Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
NorthWood (4-3, 3-2 NLC) at Warsaw (4-3, 3-2 NLC)
When: Friday, 7 p.m., Fisher Field, Warsaw.
Series (last 40 years): NorthWood, 26-14.
John Harrell’s prediction: NorthWood, 31-28.
Last meeting: Oct. 11, 2024, Warsaw, 35-21.
About NorthWood: Coach Nate Andrews’ Panthers won 41-14 against visiting Plymouth in Week 7 … Sophomore Braylon Monroe passed for 161 yards and one TD and rushed for 155 and two TD’s and freshman Jaron Allen received for 124 yards and one TD … Seniors Austin King (12) and Hayden Lechlitner (8) led in total tackles … On the season, Braylon Monroe is 88-of-116 passing for 1,101 yards and eight TD’s … Rushing yardage leaders are senior Jeffrey Eash (465 and 3 TD’s), Braylon Monroe (431 and seven TD’s), sophomore Brady Weaver (259 and four TD’s), junior Ethan Miller (197 and five TD’s) and King (130 and four TD’s) … Receiving yardage leaders are senior Deondray Monroe (610 and seven TD’s), Allen (211 and one TD) and Weaver (211 and one TD) … Total tackle leaders are Lechlitner (53), Miller (48), King (40) and junior Brady Blackford (30) … Deondray Monroe has two interceptions … NorthWood averages 33.3 points on offense and 21.9 on defense.
About Warsaw: Coach Bart Curtis’ Tigers lost 42-21 at Mishawaka in Week 7 … Warsaw trailed 21-14 at halftime (with TD runs by seniors Brody Duncan and Quinton Brock) and saw the Cavemen score one TD in the third quarter and two in the fourth before getting another of its own (run by senior Daylon Fitzpatrick) … The Tigers ran for 302 yards — 143 from Brock … With juniors Kadyn O’Neal (245) and Landon Snyder (179) carrying the whole load, all 424 yards for Mishawaka came on the ground … On the season, Brock is 10-of-27 passing for 250 yards and three TD’s … Rushing yardage leaders are Brock (428 and five TD’s), junior Tucker Reed (358 and one TD), junior Michael Schenck (332 and five TD’s), junior Wyatt Harman (331 and three TD’s) and Fitzpatrick (157 and five TD’s) … Receiving yardage leaders are Reed (60), Harman (47), junior Parker Sweet (45 and one TD) and senior Logan Carl (43 and one TD) … Freshman kicker John Conley is 16-of-20 on extra points and 1-of-2 on field goals … Total tackle leaders are senior Matthew Flores-Ortega (92), sophomore Ty Martin (74), junior Nathan Villa (66), junior Grady Nelson (60), junior Robbie Straughan (60), senior Fletcher Pohl (42) and sophomore Ethan Sinclair (41) … Warsaw holds averages of 28.6 on offense and 23.7 on defense … The Tigers are 1-2 at home and 3-1 on the road.
Per Coach Bart Curtis:
On NorthWood — They’ve a different animal. They are capable of taking the ball and holding it for long periods of time. They’ve got a unique enough passing game with all their formations, motions and shifts that they certainly can give you trouble …
Common ground — NorthWood had Mishawaka beat (before bowing 26-25 in Week 4 in Nappanee) so that tells you everything you need to know.
On Mishawaka game — Our effort was pretty good. We just appeared to be ill-equipped to defend them … It’s not like we backed down. We did miss a lot of tackles. A lot of that was them, not us … They’re an offensive machine.
Tippecanoe Valley (5-2, 2-1 INSC) at John Glenn (2-5, 1-3 INSC)
When: 7 p.m., Hostrawser Field
Series: Tippecanoe Valley 2-0
John Harrell’s prediction: Tippecanoe Valley 35-10
Last Meeting: Oct. 11, 2024, Tippecanoe Valley 22-21
About Tippecanoe Valley: The big wins keep stacking up for the Vikings, as the team finished off its fourth straight game at home with its best performance of the season thus far. AP No. 11 Western came to town and was dominated in a game Valley won 38-7 for its third straight victory. Steve Moriarty’s group led 28-0 at halftime in a game that was never close. Wes Parker ran for 114 yards and two touchdowns, while Owen Omondi added 112 yards and two more scores. Grady Moriarty found the end zone as well. The Vikings finished the homestand at 3-1 and will return to Smith-Bibler field next Friday for the regular-season finale against Bremen. The team has not been on the road since losing 35-19 to Hamilton Heights back on September 9. It was the first of two straight losses for Tippy Valley, its only two of the season. On the team’s three-game winning streak, they are out scoring opponents 109-35. Western’s touchdown in the fourth quarter of last Friday’s game was the first points given up by the Vikings in nearly eight quarters of play.
About John Glenn: The Falcons come into this game on the other end of the spectrum, having lost three straight games, all in the Indiana Northern State Conference. Glenn followed up narrowly falling to Bremen 15-14 two weeks ago by getting dismantled 45-0 by LaVille last Friday night. It was the second time this season the Falcons had been shut out, the first being a 28-0 loss to Rensselaer Central on Sep. 5. Glenn is led by sophomore quarterback Archer Rust, who made his name known across Northern Indiana as a freshman last year. Rust also serves as the team’s leading rusher at 52.5 yards a game. Senior Brayden Benwell also averages 50 yards on the ground, and is Rust’s favorite target in the air, averaging 39 receiving yards a night.
Tippecanoe Valley head coach Steve Moriarty:
On last week - I thought we put everything together. That’s one of the benefits of getting consistency out of your guys, by this point of the season, you should be playing together as a unit. The defense set the tone for us once again and everything just fit.
