By CRAIG ADKINS
For The Reporter
All eight Hamilton County teams will be in action this week, playing for a chance at a sectional championship next Friday.
With roughly half as many teams, Classes 5A and 6A had last week off while Classes 4A through 1A had the spotlight. Hamilton Heights, Guerin Catholic and Sheridan all had dominating wins in their first-round matchups last week.
The Golden Eagles and Huskies are set for an all-county semifinal and Sheridan heads to Clinton Prairie for the second time in six weeks.
Class 3A Sectional 29: IFCA No. 14 Guerin Catholic (5-5) at AP No. 11 Hamilton Heights (4-6)
It’s only happened a couple of times, but the Golden Eagles and Huskies will meet again in sectional play. Guerin holds a 2-0 edge in the two meetings, both in Noblesville. In 2021, it was a narrow win over Heights, 21-20 and knocked out the Huskies in the sectional championship game in 2014, 28-20. This time, the two will duke it out in Arcadia at Husky Stadium.
Guerin Catholic’s first round game seemed to be over in the first quarter against the visiting West Vigo Vikings. With three dominating quarters, the Golden Eagles simply wore out West Vigo.
Quarterback Malcolm Houze ran in the first touchdown and running back Jack Linden followed with two for a 21-0 lead after one.
Linden scored his third early in the second and Trevor Macey caught Houze’s first TD pass that made it a 35-0 halftime score.
Julian Melendez caught a 20-yard score from Houze and Linden added his fourth rushing TD to account for the 49-0 final.
Linden ran just 12 times for 94 yards, scoring every three carries. Houze passed 10 of 13 for 151 yards. His main target was tight end Julian Melendez with five catches for 81 and a TD.
Hamilton Heights went on the road and got a big neutral site win at Decatur Central over Speedway, 41-7.
After a scoreless first quarter, Speedway scored first with 7:14 left in the second, but the Huskies responded quickly.
Joey Sigler connected with Tyler Champion for a 59-yard touchdown pass to tie it 7-7. Heights scored again with 1:27 left in the half on a Sigler run for a 14-7 halftime lead.
Rinse and repeat in the third as Sigler found Champion again, this time from 20-yards and Sigler then ran in another that made it 28-7.
In the fourth, Sigler spread the wealth. A couple of minutes into the quarter, he found Justin Overton for a 25-yard TD pass and tossed another to Keaton Weaver from 17-yards away that accounted for the final score of 41-7.
Sigler, Nathan Flanders and Logan Hickman combined for 146 rushing yards. Sigler also completed 10 of his 14 passes for 250 yards and four TDs. Champion had another 100-plus game with four catches and 107 and two scores. Keaton Weaver caught two for 63, Hickman one for 41 and Overton one for 25.
The bottom of the sectional 29 bracket features No. 8 Cascade (10-0) at Tri-West (6-4) in the second semifinal.
*The winner of Guerin Catholic and Hamilton Heights will play in the Sectional 29 championship game on Nov. 8 at either Cascade or Tri-West.
Class 1A Sectional 46: Sheridan (5-5) at Clinton Prairie (5-5)
The Blackhawks and Gophers are quite familiar with each other. The Hoosier Heartland Conference rivals have seen each other 22 times now, with Sheridan holding a 19-3 record in those. Sheridan won the regular season meeting in Frankfort, 24-6. Sheridan has won eight in a row against the Gophers. CP hasn’t beat Sheridan since 2015 (32-19).
Sheridan’s Jon Barnes, shown here in an earlier game, ran for three touchdowns during the Blackhawks’ win at Clinton Central. (Allison Waitt)
Sheridan’s first round game was one they can build. Taking down another HHC foe in Clinton Central 44-6, the Blackhawks are fully in playoff mode.
They busted through the gate with three first-quarter touchdowns to make their presence known in Michigantown.
Three different players found paydirt. Jon Barnes got it started with a 22-yard TD run less than four minutes in. Dayne Voege caught a 21-yard touchdown pass from Owen Bell and Alex Cravens ran one in from two-yards for a 21-0 first, stunning the Bulldogs.
Bell booted a 32-yard field goal for the lone points with 1:06 left in the second for a 24-0 halftime lead.
Jacob Hall’s 40-yard rushing score and another from Barnes made it 38-6 through three. Barnes added his third touchdown just into the fourth for the final score of the game to make it 44-6.
The Gophers shut out Irvington Prep in the first-round last week, 60-0.
Kurt Schlicher is in his third season (16-15) at Clinton Prairie and is 18-43 overall in six seasons, with a previous stint at Crawfordsville where he went 2-28 from 2019-21.
CP lost its season opener at Frontier, 36-26, but then won three in a row. The Gophers beat Frankfort (32-6) and Clinton Central (28-26) at home and grabbed a road win at Tri-Central (34-24) to get off to a 3-1 record.
Their record then evened at 3-3 with losses to Sheridan (24-6) and at Delphi in OT (14-8).
Heading into the playoffs, they lost two of three. They beat Taylor (48-7) but lost big at Carroll 42-0 and at Eastern 49-15.
*If Sheridan wins at Clinton Prairie, the Blackhawks will host the Sectional 46 championship game against either Cloverdale or Indianapolis Tindley on Nov. 8.