Nine regular-season Fridays are finished.
For most of Indiana, perfection is gone.
For 24 teams, it is not.
The final week eliminated several names from the unbeaten board. Warsaw lost its 5A showdown with Northridge. South Bend St. Joseph ran into Penn. North Judson lost its battle of undefeated teams at Pioneer. Griffith ended Wheeler’s perfect season.
What remains is a group spread across five classifications, with Class 5A now completely absent.
Some dominated statistically from August through October. Others survived enough close games to learn what postseason pressure feels like before the tournament even started.
Here are three undefeated teams that stand out in each classification, followed by the complete list of programs that finished the regular season without a loss.
CLASS 6A
Brownsburg | 9-0
Brownsburg finishes the regular season exactly where it started the conversation: at the top.
The Bulldogs closed with a 35-7 win at Hamilton Southeastern after already beating Lawrence North, Westfield, Zionsville, Noblesville and every other team placed in front of them.
Through eight games, Brownsburg had scored 351 points while allowing 88. Adding the HSE result pushes that margin to 386-95, an average score of roughly 43-11.
The schedule is what separates the Bulldogs. They beat Lawrence North 48-25 in Week 1. They beat Westfield 38-14. They went through the HCC without a loss.
Nine games produced nine wins, and most never reached the fourth quarter with serious uncertainty.
Brownsburg enters the tournament as the No. 1 team in the final IFCA Class 6A poll and the clearest standard in Indiana’s largest classification.
Warren Central | 9-0
Warren Central’s perfect season looks different. The Warriors had to survive more volatility.
They beat Center Grove 20-14, North Central 45-42 and Lawrence North 53-37 before closing the regular season with wins over Carmel and Homestead.
The offense has become increasingly difficult to deal with because Keyon Thomas gives Warren Central a back capable of taking over games. His 379-yard, six-touchdown performance against Lawrence North became one of the biggest individual games of the season.
The larger story is the turnaround. Warren Central finished 8-5 last fall. Now the Warriors are 9-0, MIC champions and No. 2 behind Brownsburg in the final 6A coaches poll.
They did not just get better. They went through the regular season without anyone beating them.
Crown Point | 9-0
Crown Point quietly built one of the cleanest defensive résumés in the state.
Through eight games, the Bulldogs had scored 303 points and allowed 65. They then closed the regular season by shutting out Michigan City.
The schedule included wins over Merrillville, Valparaiso, Chesterton and the rest of the Duneland Conference. Only two opponents reached 14 points through the first eight weeks.
Crown Point did not need the weekly statewide attention Brownsburg and Warren Central received. The record got there anyway.
The Bulldogs enter the tournament 9-0 and ranked No. 4 in the final IFCA 6A poll.
Penn also completed a 9-0 regular season, giving 6A four undefeated teams entering tournament play.
CLASS 5A
There is no unbeaten left.
Warsaw entered Week 9 at 8-0 and had a chance to finish perfect while winning the Northern Lakes Conference outright. Northridge ended both possibilities with a 37-30 win in Middlebury.
That leaves Class 5A as the only classification without an undefeated team entering the tournament. It may also make the bracket more interesting.
Cathedral, New Palestine, Bloomington South, Lafayette Jefferson, Floyd Central and Warsaw all enter with losses, and none can point to perfection as separation anymore. The final IFCA poll has Cathedral No. 1 despite its 6-3 record.
CLASS 4A
East Noble | 9-0
East Noble’s season has included both ends of the spectrum.
The Knights escaped Leo 12-7. They also beat New Haven 62-20 and closed the regular season with a 47-0 shutout of Bellmont.
That range matters. East Noble has shown it can survive a low-possession game and overwhelm an opponent when the offense gets rolling. The Knights allowed just 58 points over their final six games.
At 9-0, East Noble is the highest-ranked unbeaten in 4A, sitting No. 3 in the final IFCA poll behind Bishop Dwenger and Bishop Chatard.
