STAFF REPORT
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE —
Northview at Terre Haute North
Kickoff — 7 p.m.
Airwaves — WBOW-AM 1300, WSDX-AM 1130
Records — Both teams enter the action with 2-0 marks.
Last meeting — North won last year 54-36.
Last time Northview beat North — The Knights won 28-23 in 2006.
Coaches — Chris Barrett is 32-57 in his ninth year at North and 60-89 in his 15th season overall. George Gettle is 53-29 in his ninth year at Northview.
Outlook — Two high-powered offenses are unlikely to disappoint tonight, just look at the 90 points the Knights and Patriots combined for in 2009.
Northview's Trent Lancaster is off to a strong start with 537 yards, six
touchdowns and zero interceptions after two weeks. Zac Niehaus accounts for all the scoring plays through the air for Northview, and he also has 334 of the receiving yards.
Lancaster's counterpart, Chad Holler, has also played well for the Patriots, but he had to play through a wrist injury in the Patriots' overtime win over Terre Haute South last week.
The Patriots offense has been led by Daniel Gabbard, Brother Scank, Sidney Moore and Calvin Blank.
Injuries, lineup changes — For Northview, running backer Sean Houser (knee) is out.
A word from Gettle — "They're explosive offensively. We've demonstrated that we have some awfully good athletes as well. The athletes we have are experienced football players. They understand one another and understand what we're trying to do.
"Defensively, we're still learning. We like our kids a bunch, just have to
cut out some of the mistakes. At times, we look like we know what we're
supposed to do. Had a good week of practice. Defensively, we probably
assumed too much as a coaching staff. It's still early though."
— By Craig Pearson
Terre Haute South at Vincennes Lincoln
Kickoff — 7:30 p.m. at Inman Field.
Airwaves — The game will be broadcast in the Vincennes area on WZDM-FM 92.1 with a 7:15 pregame show.
Records — Terre Haute South's Braves are 0-2. Vincennes Lincoln's Alices are 1-1.
Last meeting — South won 41-7 last season at South.
Last time Vincennes beat South — Vincennes won 42-6 in 2006.
Coaches — Mark Raetz is 7-25 in his fourth season at South; Jon Heiden is 8-25 in his fourth season at Vincennes.
Outlook — After playing extremely well only to lose 22-21 on the last play of overtime against Terre Haute North last week, the Braves need a confidence-building win. The Alices, who suffered a 49-0 loss to Heritage Hills in their opener, bounced back to win a Big Eight Conference game 18-15 at Boonville.
Injuries, lineup changes — South will be without junior tight end Lucas
Steward, but may get back at least one of two players who missed the North game; defensive end/linebacker A.J. Baker will be back, and linebacker Tommy Moore is questionable. Vincennes expects to have everyone available by tonight, Heiden said.
South had excellent rushing against North thanks to Tyler Evans (136 yards), Tre Stephens (104) and Kevin Bracken (58 from the wildcat formation) and the Nate Schuster-led offensive line. Key Alices are sophomore running back Patrick Toole (232 yards at Boonville), linebacker Blaize Thais, defensive end Brendon Hardin (3 sacks last week) and the passing combination of junior Gunner Hutchison to senior Jake Stone.
A word from Raetz — "The kids did a pretty good job [bouncing back from the heartbreaking loss]. We'll do our best to correct all the mistakes [from
that game] this week. It's always tough to play down there [at Vincennes, where South needed overtime to win 14-7 in 2008]; they always put together a pretty good game plan, and we know they'll be ready to play."
A word from Heiden — "It was Week 9 before we got our first win last year, so [winning at Boonville] was a big confidence booster for our kids,
hopefully something we can build on. [South has] big, physical kids — and speed. We'll try to compete for four quarters and see what happens."
— By Andy Amey
West Vigo
at Brown County
Kickoff — 7:30 p.m.
Airwaves — None planned in the Wabash Valley.
Records — The West Vigo Vikings (1-1, 0-0) will visit the Brown County (0-2, 0-1) for a Western Indiana Conference matchup in the city of Nashville. Both are Class 3A schools.
Last meeting — Last September, West Vigo won at home over Brown County 52-28.
Coaches — Jeff Cobb is 26-27 in his sixth season at the helm of West Vigo, while Ken Wendling is 18-31 in his sixth year at Brown County and 104-114 in his 22nd year overall.
Outlook — West Vigo has lost at home to Evansville Harrison 3-0 and won at home over Greencastle 15-13, while Brown County has lost at Cloverdale 44-14 and lost at Owen Valley 52-14.
Injuries, lineup changes — For West Vigo, junior defensive tackle Harley
Elkins (knee) is out for tonight. Some key players include senior tackle
Casey Sereno, senior guard Luke Kernstein and senior quarterback Lance Garrett.
For Brown County, senior tackle Tanner Sandlin (concussion), sophomore wide receiver/outside linebacker Brandon Callahan (broken leg) and sophomore backup cornerback Julian Ercoli (mononucleosis) are out for tonight and senior tackle/defensive tackle Chadd Low (knees) senior guard Sean Gunter (neck) are questionable. Some key players include freshman quarterback Dillon Boknecht, junior tailback/inside linebacker Konnor Graber and senior wide receiver/safety Will Anderson.
Coaches' comments — Cobb on the Vikings: "Against Greencastle, we had an offensive, a defensive and a special-teams score. That's always nice to see. The offense improved significantly [from the Week 1 loss] and we look to see continued improvement against Brown County."
Wendling on the Eagles: "We're really pretty young. The first week against Cloverdale, we had 13 kids who played in their first varsity game. Some of those kids were freshmen, but a lot of them were juniors who had never played football before. But they're very athletic kids. From what we've seen, they've gotten better each week. They're like sponges and they're grasping everything we're coaching."
— By David Hughes
