The hardest championship to win in high school sports begins Friday night around the state. Winning a Sectional Football title involves beating three straight opponents, different styles, and who knows how the weather will be in October and November in our state.

 

Having stated the obvious, this is an exciting weekend for a number of reasons. Half of the schools in the state will see their seasons ended Friday night, which means a lot of seniors will end their football careers. All of the work, dedication, and sacrifice will end for a group of dedicated young men.

 

On the positive side, this is the time of redemption for a number of teams. The open format of the tournament allows teams a second chance, but often that chance comes against a very good team. Also, we all know wacky things happen in tournament play, irrespective of the sport.

 

With that as an introduction, let's look at some great games around the state in Round One of the Sectional Tourament: The premier game of the night has to be at Sectional 34 with 1A #1 Pioneer at 1A # 2 Lafayette Central Catholic (the rankings are reversed in the Associated Press Poll). The usual discussion of seeding the Tournament has gained momentum with this match-up, and this is understandably a spectacular game. Lafayette Central Catholic leads the state in scoring average (58.38 ppg), defensive average (1.25 ppg ), and margin of victory (57.13). Pioneer is fourth in the state in scoring (50.78 ppg), third in defensive average (3.67 ppg), and third in margin of victory (47.11 ppg). This truly has the look and feel of a State Championship game, and should truly be a classic.

 

Other first round match-ups involving ranked teams:

 

Sectional 27--2A #14 Luers (AP) at #14 Manchester (AP)

Sectional 32--2A #9 Southridge at #15 North Posey

Sectional 19-- 3A #6 Norwell at #13 Harding (AP)

Sectional 19-- 3A #3 Eastbrook at #14 Leo

Sectional 16-- 4A #3 Jasper at #13 Northview

Sectioal 3-- 5A #9 Kokomo at #15 Snider

 

It is one of the most fun weekends of the year, and make sure you listen to all of the scores on Indiana Sports talk after the games.