By Noah Dalton
ELNORA — Mitchell High School continued their 2025 campaign on Friday, traveling to Elnora to take on North Daviess.
The season has been a rocky one for the Bluejackets, who’ve entered the matchup 0-6 for the year.
They were met with one of their toughest challengers of the year as they looked to turn things around, that being the Cougars, who were unbeaten heading into the game and ranked as the #10 team in Indiana’s 1A division.
The matchup appeared lopsided on paper and that was how things played out early on, with North Daviess taking a commanding lead in the first half on their way to a 52-6 victory to extend their winning streak.
The Cougars offense was hot from the start, scoring on nearly every possession they had in the first half on their way, only failing to do so once near the end of the second quarter because of a fumble.
The Bluejackets struggled to maintain pace, with the offense unable to capitalize on crucial opportunities, leading to North Daviess taking a 36-0 lead at halftime and initiating a running clock for the second half of play.
“Well, I think really they just capitalized off our miscues. We dropped a touchdown over the top, it would have been a for sure touchdown if we hadn’t dropped it. I think we had six drops in the first half,” said Bluejackets’ head coach Zach See.
“It should have been a lot closer in the first half. We had those drops, it killed some drives for us. They got the ball back, and they took advantage of it and drove it down on us.”
Mitchell managed to slow the Cougars down a bit in the second half, while also finding the end zone for a touchdown of their own, a 66-yard touchdown pass from Joe Todd to Sven Lutchka in the fourth quarter.
“I thought we started making those catches a little bit and getting a little more offensive push up front. Started moving the ball a little bit,” said See. “I felt like our offense started getting going a little bit, which helped our defense.”
Though a good effort to close the game, it was not enough to best North Daviess and their quarterback Keaton Grabers who led the way for them with four total touchdowns, two rushing and two through the air.
Having had an opportunity to square off against two of the top teams in the state, those being Springs Valley, currently ranked atop Indiana’s 1A division and now North Daviess, See has seen spurts of what his young team could be capable of against top competition.
“They can play with these guys. They can be just as good, if not better than these guys. But, there’s no secret recipe. You don’t just magically become good. You’ve got to do everything, every little tiny thing right,” he said. “I think we’re getting there. We’ve just got some youth, and we’re just going through some growing pains.”
The Bluejackets will close the regular season with two final Patoka Lake Athletic Conference matchups as they look to pick up their first win on the year.
Next up will be a battle against Paoli at Terry Cole Field, before Mitchell close the season on the road against Perry Central.
The Bluejackets will look to continue to improve for these final two games to close the regular season out strong, as they approach Sectional play with the mentality that it can be a fresh start for them and an opportunity to put some of the earlier stirges of this year behind them.
“When tournament time comes around, everybody’s 0-0, nothing matters. What happened in the regular season once tournament time comes around doesn’t matter,” said See.
“We’re going to really try to focus on what we do good, what are we not as good at. What makes us successful, what hurts us. We’re going to take those things and really focus on those things the next couple weeks and try to get that stuff rolling coming into tournament time.”
