Kokomo — Mid-Indiana Conference football competition begins tonight and based on recent history, Lewis Cass and Hamilton Heights are good bets to challenge for the top spot. They have combined to win the last seven conference championships, sharing the hardware last season.

Veteran Cass coach Scott Mannering sees a formidable challenger rising in 2010: Northwestern.

“This looks to me like the best team they’ve had in several years,” Mannering said. “A lot of people think they are the team to beat in the MIC this year and after seeing their first two games, I’d have to agree with that. I think they have a lot of weapons offensively and they are really strong defensively. I don’t see too many weaknesses in their team.”

Northwestern coach John Hendryx chuckled when informed that Mannering had pegged his team as the MIC favorite.

“That Holtz over there in Galveston drives me crazy,” Hendryx quipped, referring to former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz’s penchant for talking up his opponent.

Class 2A No. 10-ranked Cass (1-1) visits Class 2A No. 11 Northwestern (2-0) tonight for an early conference showdown. The Kings have won the last 11 meetings between the border rivals, a streak that dates back to 2000. The Tigers seemed to close the gap between the two teams in a pair of meetings last season, but they still came up short.

The Tigers hope to break the Kings’ dominance in the series tonight. “I think [the Tiger players] are looking forward to [tonight]. It’s our conference opener and it’s a rival of ours,” Hendryx said, “but our big thing is we want to be better this Friday than we were last Friday. If that is enough to win, great. If it’s not, then we need to find out some of the things that we’re not doing very well. We have a long ways to go until the [state] tournament starts so we just want to keep making improvements.”

Hendryx is impressed with the Kings, who are breaking in new players at many positions.

“I think it’s a typical Cass team. The faces and names change, but the style of football and the level of play doesn’t,” he said. “They’re physical on both sides of the ball and they do a good job of running that [wing-T] offense. They have a great fullback [Josh Knutson] and good wingbacks. I think they’re trying to pound the ball at you a little bit, trying to let the quarterback [Jake Stover] come into his own, but he already has two touchdown passes in two games.”

Cass went 1-1 in its non-conference games, beating Class A power Pioneer before falling to defending Class 3A state champion West Lafayette last week. The Kings’ schedule doesn’t let up with Northwestern tonight and Hamilton Heights next week.

“I thought we made a lot of progress the last week,” Mannering said. “Even though we didn’t win, I thought we played better against West Lafayette than we did against Pioneer. Of course, most teams should play better in Week 2 than Week 1.

“For us, I think controlling [Northwestern’s] offense is a real concern. [QB] Tanner Martin, I think, is a very good athlete who is a run-pass threat. Combine him with the other skill guys they have at the wingback and fullback [spots] … they play a lot of people and they’re all quick and they all run hard, and their offensive line is solid too. Our big challenge is going to be from a defensive standpoint, whether or not we can stop them.”

Western (1-1) at Taylor (1-1)

Both teams hope to rebound from disappointing losses last week. Western fell 49-13 at home to Eastbrook, digging a seven-touchdown deficit before denting the scoreboard, while Taylor fell 27-13 at Tri-Central and hurt its own cause with four turnovers.

“We got those two [non-conference] games out of the way and now you’re going to start with one of the more important things to you and that’s conference,” Western coach Alix Engle said. “We’ve got to get back on track. Eastbrook is a heck of a team but we didn’t play a good game at all in any aspect. [It’s] very important for our varsity group to get back on track here and start doing some things right.”

He emphasized that each team gets a clean slate with the first week of MIC action.

“The main thing that I have talked about with our team this week is attitude and effort,” Ousley said. “I think we have gotten away from that. We have to have the right attitude and put that with great effort. If we can do those things, we can find success again.”

Western beat Taylor 52-6 last season and Ousley expects another ready Panther squad.

“Western is a good football team, with a good coach,” he said. “They run the ball really well and are very creative in how they do it. We are going to have to be on our best game to slow them down. Defensively, they are doing a lot of good things as well. It’s going to take a great effort from our kids to be successful.”

Western struggled to generate offense last week. No Panther rusher had more than 35 yards, though the team amassed 172 total, and the Western passing game connected on just three passes.

Taylor quarterback Tyler Gordon connected on 16 of 29 passes last week for 137 yards.

“They’ve got some athletic kids,” Engle said. “They’ve got some guys that present problems. They’ve got guys with quick feet on the outside, they’ve got a new running back [Braxton Barbary] who has quick feet and make people miss.”

