North Season Ends

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Tri-County North's season did not end the way that they had hoped.  Their first round playoff game was against Miami East - a CCC league team that had battled North to overtime in the regular season and won by 3 points.  So the the rematch was expected to be another battle. But instead Miami East dominated North.  In the first half they scored on almost every possession while holding North to a series of three and outs.  North had a good drive at the end of the half to score. Then the inspired defense held East and North got the ball back again with a little over a minute left.  But that drive ended at about the 25 of  Miami East with about 10 seconds left when a defender picked off a pass in the endzone.  That was as close as North came to mounting a comeback as Miami East kept using both the pass and run to keep North's defense off balance in the second half and only allowed a second TD in the waning minutes of the game.  Miami East wins their first playoff game 38-14 and advances to the second round.

North didn't seem like the team that went toe to toe with undefeated Covington and gave them the best game that they had all season.  After that game the team seemed to realize that they were vincible. North was 1 for 3 in their last three regular season games and had a tough outing against Miami East in this playoff game.  Still they had a winning season and were playing in week 11 when a lot of teams were sitting home.  Looking forward they only graduate a handful of seniors, and return a boatload of starters.  4 year starting quarterback Austin Hutchins will be hard to replace, but North under Derringer seems to be in a reload, not rebuild status.  So expect the team to continue to do well next season.

Miami East seems to have caught a rhythm and are peaking at the right time - in the post season.  They are playing tough defense, and the offense has multiple weapons that they can use. Miami East and Covington will carry the CCC banner in week 12.  The Covington/Marion Local game will be a battle royale.  Will this be the season that Covington advances in the playoffs past a MAC team? If they do, it won't be easy. Marion had some injuries towards the end of the season, but word is that those injured players will be back for the Covington game.  But this will be the game to watch come Friday.

Trail lost their opening round game to a tough Mechanicsburg team. But it has been a record setting season for Trail, the seniors can look back with pride on a successful season. And the the underclassmen have this winter to work on where they need to be next year.  South has shown signs of life.  And with a few breaks, they could have been a playoff team.  They had some winnable games in the loss column.  So congrats for coach Tyler Cates for putting South back on the map.  Mississinewa is showing signs of life.  The patient is still on the gurney, but they stopped their losing streak.  The team still needs numbers, but Graher has had success in the past with the BlackHawks.