCHESTER Kickoff: 7 p.m. Friday in North Manchester Coaches: Casey Kolkman (Bluffton), Brandon Baker (Manchester) Records: Bluffton 1-0, Manchester 0-1 Last Game: Bluffton 20, Northfield 19; Mississinewa 20, Manchester 8 Last Year: Bluffton 32, Manchester 24 Matchup: Manchester coach Brandon Baker credits a couple of big plays last Friday that led to his team’s downfall. First, Mississinewa returned a 37-yard fumble for a touchdown, then later in the first quarter, Blake Dailey rushed for a 67-yard score. Once the game was complete, Mississinewa had just 45 more total yards than Manchester, but the two big plays put the Squires in a bad spot. Offensively, Manchester averaged 4.9 yards per carry, going for 235 on 48 carries. Jacob Casper proved to be Manchester’s most dangerous runner, going for 119 yards on just 14 carries. The running game may be effective against the Bluffton Tigers, who surrendered 230 yards on 52 carries last week in a win over Northfield. For the Squires sake, they’ll hope the big plays don’t happen again this week, as Bluffton got a couple themselves last week, including a 75-yard kickoff return and a fumble recovery in the end zone. Another big play came on the defensive side of the ball, when the Tigers stopped Northfield on a two-point conversion with five minutes to play that preserved the 20-19 victory. Baker: “Two big plays got us on Friday night. We played very hard and fought the whole game. I was happy in that aspect. If we eliminate the two big plays, we win. This week, we must be ready to play a full game and execute for the whole game. They are athletic so we'll need to be sound on defense. On offense, we must continue to move the ball, but also finish drives when we get the chance.”
TRITON AT NORTHFIELD Kickoff: 7 p.m. Friday in Wabash Coaches: Rodney Younis (Triton), Tony Uggen (Northfield) Records: Triton 0-1, Northfield 0-1 Last Game: Caston 28, Triton 20; Bluffton 20, Northfield 19 Last Year: Northfield 43, Triton 20 Matchup: The Northfield Norsemen proved they’re a team that wants to run the ball during their Week 1 20-19 loss to Bluffton. In defeat, the Norse ran the ball 52 times for 230 yards, led by Andy Roser’s 103 yards on 24 carries. The rushing attack will have to be Triton’s main concern, as Northfield quarterback Austin Curless only connected on 1 of 11 pass attempts last week. For Triton, the Trojans will look to bounce back from their 28-20 road loss at Caston. In that loss, Triton was able to pass the ball, as Bryson Mosier went 9 of 17 for 120 yards, with touchdown strikes to Cody Shively, D.J. Riffle and Grant Stichter. Cole Creighbaum also completed 3 of 7 pass attempts for 49 yards. Mosier was also effective running the ball, going for 47 yards on four carries. Shively also had success on the ground, rushing for 67 yards on nine attempts. Defensively, the Trojans will need to stiffen up on the run against the rush-happy Norse, as they allowed 287 rushing yards a week ago, and average of 5.2 per carry. Younis: “Northfield has an experienced squad this year. Andy Roser is a very strong fullback. We must attack him at the line and tackle him low. We need to play assignment football and then rally to the ball. Offensively, we need to build on last week. There were several positives we were able to take from the game. The game will be won up front. The team that plays more physical and takes care of the ball will win.”
