Raiders look to extend winning streak, advance to sectional championship

MIDDLEBURY, Ind. -- After finishing the regular season undefeated, the Northridge Raiders proved they still had plenty of gas left in the tank, as they beat Mishawaka in the first round of sectionals. Now, they're turning the page, and getting ready for their matchup against St. Joe.

10 games, 10 wins.

It's a stat that Northridge head coach Luke Amstutz, who's having a heck of a first year at the helm for the Raiders, is a big fan of. He's an even bigger fan of the way his team is starting to gain confidence as they advance further in their quest for a state title.

"I feel like our kids are starting to believe that they're a really good team, in particular, a really good second half team. We had an emphasis, earlier in the year, on just let's learn to be competitive, and figure out how to win, and as we won some close games, we started to believe a little more and now, we have a team that believes that they can come out, make adjustments, play hard for the whole game, and put people away," said Amstutz.

Amstutz and Northridge received some big news ahead of Friday's game, as multiple injured players will be returning to their lineup, or will be back at full strength, which has provided a little bit of a boost to a team that already had plenty of gas in their tank.

"We are playing our best football right now, we're the healthiest we've been all year, we went through quite a few injuries most of the year, right now we have some guys back, and we feel like we have some depth so we feel strongly that we're playing our best right now, which is when you want to be doing it," said Amstutz.

"It's such a morale boost for everybody on the team, coaches, players, managers. We're just getting players back, and it feels amazing," said Hayden Gorball, senior wide receiver

The Northridge offense has been potent this year, scoring 28 points or more in every matchup. The Raiders are also aware that they played the Saint Joe Huskies very recently, in a second round sectional matchup on October 31 2025, which ended in a Raider loss.

"We can thrive with just running the ball however we have been. Against Mishawaka, we didn't throw the ball much and we kind of just ran it down their throats and it worked well, and I can see it working well against Saint Joe," said Gorball.

The Raiders and Huskies will kick off from Leighton Stadium at 7 p.m.