Game 4: On The Road To Avon

The Tigers enter week 4 with a 2-1 record and seeking continued improvement on both sides of line.  The Westfield 3OT win proved these Tigers have the heart to battle on and pull through.  This week’s game pits the Tigers traveling to an always dangerous Avon Orioles that are 1-2 and are looking to get to not lose more ground in the conference standings.  Avon’s performance through the first 3 weeks is as follows:

@ HSE        loss 7-28

vs WHS       loss 15-17

@ Harrison  won 34-0

Throwing out a disappointing outing in week 1 against HSE, we may conclude that Avon is playing well enough to be one of the top teams in conference and their close loss to Westfield has to be a sign for the Tigers that ball security and field position will loom large.  Avon has the weapons and always seem to start slowly before surging during the course of the schedule and should never be taken lightly, especially when they love to play their best against Fishers.

Avon is a big team up front and is led on offense by #18 sophomore QB Brandon Peters who threw for 101 yards against Harrison last week 6’5”, 210 lb pro-style quarterback Richie Steinmetz and #46 junior RB David Schall who ran for an impressive 232 yards last week and 2 TDs on 18 carries .  Other offensive threats include senior TB #20 Tijuan Johnson running from the I formation and being a passing threat plus additional receiver threats senior #16 Cress Kimbrough and senior #87 Sam Bloom.  Big O lineman junior #53 Zach Ryan is also a tougher one to get past.  The offensive line is prone to breakdowns and Peters runs well enough to evade the breakdown and continue to look for a receiver.  Peters does have a tendency to look at his target the whole way and may be improving on looking at progressions.  Tiger defensive secondary will need to stick tightly and close on Peters' targets whether he is able to stay in the pocket or is scrambling out of trouble.  Don't let Kimbrough get separation on the corner route.

Defensively, Avon returns 9 starters, is a quick team as usual and are led by the Belden brothers, senior #54 Ryan Belden who primarily plays OL and junior #44 Joey Belden, as well as an impressive group that includes Miami OH commit #54 Mack Duffin, D1 caliber senior DB #32 David Griffith and senior #85 Chad Scaggs that has made an impressive switch to the defensive side of the ball.

Avon at Westfield game link: YOUTUBE

Other conference matchups this week (all 7pm friday night):

Westfield at Brownsburg

HSE at Zionsville

Harrison at McCutcheon

Jeff at Noblesville

Conference Standings:

Hoosier Crossroads Conference as of end of week3
	record	PF	PA
Fishers	2-1	123	103
Westfield	2-1	104	76
Hamilton SE	2-1	96	58
McCutcheon	2-1	76	70
Noblesville	2-1	62	44
Zionsville	2-1	34	46
Avon	1-2	56	45
Brownsburg	1-2	55	91
Jefferson	1-2	48	32
Harrison	0-3	13	102

Note:  Avon, having played Westfield and HSE, are among the best defenses in the conference.  We will wait till the opponents becoming a lot stronger to judge if Laf. Jeff has one of the best defenses in the conferences.  Likewise with Noblesville and Zionsville.