Football takes on one of the hardest sectionals in 4A Indiana. With the new addition of a strong Mishawaka team that just dropped from 5A, a Northwood team coming off of a state run last year, and an up and coming Plymouth squad, Saint Joe is in for a competitive sectional run!
First lets take a look at Wawasee. Wawasee is struggling this year, going 1-8, and it’s only win is coming off of a rough Goshen team that has a yet to get a win this year. Wawasee is ranked as the 188th best team in Indiana and the 44th best team out of 62 teams in 4A. Wawasee is at the top of this bracket, and I have a hard time seeing them make a run past Plymouth, and then most likely Mishawaka to meet Saint Joe in the championship, although anything is bound to happen in high school football!
Matched up against Wawasee are the Plymouth Pilgrims. Plymouth started the year out extremely strong going 5-2 in it’s first 7 games. A rough 2 game slate to end the year put them at 5-4 to end the year, losing to both highly ranked, Mishawaka and Concord decisively. Plymouth should not be counted out though, ranked fairly highly in the Indiana rankings, as 76th in the state and 18th in 4A. In this matchup I find it hard to see Plymouth not coming out on top.
Below this matchup is a battle between the 37th best team in Indiana, the Mishawaka Cavemen, and the 90th ranked team in Indiana, the Northridge Raiders. Mishawaka has looked nothing but dominant against opponents in 4A and I assume they will keep this up against the 23rd best team in 4A. Mishawaka only has two loses this year, one coming from an undefeated, 17th ranked team in Indiana, Concord by 1 point and a strong Warsaw team that is ranked 38th in the state by 8 points. Mishawaka seems to be the heavy favorite to come out of this sectional due to their performance in the regular season. Mishawaka’s best win this year comes against their biggest rival, and was arguably the biggest game in northern Indiana this year, the backyard brawl, between Penn and Mishawaka. Mishawaka dominated Penn in this bout 27-7.
Northridge is not to be counted out, they have shown to be able to hang with the top teams in this sectional, putting up a good fight against Elkhart, cross town rival Northwood, and Concord in the regular season. They have impressive wins coming against the likes of a previously mentioned solid Plymouth squad 13-7. I predict Mishawaka to come out easily against Northridge just like in the regular season when they handled the Raiders 27-7.
On the other side of this 8 team bracket is where we find our huskies, matched up against a familiar foe, the Riley Wildcats! Riley has struggled this season, only picking up wins against a very weak Hammond Bishop Noll and a winless Washington squad. Our Huskies have already seen Riley once this year, dominating 29-0, but Riley has made many strides in the right direction since then, so only time will tell how they come out on Friday. Due to the matchup already occurring in the regular season with a decisive in favor of Saint Joe, I think it is only natural we will see that outcome once again.
The last matchup for the first round of sectionals is another lackluster matchup, this time coming from a strong and hungry Northwood team trying to make another trip to Lucas Oil and a winless SB Washington team that has seemingly no chance in this matchup. Northwood does not have a winning record this year but has had an extremely difficult regular season schedule with losses coming from the likes of Mishawaka, Portage, Concord, Plymouth, and Warsaw. Each of these teams have found a fair amount of success this year and most of these losses come in one possession games. Will Northwood continue to have an issue with finishing the battle or will they connect the pieces and make another run, only time will tell.
In conclusion, Saint Joe’s sectional has half of the teams ranked in the top 100 of all teams in Indiana, so it is a fairly competitive sectional this year and I believe I could see 5 out of the 8 teams (including us) coming out on top of this sectional and making a run to Indianapolis!
