Best Bets: Indiana – Sectional Finals

The Eastern Indiana Athletic Conference has had a good start to this post-season. There are three teams still alive and representing the league well. EIAC Class 3A foes Lawrenceburg and Batesville will battle for sectional supremacy. Elsewhere, East Central hopes to be the stars of the EIAC’s 4A division by capturing a victory on their home turf.

Class 3A, Sectional 30

Lawrenceburg (7-4) at Batesville (10-1), Friday, 7:00 p.m. – This game will feature a rematch of a September 25th affair that saw Batesville win on the road 29-14 after a sloppy start. That was the first of what now is six wins in a row for the Bulldogs. They have done it with defense, allowing just 10 points per contest in that span.

Lawrenceburg has also been perfect since then. The Tigers are averaging 52.4 points per contest in their last five outings. Perhaps even more pleasing to head coach Ryan Knigga is that his young Lawrenceburg defense is allowing just eight points per outing during their current five-game winning streak.

Running back Austin Bowling has 27 rushing touchdowns for Lawrenceburg. He finds the end zone once every 6.6 carries. Tigers’ receiver Jordan Houze can make the big play as well. He has 24 receptions for 561 yards (23.4/catch) and eight touchdowns.

The last sectional crown for Lawrenceburg was in 2012. The Tigers will be looking for the 17th sectional title in program history. Batesville, who improved to 10-1, last won a sectional title in 2009. The program has eight sectional crowns. On defense, Mason Parris has been a beast with 141 total tackles (60 solo), four sacks, 19 tackles for losses and five fumble recoveries. Batesville will spread the wealth on offense between quarterback Leo Enneking and running backs Zach Mears, John Gerstbauer and Jacob Koehne.

Class 4A, Sectional 23

Seymour (5-6) at East Central (9-2), Friday, 7:00 p.m. – It has been a balanced offense that has seen Seymour soar. The Owls have won five of their last six contests. The reason for the turnaround after a 0-5 start has been junior Zach Carpenter, who has a great ability to run the football. That has taken pressure off of sophomore quarterback Alan Perry. Carpenter has rushed for 584 of his 807 yards and all five of his touchdowns this season during the last six contests.

Perry has come on strong accounting for 1,260 yards of total offense (938 passing, 328 rushing) and 16 touchdowns (11 passing, five rushing) the last four weeks. Seymour is averaging 41 points per game in that span. They averaged 22.5 during their 1-6 start. Jake Morris and Luke Dover lead the squad with 10 touchdowns. Chris Knight paces the Owls defense with a team-high 105 total tackles and seven takeaways (four interceptions, three fumble recoveries).

East Central will dare Seymour to stop the run. Quarterback Luke Patton has rushed for 1,283 yards, thrown for 1,128 yards while accounting for 31 touchdowns (25 passing, six rushing).

Doug Rosemeyer has 1,195 yards and 11 touchdowns rushing. Like their opponent, the Trojans have also been hot on offense by averaging 43 points over their last seven tilts.

A trio of seniors is the core of the East Central defense. Hunter Armstrong, Jacob Steinmetz and Dusty Ward have combined for six sacks and 17 tackles for losses. A group of talented underclassmen compliment that group very well.

Kicker Nick Stidham has the leg to end the game for the Trojans and it might just come down to that. He is 38-of-40 on extra points and has connected on all seven of his field goal attempts.

Seymour hasn’t won a sectional championship since 2001. All four of the Owls’ sectional titles came within an 11-year span from 1991 and 2001. East Central is looking for the 16th sectional crown in school history. The Trojans last captured the title in 2010.

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