Zone Tailgate: Avon visits Brownsburg

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - “The Zone Tailgate” takes us to Brownsburg this week where the Bulldogs will host their HCC rivals and neighboring town Avon Orioles. With the travel time being only 15 minutes up State Road 267, you can expect a lot of black and gold in the stands across the field from the home purple and white. Expect the fans to arrive early and be ready to cheer on their teams, because these two schools have a very interesting past.

When you look at the history between these two teams it kind of reminds you of a very competitive game of tug of war. From 2000 to 2010, Avon and Brownsburg traded wins every other season. That’s pretty amazing all by itself, but it gets more interesting. Aside from the 2000 season, the away team won every regular season match-up. That is almost unheard of. Since the pattern was broken in 2011 with an Avon win at Lucas Oil Stadium (meaning the home team still hasn’t won a game since 2000), we’ll see if Brownsburg can start a new pattern with a home field win. Or maybe Avon can make history repeat itself?

The Avon Orioles come into week five with a 3-1 record and are ranked 13th in the 5A Coaches’ poll. They escaped week one with a 3 point victory over Hamilton Southeastern and week two with a four point win over Westfield. They had no problem with Harrison in week three, winning 51-6, but then faltered this past week against Fishers, losing 34-9. That game was actually 10-9 late in the second quarter before it got away from Avon. The Orioles schedule seemed to be front loaded with most of the best HCC teams in the first few weeks. Aside from a week nine match-up with Zionsville, a win against Brownsburg this week would put them in perfect position for at least a share of the HCC Conference title.

The Brownsburg Bulldogs are one of 12 5A teams still with a perfect record. At 4-0 they are currently ranked 10th in the 5A Coaches’ poll. They easily took care of McCutcheon and Noblesville in the first two weeks, and snuck by Westfield 20-17 in week four. Their most impressive win by far though was in week three when they handed Hamilton Southeastern their second loss of the season in dominating fashion, 42-14. What’s the most impressive so far has been their defensive effort. Through four games, the Bulldogs have allowed just 47 total points against. That’s less than 12 points allowed per game, by far the best in the HCC. Their offense has also been playing well, tied for second in the conference scoring over 33 points per game. A win over Avon this week would make them 5-0, and could set them on a collision course with Fishers in the final week of the season for the Conference title.