WEEK 10: Lots of high school football seasons to end Friday

Oct. 22—Friday is the last night of high school football for approximately half the teams in the Wabash Valley.

In Illinois, it's the last night of the regular season and less than half of Illinois teams qualify for postseason play.

Playoffs begin Friday in Indiana, so half the teams that play will be putting away their equipment after the game.

—Terre Haute North (3-6) vs. Indianapolis Cathedral (8-1) at Arlington Middle School, 7 p.m. — The Irish have been ranked No. 1 in Class 5A all season and in the national top 25 at least part of the season. Their loss was a week ago on the road at Center Grove, the top-ranked Class 6A team that's also in the top 10 nationally, and Cathedral led that game at halftime.

A big job for the Patriots, in other words.

—West Vigo (3-4) at Tri-West (7-2), 7 p.m. — The Vikings face a long bus ride to play a team ranked 10th in Class 3A. Both teams beat Crawfordsville handily, while the Bruins' losses were one-touchdown games against Class 3A's fourth-ranked Danville and Lebanon.

—Northview (7-1) at Jasper (9-0), 7 p.m. — A potential championship game for Class 4A's Sectional 24. The Knights have beaten their last two foes by a combined 104-0 and appear to be peaking at the right time, while the Wildcats — who beat the Knights 35-28 in a sectional opener two seasons ago — beat Evansville Memorial in the season opener and went on to win the Southern Indiana Athletic Conference.

Memorial, ranked eighth, is in this sectional too, by the way.

—Sullivan (7-2) at Owen Valley (7-1), 7 p.m. — The Golden Arrows won 24-14 at Spencer a month ago and take a six-game winning streak into this game.

The Patriots would no doubt like to avenge their only loss in a game that's the de facto championship of Class 3A Sectional 30.

—South Vermillion (4-5) at Lafayette Central Catholic (5-4), 7 p.m. — Class 2A's Sectional 37 got two-time state champion Western Boone out of the way thanks to the success factor, but is still loaded with potential contenders.

LCC hasn't lost to any pussycats — sixth-ranked Tipton twice, Class 3A's 10th-ranked Tri-West by two points and Class 3A's top-ranked West Lafayette — and are among those contenders, but the Wildcats can usually score enough to make any game interesting.

—Linton (9-0) at Tell City (5-4), 7 p.m. — Class 2A's fifth-ranked Miners are making their second straight trip to the Ohio River to begin play in Sectional 40, and can't afford to look past the Marksmen to a possible home game the following week against Evansville Mater Dei. Tell City's two best wins have come against Class A powers Perry Central and Springs Valley.

—Parke Heritage (7-2) at Attica (0-6), 7 p.m. — The Wabash River Conference game between these two was one of the games the Red Ramblers lost to COVID situations. The fifth-ranked Wolves also appear to be peaking at the right time.

—Riverton Parke (2-6) at Cloverdale (0-7), 7 p.m. — The Panthers beat the Clovers 61-7 at home a month ago.

----In Illinois:

—Newton (4-4, 3-4 Little Illini Conference) at Marshall (0-8, 0-7), 7 p.m. — The Eagles are trying to keep playoff hopes alive. Perhaps this is the week the Lions rise up.

—Robinson (3-5, 3-4 LIC) at Olney (4-4, 3-3), 7 p.m. — Both teams have had their ups and downs during the year, so this could go either way.

—Mount Carmel (8-0, 7-0 LIC) at Paris (6-2, 4-2), 7 p.m. — Who invited these guys to join our conference? The Golden Aces have already clinched the LIC championship and a playoff berth and the Tigers are also playoff-bound.

—Casey (5-3, 4-3 LIC) at Red Hill (2-6, 1-4), 7 p.m. — The Warriors also appear to be headed to the playoffs, but could use a win here to assure that. The Salukis' wins were a blowout against Oblong and a squeaker over Marshall.

—Lawrenceville (5-3) at Oblong-Palestine-Hutsonville (1-7), 7 p.m. — OPH got its first win last week against Dugger Union.

—Martinsville (6-2) at Galva (0-8), 8 p.m. Saturday — The Bluestreaks got back on the winning track with a nice win last week at Champaign St. Thomas More and should be heavily favored in this one. There are no playoffs yet for Illinois 8-man football, however.