Though the Jackson Bowl is over, there is still plenty of football left to be played and a lot left to play for.
I know it’s cliche, but it’s hard to believe we’re already at Week 7 of the season; it feels like last Friday was the first weekend for Friday night lights.
Yet, here we are, with three weeks left in the regular season and just a week away from the tournament draw date.
Last weekend’s Jackson Bowl showed two teams trending in different directions. The Braves are continuing their steep rise to another undefeated season while the Owls’ back-to-back losses have hurt their chances at improving last year’s win total.
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Brownstown Central’s tried and true run-heavy offense pummeled Seymour to keep their perfect 6-0 record intact. The win, and the way in which they won, was impressive considering the Owls are one of the tougher teams the Braves will face all season.
Moving into the final three weeks of the season, the Braves have a strong chance at repeating as Mid-Southern Conference champions.
Two of their next three opponents — Scottsburg and Clarksville — have a combined three wins so far this year. Sandwiched in between those games is a showdown with Silver Creek.
The Dragons, just like the Braves, are 6-0 and are hoping to win their first ever league crown.
Though each team will still have a conference game remaining after they play each other, their October 11 duel will serve as the de facto conference championship game. A win would give the Braves their 21st Mid-Southern title. It could perhaps serve as the first of many trophies for the 2019 edition of Braves’ football.
Brownstown Central has never lost to Silver Creek since they joined the conference in 2011.
For Seymour, while they’ve lost their last two games, they’ve only dropped them by slim margins.
Yes, the Owls were overpowered at the start of the Jackson Bowl with the exception of Chandler Drummond’s 94-yard scamper for a touchdown, but they showed life late to keep the game close at the end.
The Owls have shown tremendous fight in each of their losses to Bedford North Lawrence and Brownstown Central and they’ll need to keep it up if they want to keep their Hoosier Hills Conference goals alive.
Unlike their Jackson County rivals, the Owls’ last three games of the season are anything but easy.
In terms of wins, this Friday’s game at New Albany would be the easiest left on the schedule for the Owls. The Bulldogs have posted just one victory so far this year, a 26-6 win at the start of the season over Evansville Harrison.
But then the real headaches start for the Owls with back-to-back games against Columbus East and Floyd Central.
The Olympians have had the Owls’ number for the last decade and a half. Seymour’s last win over their orange-clad rivals came during an October sectional game where the Owls won 28-13.
Their relationship with the Highlanders over the years has been more favorable with the teams splitting their last four meetings. However, the Owls will have to contend with Floyd Central’s Wenkers Wright, who has rushed for just over 1,000 yards and 12 touchdowns in four games according to MaxPreps.
Wright had been putting up highlight tapes over the season until they ran into the Columbus East juggernaut last Friday.
These next three weeks will decide the Hoosier Hills race as all three aforementioned teams are the top three teams in the conference. Only Columbus East is still undefeated in conference play with BNL and Madison left on the schedule in addition to Seymour.
Seymour has shown a lot of fight in the face of adversity, especially late in games, but they’ll need to show fight throughout the entirety of the next three contests if they want to derail the Columbus East train of 14-straight conference titles.