Football | Brownsburg and Lawrence North meet again nearly three months after their Week 1 matchup, while four other games guarantee an undefeated season ends Friday night.
The regional round removes most of the easy games. Indiana is down to 48 teams across six classes, and several of Friday’s 24 regionals bring together programs that spent the regular season building championship résumés.
Four games match undefeated teams. Two of the state’s highest-rated Class 6A programs meet at Lawrence North. And several sectional champions now face the kind of opponent capable of exposing whatever survived sectional play.
Here are the Indiana Preps Games of the Week.
Featured Matchup: Brownsburg at Lawrence North
Friday, Nov. 13 | 7 p.m.
The first meeting established Brownsburg. The rematch will tell us how much Lawrence North has changed.
Brownsburg beat the Wildcats 48-25 in the season opener on Aug. 21, and since then the Bulldogs have moved to 11-0 and stayed at the top of the statewide conversation. Lawrence North is 9-2 and has won four straight. Its only losses came against Brownsburg and Warren Central, and its wins include Carmel, Ben Davis and Center Grove. That makes Friday a different game from Week 1.
Lawrence North is averaging 406.3 yards per game, including 243.1 on the ground. Brownsburg is averaging 427.5 total yards, with more of its production through the air at 233.1 passing yards per game. The contrast is useful. Lawrence North can create pressure with its rushing attack and force defenses to handle the quarterback run game and perimeter speed. Brownsburg has been more balanced and has shown all season that it can create explosive plays without depending on one offensive formula.
The first evaluation question is whether Lawrence North can avoid the early separation that shaped the August meeting. If the Wildcats keep it within one possession into the second half, the rematch becomes a very different game.
The second question concerns Brownsburg. The Bulldogs have spent most of the season playing from a position of control, and regional football may require something less comfortable. This is the game to find out.
Indian Creek at Evansville Memorial
Indian Creek is 11-0. Evansville Memorial is 12-0. One perfect season ends Friday.
Memorial has built the stronger schedule and has already survived Reitz, Floyd Central and Gibson Southern. Indian Creek arrives with its own undefeated résumé and enough offensive balance to make this more than a record-versus-record matchup.
The central question is whether Indian Creek can keep Memorial quarterback Luke Brown from generating explosive plays through the air. Memorial averages 204.8 passing yards per game, while Indian Creek leans more on the ground at 172.9 rushing yards per game. Different offensive identities, same stakes.
Bishop Chatard at Roncalli
Both teams enter 10-2. There is no undefeated record attached to this one, but there is enough championship history to make that irrelevant.
Chatard has spent much of the year near the top of Class 4A, and Roncalli strengthened its résumé late in the regular season with a 28-10 win over East Central. This is one of the regional games where line play should decide more than rankings. The team that controls early downs will have the advantage.
Penn at Crown Point
Another perfect season ends here. Penn is 11-0, and so is Crown Point.
Penn has been one of the most dominant teams in northern Indiana. Crown Point has shown again and again that it can score enough to survive games that turn uncomfortable, but the concern is defense. The Bulldogs allowed 33 to Merrillville and 27 to Lake Central during the sectional, and Penn has been far better at keeping games from turning into shootouts.
The winner leaves Friday 12-0 and one win from Lucas Oil Stadium.
Carmel at Carroll
Carmel enters 7-4. Carroll is 10-1. The records make Carroll the obvious favorite, but Carmel’s postseason changes the context.
The Greyhounds eliminated Westfield 48-45 before beating Hamilton Southeastern for the sectional championship. That is enough evidence to know the 7-4 record cannot be judged by itself. Carroll has been one of Indiana’s most complete teams, and Carmel has already shown it can beat one.
Center Grove at Warren Central
Warren Central is 11-0 and Center Grove is 9-2, and MaxPreps currently lists both among the top five teams in the state.
The matchup is physical before it is anything else. Warren Central has one of Indiana’s most productive running backs in Keyon Thomas and a defense filled with Division I personnel. Center Grove remains one of the most structurally sound teams in the tournament and has enough postseason experience to make this a different test than anything Warren Central faced in the sectional. If Center Grove can force long drives instead of explosive possessions, the game changes.
Eastern Hancock at South Putnam
This is No. 1 versus No. 2 in the Class 2A contender conversation, and both teams are 12-0.
South Putnam moved up to 2A after winning the Class 1A state championship last season and has not lost. Eastern Hancock arrives after beating Indianapolis Lutheran 39-6, with Blake Whittington and Luke Manship giving the Royals different ways to finish drives. This is not simply an undefeated matchup. It may be the strongest small-school game on the board.
North Daviess at Riverton Parke
Twelve wins and no losses, for both.
Riverton Parke has produced one of the most dominant scoring profiles in Class 1A, while North Daviess has shown repeatedly that it can survive tougher game scripts. Friday removes the schedule-strength debate. One team leaves 13-0, and the other is finished.
Knightstown at Milan
Both teams enter 10-2. Milan is coming off a sectional championship in which Beckett Langferman rushed for 254 yards and four touchdowns against North Decatur, which gives Knightstown a clear starting point on defense.
Milan wants to establish the run and make opponents handle Langferman’s physicality for four quarters. If Knightstown can keep him from controlling first and second down, the game gets more interesting.
Pioneer at South Adams
Pioneer brings a 12-0 record into one of the tougher Class 1A regional assignments against 10-2 South Adams.
Pioneer survived Caston 21-14 in the sectional championship, and that result may be useful preparation. South Adams has enough offensive versatility and special-teams production to create a game that requires patience. The question is whether Pioneer’s unbeaten résumé can survive another four-quarter test.
Regional Friday gets smaller fast
Four undefeated-versus-undefeated games guarantee separation: Indian Creek or Memorial, Penn or Crown Point, Eastern Hancock or South Putnam, North Daviess or Riverton Parke.
Then Brownsburg gets a Lawrence North team it already beat once, Warren Central gets Center Grove, and Carroll gets a Carmel team that has already changed the Class 6A bracket.
The sectional round told us who survived. Regional Friday starts telling us who can actually win the state.
Leave a Reply