Both squads had trouble defensively last week as Taylor surrendered 297 yards on the ground and 132 through the air to TC while Western gave up 439 on the ground to Eastbrook.

Muncie Central (0-2) at No. 9 Kokomo (2-0)

The Class 5A No. 9-ranked Wildkats welcome the Bearcats to town tonight for their North Central Conference opener with two streaks on the line. Kokomo has won 22 straight NCC games and 18 straight regular season games.

Muncie Central is coming off of a 54-6 drubbing at the hands of Muncie Southside, but poses a threat to Kokomo with the amount of different-looking offensive sets they will put on the field.

“They are going to throw 20 or 30 formations at us,” Kokomo coach Brett Colby said. “So, we are going to have to be sharp and focused on our assignments. That’s something we’ve worked hard on all week. That’s the big thing. If we’re lined up correctly, and we have our assignments taken care of on the field, hopefully our defense will step up and play some solid football, and we will win the line of scrimmage battle on that side.”

Although the Wildkats have defeated their opponents by an average of 24 points per game on the first two games, Colby said that many aspects need further sharpening, aspects that he thinks will improve as his teams gains varsity experience.

“We have to maintain blocks a lot better, and we need to eliminate penalties and fumbles,” Colby said “We aren’t sticking on blocks very well at any level — line, or running back. Our running back blocking was atrocious [last week] at Arlington. We’ve really made that an emphasis this week, and we really want to see some improvement in that aspect. If you don’t block well as a running back in this offense, you’re probably not going to be able to carry the ball, because you have to do your job on that side before you get rewarded with carries. That’s been made loud and clear this week.

“This is not a young team. We have only two sophomores starting out of 22 positions. But, it’s a young team as far as being on the varsity football field. A third of our season is over after [tonight], and we need to see that we’re on the right track for improvement.”

Eastern (2-0) at Peru (0-2)

The Comets have turned some heads with their first 2-0 start since 1997.

“Being 2-0 is very exciting for all who are involved, not just the players, but the school and the community as well,” coach Josh Edwards said. “I have never seen our kids this focused each week. These kids believe that they will win each and every game when they step on the field.”

Eastern is looking to build on the strides it made in the Mid-Indiana Conference last season. Eastern went 3-32 in MIC games in 2004-08, but forged a 3-4 record in 2009. Now, it’s shooting for its first upper-division finish since 2003.

“Our team is very hungry for the conference play,” Edwards said. “They have some goals that they want to achieve in the MIC this season. We obviously would like to move up the MIC ladder.”

Eastern visits Peru tonight in the first week of league play. The Comets beat the Bengal Tigers 33-18 last season to snap a five-game losing streak in the series.

Peru enters conference play 0-2 following losses to Rochester and Logansport.

“Peru is a scary team,” Edwards said. “They have an outstanding QB in [Jordon] Myers and a very dangerous wide out in [Luke] Primerano. Both of these guys are [among] the best in the conference. They also have a very aggressive defense and nice-sized linemen. … We are going to have to play better this week than we did last week to get a win.”

Tri-Central (2-0) at Carroll (0-2)

Tri-Central, which went 3-37 in 2006-09 including 0-10 in ’09, is the surprise of the area at 2-0.

“The boys are responding well [to the early success],” second-year coach George Gilbert said. “We have had a good week, but often it will be hard to tell until we actually play after a big win. We are a young team and I do not want to jump to conclusions as the boys are learning every day.”

TC visits Carroll tonight in the first week of Hoosier Heartland Conference play. The Trojans are looking for their first league win since 2006.

“This is a big game and I hope the boys come out and play as hard as they did last week,” Gilbert said, referring to a 27-13 victory over Taylor. “Carroll has had a rough two weeks [losses to Tri-County and Delphi], but we are playing there and we have not a great deal of success against Carroll in the past because we have not played physical.

“We must play physical like we have the first two games and if we do, I believe we will challenge Carroll and have a shot at winning a conference game.”

Gilbert noted Carroll has good size and a talented quarterback in Daniel Huckstep. He pointed to “being fast and executing our fundamentals” as keys for his squad as well as limiting mistakes.

Around the area

Also tonight, Maconaquah (1-1) hosts Class 3A No. 7-ranked Hamilton Heights (2-0) in an MIC game; Clinton Central (0-2) hosts defending Class A state champion and No. 1-ranked Lafayette Central Catholic (2-0) in a HHC game; and Tipton (1-1) visits Benton Central (0-2) in a Hoosier Conference contest.