The record says perfect. The poll says there is still something to prove. That makes East Noble one of the more interesting teams entering the bracket.
Danville | 9-0
Danville did not sneak into 9-0. The Warriors scored. A lot.
Through seven games, Danville had 293 points. It followed with a 42-7 win over McCutcheon and a 56-14 win over Terre Haute North. That brings the regular-season total to 391 points, more than 43 per game.
Danville also beat Cascade, Lebanon and Yorktown during the run.
The Warriors sit only No. 6 in the final IFCA 4A poll because of how deep the classification is, but 9-0 still travels. Now the question is how much of that offensive production translates once the bracket starts shrinking.
Northridge | 9-0
Northridge had the perfect finish to a perfect regular season.
Warsaw arrived 8-0. Northridge was 8-0. The Northern Lakes Conference title was attached. The Raiders won 37-30.
Before that, Northridge had already scored 370 points through eight games while averaging more than 46 per night. The season included a 35-34 escape against Columbia City and a 38-35 win at Mishawaka, so the Raiders have already played multiple games where one possession decided everything.
That may be useful now.
Northridge is No. 7 in the final IFCA 4A poll. The zero in the loss column carries its own argument.
Logansport also finished 9-0.
CLASS 3A
Evansville Memorial | 9-0
No unbeaten team may have learned more about itself over the final three weeks than Evansville Memorial.
The Tigers beat previously undefeated Reitz 30-27. They erased a 21-point deficit to beat previously undefeated Floyd Central 34-28. Then they handled Castle 37-14 to complete a perfect regular season.
Through eight weeks, Memorial was averaging 40.1 points per game with Luke Brown leading an offense producing more than 350 yards per night. But the most important statistic is still 9-0.
Memorial is the unanimous No. 1 team in the final IFCA Class 3A poll.
The Tigers did not reach the postseason perfect because nobody tested them. They reached it perfect because they survived the tests.
Indian Creek | 9-0
Indian Creek has been one of the state’s more balanced unbeaten teams.
The Braves entered the final week averaging more than 356 yards of offense per game, with roughly 185 coming through the air and 171 on the ground. They finished the job with a 35-7 win over Triton Central.
Indian Creek’s résumé includes wins over Western, Heritage Christian, Greenwood and Tri-West. The defense also posted multiple shutouts on the way to 9-0.
The final IFCA poll has the Braves No. 5 in 3A. That feels like one of the more useful tournament storylines. Indian Creek is undefeated and still has teams ranked ahead of it. Now the bracket gets to settle the argument.
Bluffton | 9-0
Bluffton’s season deserves considerably more attention than it has received.
The Tigers scored 40 or more points in six of their first nine games and closed the regular season by beating Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian 69-0.
More importantly, Bluffton showed it can win when the game does not turn into a track meet. The Tigers beat Heritage 16-0, then went to Adams Central and won 36-28.
That Adams Central result carried weight because Bluffton had rarely beaten the Flying Jets in the recent series. It also secured a season that has shifted expectations around the program.
The final IFCA poll has Bluffton No. 6 in 3A. Nine wins suggest the ranking may not tell the whole story.
Griffith and Maconaquah also finished 9-0.
CLASS 2A
South Putnam | 9-0
South Putnam’s move into Class 2A has not slowed anything down.
The defending 1A champion scored 380 points and allowed just 40 through its first seven games. Then came 64-0 over Owen Valley. Then 63-0 over Cloverdale.
That leaves South Putnam at 507 points scored and 40 allowed in nine games, an average margin of nearly 52 points per game. Five shutouts. Nine wins. And a final IFCA ranking of No. 1 in Class 2A.
South Putnam did not just finish undefeated. The Eagles spent the regular season making the transition up a class look irrelevant. The tournament will determine whether it stays that way.
Brownstown Central | 9-0
Brownstown Central might own the most ridiculous defensive number on the board.
The Braves allowed 27 points through seven games. Then they shut out Silver Creek 41-0. Then they shut out Scottsburg 35-0.
