GOSHEN — This is Week 5 of the high school football season, but the Goshen RedHawks due to COVID-19 related situations are preparing to play just their second game.
All teams in Elkhart County missed Week 1 due to an order of the Elkhart Health Department, while the Goshen program was shut down the past two weeks due to a positive coronavirus test. The RedHawks (1-0) returned to practice this past Saturday to get ready for a visit to Jake Field in Dunlap and a Northern Lakes Conference meeting with the Concord Minutemen (2-1 overall, 1-1 in the NLC) Friday evening.
“It was tough on me and it was tough on the kids,” Goshen coach Kyle Park said. “It felt really good to get back to practice Saturday. The players had a lot of energy. There didn’t seem to be any letdown.
“It was good to get back into our normal game-week routine on Monday. It was good to knock some of the rust off Saturday. In a way, it felt like the beginning of the season except the players knew what they were supposed to be doing.”
Goshen is not alone in this situation of missing games due to COVID-19. Two schools — Anderson Prep Academy and Calumet — have yet to play a single contest. Both schools only have three games on their season schedule at this point.
Cambridge City Lincoln, DeKalb, East Chicago Central and Southport have only played one contest. There are 27 other schools that have been on the gridiron twice.
Union Dugger, Hammond, Hammond Clark, Hammond Gavit, Hammond Morton, Indiana Deaf and Southern Wells canceled their seasons.
LAST SEASON
Concord was a 45-0 winner a year ago and have won three in a row in the series since a 28-25 RedHawk win at Concord in 2016. This will be the 66th meeting in the series with Goshen holding a 36-29 advantage.
“My biggest fear as it would be with any coach is that we are going up against a pretty good team that has three games under their belt while we have just one,” Park said.
“Concord is a well-coached team. The Minutemen have two really good running backs (junior Will Odhiambo and sophomore Titus Hackworth) who are very quick. If you miss a tackle either one can take it the distance. They also have two quality receivers (juniors Jack D’Arcy and Amarion Moore). Those guys make it hard to defend the whole field.”
Concord’s “Strike Force” defense is allowing an average of 242.5 yards of total offense in NLC games.
“Their linebackers are very aggressive and the defensive line really gets off the ball,” Park said. “They have a lot of speed up front and it is going to come down to how well we play and if we can get our running game going.”
Goshen’s win was a 43-6 decision at South Bend Clay back on Aug. 28. Senior running back Drew Worthman was the leading rusher with 60 yards on 12 carries followed by senior quarterback Colin Turner 37 on 11. Worthman rushed foe two touchdowns, Turner and sophomore Quinn Bechtel one apiece.
Turner completed 10-of-20 passes for 135 yards and two TDs. Senior Liam Deegan caught four passes for 34 yards and a TD, Bechtel two for 26 and junior Brayden Hinkel one for 37 and a TD.
The RedHawks’ defense limited Clay to 40 total yards of offense on 56 plays. The Colonials rushed for minus 28 yards and passed for 68.
Leaders for Goshen on defense were junior linebacker Roman Schrock five tackles and six assists, junior defensive line Duncan Green five and two and junior linebacker Mitch Daniels four and one. The RedHawks had a whooping 15 tackles for losses. Green had four, junior Isaiah Park and Daniels both three.
MORE NLC GAMES
The Northridge Raiders (3-0, 2-0 NLC) host the Warsaw Tigers (3-1, 2-0) putting their scoreless streak on the line. So far this season the Raiders have outscored three opponents 106-0. Northridge is the last team in the state to not have allowed any points this season.
Warsaw comes into the game averaging 32.8 points per game on offense while allowing 30.5 per contest on defense. The Tigers’ triple-option offense is racking up 308.5 rushing yards per NLC contest and 35.0 passing yards.
Northridge’s defense has been very stingy yielding minus 18.5 rushing yards and 76.0 passing. The Raider offense is grinding out 270.0 rushing yards and 64.5 passing per game in the league.
Warsaw was a 28-13 winner over the Raiders last season. The Tigers have won two in a row in the series since a 24-6 Northridge victory in 2017.
The NorthWood Panthers (1-1, 1-0) travel to Wawasee (2-2, 0-2) this week. NorthWood was idle last week with the Goshen game being canceled while Wawasee dropped a 28-7 decision to Concord in a game that started on Friday night but had to be completed Saturday morning due to power failure at Jake Field in Dunlap.
NorthWood was a 40-10 winner a year ago and the Panthers have won five straight in the series since a 27-21 Wawasee win in 2014.
NorthWood rushed for 73 yards and passed for 171 in their lone NLC game against Concord. Wawasee is averaging 24.5 yards rushing and 101.5 passing in NLC action.
NECC CONTEST
The West Noble Chargers (0-4, 0-1 in the Northeast Corner Conference) entertains the Fairfield Falcons (3-0). It’s the first NECC Big Division contest for the Falcons who are coming off a 44-13 home win over the Fremont Eagles in Week 4. West Noble fell 41-0 to the Angola Hornets last Friday.
The Falcons have scored a total of 133 points this season while allowing a mere 25. The 13 points in last week’s game with Fremont is a season-high.
West Noble has tallied 14 points for far while giving up 133.
The Chargers defeated Fairfield 38-6 a year ago and have won four straight in the series since a 41-18 Falcon victory in 2015.
NIC SHOWDOWN
The Elkhart Lions (3-0) host the Penn Kingsmen (2-2) Friday at Rice Field in Elkhart.
Oddly, this will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools. Penn’s first season of football was in 1958 and the Kingsmen never played Elkhart Central or Elkhart Memorial (after Elkhart split into two schools for the 1972 season) until 1975 when Penn recorded a 20-7 win over Central.
Penn’s two losses for far this season are to the Valparaiso Vikings (17-16) No. 2 -ranked in Class 5A and to the Indianapolis Cathedral Fighting Irish (52-7) No.1-ranked in 5A.
Penn became a full member of the Northern Indiana Conference in 1977. Prior to that the Kingsmen were in the Northern Indiana Valley Conference with Mishawaka Marian, South Bend Clay, South Bend Jackson, South Bend St. Joseph and South Bend LaSalle.