On his team’s biggest improvements - I think it's our fundamentals and our understanding. We’re understanding the fundamentals of the game as we try to take better angles on the field. When we’re blocking for our quarterback or running backs. I think the longer we go, the more we get used to playing together as a team, and I think that speaks for itself.
On Glenn - The thing about Glenn is that their record doesn’t show how good they are. They’ve got a really talented group with a ton of athletes that are really explosive. We’re going to try to contain their athletes and their super-good quarterback who is incredibly mobile.
Wawasee (1-6, 0-5 NLC) at Concord (6-1, 4-1 NLC)
When: Friday, 7 p.m., Rice Field, Elkhart.
Series (last 40 years): Concord, 40-6.
John Harrell’s prediction: Concord, 42-14.
Last meeting: Oct. 11, 2024, Concord, 44-7.
About Wawasee: Coach Matt Thacker’s Warriors lost 42-7 to visiting Northridge in Week 7 … Wawasee lost four fumbles … Junior Johnny Zachary was 4-of-9 passing for 74 yards and one TD (to junior Jaylen Lowery), junior Jaxon Brown and senior Jayden Stahl had four total tackles each … On the season, Zachary is 10-of-21 passing for 183 yards and two TD’s and sophomore Mark Haynes is 12-of-26 for 249 yards and one TD … Rushing yardage leaders are senior Cameron Senter (314 and one TD), freshman Mason McKibben (220 and one TD), Haynes (212 and two TD’s) and junior J’Ceon Evans (128) … Receiving yardage leaders are Senter (158 and two TD’s), sophomore Luke Nettouer (93) and junior Kaden Andrew (85 and one TD) … Total tackle leaders are junior Max Pena (46), Senter (32), Andrew (29) and Stahl (25) … Wawasee posts norms of 12.1 on offense and 29.7 on defense … The Warriors are 1-3 at home and 0-3 on the road.
About Concord: Coach Craig Koehler’s Minutemen won 42-0 at Goshen in Week 7 … There was a running clock for much of the second half … On the season, senior Bo Brunner is 86-of-110 passing for nine TD’s … Rushing yardage leaders are senior Reese Breveard (776 and 16 TD’s), Bo Brunner (319 and six TD’s) and senior Derek Gomez (278 and two TD’s) … Receiving yardage leaders are Breveard (288 and one TD), Gomez (285 and one TD) junior Chase Thompson (162 and four TD’s), senior Mark Herman (146 and two TD’s) and junior Tavion Beach (108) … Total tackle leaders are Breveard (58), Gomez (53), junior Zack Myers (46) and senior Camari Jackson (44) … Concord has averages of 36.4 on offense and 19.3 on defense.
Per Coach Matt Thacker:
On Concord — They’re really, really good. They’re fast, athletic and know what they’re doing on offense.
Stout defense — Defensively, (the Minutemen) get after it. If there’s one thing that really hurts the triple option offense it’s speed and they have a lot of speed.
On Northridge game — They have athletes. They had two quarterbacks (junior Karsyn Rumfelt and freshman Jake Scholl). They did a good job of defense. Of course, we didn’t do ourselves any favors by turning the ball over four times … We moved the ball up and down the field. We just didn’t finish drives.
Maconaquah (7-0, 6-0 TRC) at Manchester (5-2, 5-1 TRC)
When: 7 p.m. Friday, Burk Field
Series: Manchester 3-2
John Harrell’s prediction: Maconaquah 35-28
Last Meeting: Oct. 7, 2022, Maconaquah 26-18
About Maconaquah: The Braves come into this contest without a loss in 2025. Just two of those games, a 31-28 win over Peru and a 21-13 victory last week against Lewis Cass, were one-score wins. The Braves have scored at least 20 points in every game this season, and more than 30 in all but one. Maconaquah comes in with an incredibly balanced offense, as they have a receiver in Nolan Tarrh who is averaging over 100 yards a game, as well as a running back in Marcell Sims who is averaging over 140 yards a night on the ground. Sims has scored 20 touchdowns already this season, and has made four interceptions on defense. Both are team highs. Maconaquah is currently tied with Rochester for the lead in the Three Rivers Conference at 6-0. The two teams will meet in next week’s regular season finale.
About Manchester: The Squires aren’t far behind the Zebras and the Braves in the standings, sitting in third place in the TRC at 5-1. Last week, Manchester dismantled Whitko 42-0 for the team’s third straight win. Facing off against teams in the bottom half of the conference during that stretch, the Squires handled their business as well as they could, out scoring their three opponents 124-14 during the winning streak. Reiss Gaerte was the leading rusher in last week’s victory, finishing with 105 yards and a touchdown. Landon Bean, Bryson Enyeart, Dallas Martin and Maddux Greer all found the end zone as well in a game that had the running clock initiated by the time the second half got going. A win this week would give Manchester a chance to tie for the conference title if Maconaquah is able to bounce back and defeat Rochester next week. If the Squires are able to defeat Peru next Friday, there would be a three-way tie at 7-1.
Manchester head coach Brian Enyeart:
On last week - We got off to a fast start and got right at it on offense. I think we started a bit too excited on defense but after we calmed down we were able to control things pretty well. I was pretty happy with how we performed and executed.
On five different TD scorers - Everybody loves scoring a touchdown. That’s the way our offense is built. You can’t focus on just one guy or you’re gonna get beat by someone else. All these guys pick up positive yards for us but its something special to cross that goal line.
On Maconaquah - We’ve talked about focusing on ourselves more than our opponent. They’re undefeated for a reason. We’re going to have to give our best effort and execution if we’re going to want a chance in this game. We have to keep building on what we’ve been doing. If we do the things we need to do, we’re going to put ourselves in a good spot.