That is 27 points allowed all regular season. Brownstown Central scored 398. The Braves posted five shutouts and never allowed more than seven points in a game.
That is not just undefeated football. That is control.
Brownstown Central enters the postseason ranked No. 2 in the final IFCA 2A poll behind South Putnam. If those two eventually find each other, the numbers suggest it would be one of the defining games of the 2A tournament.
Indianapolis Lutheran | 8-0
Lutheran played eight regular-season games. It won all eight.
The Saints closed with a 47-6 win over Jeffersonville after shutting out Heritage Christian the previous week.
Lutheran has already built a championship reputation from its run of 1A titles earlier this decade. Now the Saints are doing it in 2A. They enter the postseason ranked No. 3 in the final IFCA poll behind South Putnam and Brownstown Central.
Three undefeated teams. Three different résumés. And that is before getting to Eastside, Eastern Hancock, Eastern and Hagerstown.
No class has more perfect records remaining.
CLASS 1A
Riverton Parke | 8-0
Riverton Parke’s season has been built around separation.
The Panthers opened by shutting out Linton. They scored 56 against North Vermillion. They scored 61 against South Vermillion. They shut out Parke Heritage 56-0.
Riverton Parke finished unbeaten despite playing only eight contests and enters the postseason No. 1 in the final IFCA Class 1A poll.
The Panthers are no longer a small-school curiosity. They are the team everybody else in 1A is chasing.
Pioneer | 9-0
Pioneer got the Week 9 game an unbeaten team usually needs before tournament play.
North Judson arrived undefeated too. Pioneer beat the Bluejays 35-9. That result completed a 9-0 regular season and gave Pioneer the Hoosier North title.
The Panthers had already shown plenty of offense, scoring 292 points through seven games while allowing 75. But beating North Judson may tell us more than another blowout would have. Pioneer entered a game where both records were perfect and left as the only one still carrying the zero.
The final IFCA poll has Pioneer No. 2 in 1A, just two voting points behind Riverton Parke. That race is about as close as it looks.
North Daviess | 9-0
North Daviess spent most of the year overwhelming teams.
Through eight games, the Cougars had scored 364 points and allowed 73. Then they closed the regular season with a 34-12 win at Springs Valley. That gives North Daviess 398 points across nine games, an average of more than 44 per night.
The Cougars have multiple shutouts and five games in which they scored at least 47. They enter tournament play ranked No. 3 in the final IFCA poll.
Riverton Parke has the top ranking. Pioneer has the signature Week 9 win. North Daviess has been every bit as consistent.
Wes-Del also finished the regular season undefeated at 8-0.
Indiana’s Remaining Undefeated Teams
Twenty-four teams enter the tournament without a loss:
| Class | Undefeated teams |
|---|---|
| 6A | Brownsburg (9-0), Warren Central (9-0), Crown Point (9-0), Penn (9-0) |
| 5A | None |
| 4A | East Noble (9-0), Danville (9-0), Northridge (9-0), Logansport (9-0) |
| 3A | Evansville Memorial (9-0), Indian Creek (9-0), Bluffton (9-0), Griffith (9-0), Maconaquah (9-0) |
| 2A | South Putnam (9-0), Brownstown Central (9-0), Indianapolis Lutheran (8-0), Eastside (9-0), Eastern Hancock (9-0), Eastern (Greentown) (9-0), Hagerstown (9-0) |
| 1A | Riverton Parke (8-0), Pioneer (9-0), North Daviess (9-0), Wes-Del (8-0) |
The final IFCA poll confirms the undefeated records across the classifications, including the four perfect teams in 6A, four in 4A, five in 3A, seven in 2A and four in 1A.
Twenty-four teams made it through the regular season without losing. That number is guaranteed to shrink now.
The point of the first nine weeks was to build the résumé. The tournament does not care about it. Everybody is 0-0 again.
But for these 24 programs, there is still one thing nobody has been able to do all season.
Beat them.
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