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The Class 1A State Championship featuring #3 Pioneer (13-1) and #3 South Putnam (12-2) will stream via PPV on IHSAAtv.org this Friday at 11 am ET / 10 CT!

INDIANAPOLIS - The opening kickoff of the 2025 IHSAA Football State Finals on Friday at Lucas Oil Stadium marks two key things for the state of Indiana: the chance for four of eight high school teams to etch their names into the record books across two days, and a nitty-gritty 1A matchup between the Pioneer Panthers and South Putnam Eagles hinging on ground control, ball security and defense.

Despite running largely different offensive schemes, the No. 3 Panthers and No. 2 Eagles both have playbooks designed around the run game. While Pioneer’s offense features a spread of four potential ball runners, headlined by fullback Noah Van Meter’s 1,449 yards on the season, South Putnam pairs standout running back Ty Benton with four receivers averaging 30-plus yards per game.

“[Balancing the run game] is something that I wanted to do last year. Every year I say we need to be more balanced, especially with our style of offense,” Pioneer head coach Adam Berry said. “It’s deception, it’s hiding the ball, it’s carrying out fakes. Last year turned out to be more quarterback and fullback, so teams knew [the wings] weren’t really getting the ball. One of the things that I did better this year was relying on those two running backs.”

Van Meter, wingback Shiloh Rine and quarterback Micah Rans lead the group of four main rushers, all with 1,000-plus yards on the season. Following quickly behind is wingback Phillip McFatridge, just 68 yards shy of the four-figure milestone on the season.

While Van Meter is the lone rusher to average over 100 yards per game with over 200 carries, it’s anyone’s guess who might handle the ball among the others.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had four 1,000-yard rushers. It’s pretty special [having] extremely hard runners,” Berry said. “Another thing that allows that is we have a very unselfish team. They don’t care who gets the bulk of the carries or who the leading runner is that night. All they care about is the scoreboard at the end of the game, and I think that has helped us get to this point.”

While South Putnam’s defense might be handed a guessing game in terms of who runs the ball for Pioneer, the passing game is a much quieter threat. Rans has completed 20 of 46 passing attempts on the season for an average of 28.1 yards per game.

Eagles’ safety Keenan Mowery-Shields leads the state with 229 tackles this season, including 18.5 for loss and 5.5 sacks, as a key player in slowing the Panthers’ run game.

“Our defense is set up to play gap assignment football,” South Putnam head coach Chuck Sorrell said. “The good thing is, we’ve played this same type of offense now for four weeks, so just making sure we’re crisp in that. Pioneer is going to go motion all over the place – they’re going to look like the ball’s going right, but it’s going to come back left. Our linebackers and guys have to stay home, fill their gaps, and make them earn what they get.”

In addition to prioritizing high-scoring, dynamic offenses, there’s a key focus for both teams on adapting to opponent’s strengths defensively. The spread of points per game and points allowed per game averages out, with South Putnam’s 5.3-point advantage of points scored (43.4 vs. 38.1) erased via Pioneer’s 5.3-point margin in points allowed (10.4 vs. 15.7).

Pioneer’s lone loss on the season came on Aug. 29 against Knox and the state’s best running back Myles McLaughlin when they surrendered a season-high 38 points. The loss served a lesson in preparation for their next test, with Benton’s 1,452 yards ranking second in the state.

“We kept watching Saturday morning film [following the loss] and look what happens against a great running back if all 11 [players do their jobs], you can at least help contain them,” Berry said. “We’re going to see a tremendous running back this coming week. Getting that experience and seeing a lot of run-heavy teams over the course of the season hopefully will help us out this coming Friday.”

With Benton at the helm of the offense, South Putnam has the ability to use a wide spread of receiving weapons to diversify its offense.

Wide receiver Bransyn Ensor and tight end Kahlil Jefferson each average over 40 receiving yards per game at the hands of quarterback Drew Cline. Cline has completed 107 of 190 attempts for 25 touchdowns and over 2,000 yards this season.

“Our offense builds through Ty,” Sorrell said. “Our pass game, we’re going to fake the ball to Ty and throw the ball to somebody else. If you start spreading out to cover our receivers, we’re going to hand the ball to Ty.

“We had three big throwing touchdowns last week. We rushed for three and threw for three, and that’s as balanced as you can be in the state of Indiana as far as offense is considered.”

As far as playing on the biggest stage Indiana high school football has to offer, Pioneer’s last trip to the finals game in 2018 to cap a three-year streak of appearances and back-to-back championships in 2017 and ‘18. South Putnam, on the other hand, hasn’t appeared since finishing runner-up in 2008 and hasn’t won a football final since 1986.

Pioneer is looking for its fourth 1A state championship, following Sheridan’s nine and Lafayette Central Catholic’s eight. This would be South Putnam’s second title in school history and fourth regardless of sport, joining the softball team’s back-to-back state championships in 2011 and 2012 (2A).

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