The Washington Hatchets and North Daviess Cougars will both be looking for return trips to the championship games of their respective football sectionals this week, with the Hatchets hosting Gibson Southern in Sectional 24 and the Cougars making the long trek to Perry Central to face the Commodores in Sectional 40 on Friday.

Gibson Southern at Washington

It will be the first meeting for Washington (6-4) and former Big 8 Conference member Gibson Southern (4-6) since the 1998 state tournament, when the Titans claimed an 8-6 first round win over the Hatchets at Gibson Southern. However, the two teams are not strangers as they have been preseason scrimmage partners for several years. Hatchet coach Kelly Brashear, however, says the Titans have changed dramatically since August.

“We scrimmage them in the preseason every year, and what they are doing defensively hasn’t changed much. They’ve made a couple of adjustments, they were running a stack 4-4 and now they’re running a straight 4-4,” said Brashear. “But offensively, they’ve changed quite a bit. Early in the season, they were running a lot of spread, using the no huddle and throwing the ball a lot.

“But they weren’t having a lot of success with that, so about the third game of the season, they switched to a power I,” said Brashear. “Now they run a lot of toss, sweep, and iso stuff. They’ve been pretty successful with it the last couple of weeks.”

Though the Titans enter the game having won three of their last four outings, those wins came against Pike Central, Tell City, and, last week in opening round tourney play, Vincennes. The four teams Gibson Southern has beaten this season (including Princeton) have a combined five wins on the season, while the six teams Washington has beaten have combined for 16 victories this season. On paper, the Hatchets — who have won four of their previous six sectional games going back to the 2007 tourney — would appear to be the favorite. But Brashear is confident his senior class won’t let overconfidence creep into the Hatchet huddle.

“Our kids realize that Gibson Southern is not a bad team at all. We tend to match up very well with them, our kids will play with confidence but will know it is not going to be a runaway game,” said Brashear. “At this point our leadership with the seniors will not let our kids overlook anyone. I’ve been real proud of the way our seniors have led this team.”

Washington has played some of its best football over the last two weeks in wins at North Knox and Princeton.

Brashear says improvement in the kicking game as well as cutting down on mistakes have made the difference.

“We really have (played better), especially the penalties where they’re unforced penalties. We also had kicking game penalties, and our protection was not good,” said Brashear. “The kicking game has gotten much better the last couple of weeks, Tanner Fritschle has been putting his kickoffs in the end zone and hitting his extra points.

“Tanner has made some big plays, the offense hasn’t had the holding penalties and off sides calls, and the blocking up front has been a lot better,” said Brashear. “Maybe we’re hitting our peak at this time of the season, which is what you want.”

Game time at Hatchet Hollow is 7:30 p.m. and can be heard on WAMW.

North Daviess at Perry Central

The game of the week in the state of Indiana may well be in Leopold, where Class A No. 4 Perry Central (9-1) hosts No. 5 North Daviess (9-1) in a rematch of last year’s semifinal thriller at Perry Central, won by the Cougars 7-6.

Even though the teams don’t play in the regular season, North Daviess coach Scotty Helms is very familiar with the Commodores. The two teams are perennial Class A powers who have played in the sectional the last two years, with Perry Central claiming a 29-23 overtime win in opening round play two years ago at Perry Central. Helms says this edition of the Commodores, who have made four semistate appearances and one trip to the Class A state championship game this decade, is once again a quality group.

“Perry Central’s teams are always very well coached and fundamentally sound,” said Helms. “This season’s team is no different.”

One thing is certain to change on Friday — neither North Daviess nor Perry Central has lost to a Class A school this season, with the Cougars’ lone loss coming in week four to Class 3A Washington.

Perry Central’s only defeat was a 14-13 loss to undefeated and Class 2A No. 3 Paoli two weeks ago.

Helms says his main concern is the Commodores’ power running game, which is something the Cougars will have to stop on Friday.

Perry Central is averaging almost 35 ppg this season on offense, while North Daviess is surrendering just slightly over six ppg on defense.

“They have the ability to run the football north and south. They come right at you. We haven’t really faced any teams that do that consistently yet this season,” said Helms. “It will be a huge challenge for our defensive line and linebackers.”

Despite the quality of the opponent, the keys to winning remain the same for North Daviess according to Helms.

“Same as always — stop the run, maintain good field position with our special teams, and control the football and tempo,” said Helms. “We must live by a one play at a time attitude this week.”

Game time is 7:30 p.m. and the contest can be heard on WRZR.