Dragash: Friday Night Lights Prognostications
By CRAIG DRAGASH
ISL Correspondent
Welcome to what I hope will become a regular feature on Friday nights in the fall: Friday Night Lights Prognostications. Before I explain how this works, allow me to tell you a little bit about why I am doing this for Indy Sports Legends:
As a contributor to ISL, I am trying to look for things to add to the site that might increase its viewers, and I know there is a love in the Indianapolis area for high school football. I myself have never played a down of organized football in my life; I went to a small high school that didn’t have a football program. I am just an average Joe like many of you, which I hope makes this feature appealing. But after living and working in Carmel for the past 17 years, I have grown to love this game, and I follow it as much as I can.
This will be an interactive feature; there will be a list of games to pick each week. Those games will be selected from the Terrific Ten as posted on the Gridiron Digest website, with the games not in the Indy area taken out. I will make my picks, and then I invite you to make yours by posting your picks in the comments section on this articleit’s that simple. There will be tiebreakers by picking the scores of three selected games.
So without further adieu, here is the first installment of Friday Night Lights Prognostications:
Ben Davis at Warren Central
Ben Davis may have its strongest team in years. Warren seemed to be struggling to find an identity on offense, but they may have found that identity in their blowout win over Lawrence North last week. Warren’s defense is one of the best around; it likely will need to be a low scoring game for the Warriors to win.
Ben Davis 17, Warren Central 14
Chatard at Cathedral (played at Lawrence Central)
Chatard has been impressive, but had an emotional win last week against Roncalli. Cathedral has played a very tough schedule to this point, and this one fits right in.
Cathedral 28, Chatard 21
Lawrence Central at Pike
LC has yet to be tested; they have defeated their three opponents to this point by a combined score of 150 to 9. Pike should give them that test, but Pike lost their biggest test to this point after being shutout by Ben Davis.
Lawrence Central 35, Pike 17
Roncalli at Plainfield
Plainfield is 3-0 with two close wins against Danville and Kokomo, and then they crushed a struggling Mooresville team in week three. Roncalli is 2-1, and are coming off of that tough win against Chatard last week. These teams will have even records after this one.
Roncalli 21, Plainfield 17
Penn at FW Snider
OK, I know this isn’t an area game, but this was too good to pass up. Penn is 3-0, including a 35-28 win over Valparaiso, who was defeated by top-ranked Carmel by just one point in week two. Snider had a tight one in their opener vs. Luers, winning 10-7, followed by two blowout wins. Penn may feel they have something to prove after getting steamrolled in the state finals last season.
Penn 31, Snider 21
Tiebreakers
If there is a tie among leaders in number of games correctly picked, we will use the following games as tiebreakers. Pick the final score of each team. The difference with the actual final score will determine who wins. For example: I picked Penn to beat FW Snider 31-21. If Penn wins 34-14, my difference would be 10 ((34-31)+(21-14)). We will start with tiebreaker #1, and then go down the list from there until we have a clear winner.
Tiebreaker #1: Ben Davis at Warren Central
Tiebreaker #2: Chatard at Cathedral
Tiebreaker #3: Penn at FW Snider
Best of luck to all!!!
