The “real” season for high school football teams begins next week with the start of postseason play.

There is still some unfinished business though to attend to this Friday night as the regular season comes to a close.

The biggest bit of business will play out in South Whitley. Whitko hosts Peru in the title game of the North Division in the Three Rivers Conference.

A banged-up Warsaw squad, coming off a tough home loss to NorthWood in the final 15 seconds a week ago, will try to play spoiler at Class 5-A No. 8 Concord. The Minutemen have already clinched at least a share of the Northern Lakes Conference championship at 6-0.

Triton will look to snap a seven-game losing streak at home versus West Central. Wawasee will travel to Goshen to meet the Redskins in their NLC finale. Tippecanoe Valley will face Wabash, in a rematch from last Friday night, in their TRC playoff game.

The sectional openers Oct. 23 will have Warsaw at Carroll (Fort Wayne), Wawasee at Plymouth, Prairie Heights at Whitko, Tippecanoe Valley at Jimtown and Southwood at Triton.

But, first things first.

Following is a quick look at regular-season finales.

Warsaw (4-4, 3-3) at Concord (6-2, 6-0), 7 p.m.

The Tigers would love to be able to upend the Minutemen for the second straight year.

It’s going to be a tall order.

“We’re trying to piece it together right now and we’ll see what happens,” said Warsaw coach Phil Jensen. “We could be missing 3-4 of our starting linemen due to injuries.”

Warsaw would like to slow the game down against the explosive Minutemen, who average 30 points-per-game and have outscored their six NLC foes 188-64. Concord, under first-year coach Craig Koehler, has lost to South Bend St. Joseph (37-24) and Jimtown (31-27). The Minutemen dropped a 24-21 final in two overtimes at Warsaw last year.

“They have big, strong and fast athletes and rely on the big play,” said Jensen of Concord. “We need to shorten the game this week. We have to keep the ball in front of us and we can’t let them score in bunches. We need to make them have long drives.”

The Tigers, who are led by star receiver Riley Rhoades, average 23 points-per-contest.

Warsaw lost 21-14 at home to NorthWood, while Concord rolled Northridge 31-10 last week. The Minutemen have won seven of the last 10 meetings versus the Tigers.

Wawasee (3-5, 1-5) at Goshen (4-4, 2-4), 7 p.m.

The Warriors got back into the win column last week to snap a five-game losing skid.

Wawasee beat Memorial 31-21 as quarterback Tyler Smith had a huge game. Smith rushed for 167 yards and two touchdowns. Noah Wadkins had 151 yards and two scores of his own as the Warriors rushed for 388 yards in the win.

Goshen, which started the year 4-0, dropped to 4-4 with a 31-17 loss to Plymouth last Friday night.

“They are a physical team that plays hard on both sides of the ball,” said Wawasee coach Josh Ekovich of the Redskins. “We need to hit harder than them and win the turnover battle Friday night.”

Wawasee topped the Redskins 17-7 last season.

Peru (7-1, 5-1) at Whitko (4-4, 3-3), 7 p.m.

The Wildcats should have a swagger for their title tilt.

Whitko comes off a huge 19-7 win at Northfield last week and have won three of their last four games. The Norsemen were 7-0 on the field prior to last week, but were forced to forfeit four wins due to the use of an ineligible player earlier in the season.

“Our kids are playing with a lot more confidence and last week helps that,” said Whitko coach Josh Mohr. “Our defense did a great job last week. They were very disciplined, controlled the line and played hard-nosed and aggressive football.

“Our kids are excited and anxious about playing for the TRC title this week. We’re on a streak right now and want it to keep going forward.”

Peru moved to 7-1 with a 27-14 win over North Miami last week. The Tigers lone loss was a 17-13 decision at Maconaquah. They also lost  42-26 to Northfield, but were awarded a win by forfeit.

“Peru is physical and they try to overpower you,” Mohr said. “It’s the stop us if you can mentality. We have to bring the same intensity that we had last week.”

Peru has a pair of 1,000 rushers in Brady Miller and Peyton Sturgill. Miller leads the TRC with 1,132 yards on 149 carries and Sturgill is third with 1,046 on 172.

The clash Friday night will be the first meeting between the two programs.

Wabash (6-2, 4-2) at Tippecanoe Valley (3-5, 3-3), 7 p.m.

Darin Holsopple is thrilled that his team gets a rematch with Wabash.

“I’m absolutely thrilled that we get to play them again,” said the first-year Viking coach, whose team lost 39-15 at Wabash last week. “Not for a second do I think that it will be easy. But, we had our best week of practice of the season last week and then came out flat Friday night.”

The Vikings will play at home for the first time since the death of former coach Scott Bibler, who perished in a plane crash on Oct. 2 with three other men. Bibler’s funeral was held on Sunday in the gym at Valley.

“There’s no way to describe what our young men have been through,” said Holsopple.

“This is a great opportunity for us. I think we are feeling resolute and have more determination this week. We looked at some different people on Tuesday night at practice and I saw some good things.

“Wabash took it to us last week and exposed some things. We have to control the lines better this week.”

West Central (1-7, 0-7) at Triton (1-7, 1-6), 7 p.m.

The Trojans look to try and collect a win versus another struggling group of Trojans.

“I think it’s a pretty evenly-matched game,” said Triton coach Ron Brown. “They have a lot of freshmen and sophomores playing and we have a lot of young kids playing too due to our injuries.”

Triton is still missing a number of players due to concussions and other injuries, up to 13 starters. Brown said that those players were to be evaluated again on Thursday. The Trojans also lost starting quarterback Jordan Anderson to an injury last week. Brown said that Anderson is “most likely” out this week and will not play quarterback.

Freshman James Snyder is slated to get the start at quarterback for Triton Friday night.

Triton will have to rely even more on Jeremy Jones. The senior standout had both touchdowns last week in a 40-14 loss to Knox.

West Central, also the Trojans, defeated winless Frontier 33-0 a week ago for its first win.

Northern Lakes Conference: Concord 6-0, Plymouth 5-1, Warsaw 3-3, NorthWood 3-3, Northridge 3-3, Goshen 2-4, Wawasee 1-5, Elkhart Memorial 1-5.

Three Rivers Conference: North Division: Whitko 3-3, Rochester 3-3, Tippecanoe Valley 3-3, Northfield 2-4, Manchester 2-4.
South Division: Peru 5-1, Southwood 5-1, Wabash 4-2, Maconaquah 3-3, North Miami 0-6.

Hoosier North Athletic Conference: Pioneer 7-0, North Judson 6-1, Winamac 6-2, LAVille -2, Culver 3-4, Knox 3-4, Caston 1-6, Triton 1-6, West Central 0-7.