Area football teams had big expectations going into the IHSAA tournament last week. But three that posted winning seasons — Logansport, Pioneer and Winamac — were eliminated after the first round of their respective sectionals.

All three squads were stung after their first-round exits, but none perhaps more so than Pioneer, which entered undefeated and ranked No. 2 in Class A following a dominant regular season.

Pioneer

The Panthers had the unfortune of drawing another undefeated and dominant team — No. 1-ranked Lafayette Central Catholic — right off the bat. And to make things more difficult, they had to play the Knights in Lafayette.

Pioneer had a good start, driving right down the field, posing a challenge the Knights had yet to see this season. But the Panthers were unable to finish deep in Central Catholic territory — a theme of the game. Meanwhile, the Knights dialed up just enough big plays to pull away with a 20-0 win in what some consider the de facto Class A state championship game.

“They were good. They earned it,” Pioneer senior tight end/safety Logan Brock said of the Knights. “But that’s OK. We had great experiences, great four years of high school football.”

“I don’t regret any part of the game,” senior tight end/linebacker John Rance added. “I wouldn’t take any of it back.”

The players estimated that if they played Central Catholic 10 times, they’d win five of them.

Although it was a first-round sectional game, it had a championship-game atmosphere according to the players.

“It was packed. The stands were full. People were all the way around the field,” senior lineman Josh Rance said.

“It looked like a dome,” Brock added.

To illustrate how much the Panthers wanted to win, a pair of seniors, Ethan Sell and John Rance, played the game with broken thumbs against doctors’ wishes.

“They wanted me to get it fixed right away, and I told them to at least let me play for the LCC game because I didn’t want to lose. If we did lose, I would have thought it was all my fault,” Rance said.

Rance added playing in the game did worsen his injury.

“It was worth it. I got to play another game with an awesome team. So I don’t regret any of it.”

“It was worth playing,” Sell agreed. “It would have hurt more not playing than the injury of the thumb.”

“I think they’re crazy for playing with broken thumbs,” Pioneer coach Mike Johnson said. “They could have that injury for the rest of their lives. That just shows you how tough we were, right, that those two were willing to do that and risk maybe some permanent injury to their thumbs. I don’t think I would do it.”

This year’s senior class consisted of 13 players who experienced a great deal of success throughout their careers, including winning three straight Midwest Conference titles and sectional championships their freshman and junior seasons.

“It was definitely one of our better classes,” said Johnson, who went one-and-done in IHSAA tournament play for the first time since 1996, the year before the Panthers won their state title. “Just the sheer size of the kids, 13 of them that stuck around and were able to play, and the toughness, and their coachability. They rank right up there with our good senior classes.

“We probably got beat by the state champs. … We told them they have a lot to be proud of. No. 1 vs. No. 2 in that type of atmosphere, what a great game. Even though we lost, we can still look back and say we got to be in that situation.”

Logansport

The Berries played a Concord team from Elkhart that was ranked most of the season in Class 4A.

The Minutemen entered the contest with a prolific passing offense led by junior quarterback Anthony Yoder, who had suffered a minor separated shoulder which may have contributed to three losses in a row to end the regular season. But Yoder and the Minutemen were in full gear at Berry Stadium in a 45-13 win.

“There’s a reason they were ranked in the top 10 in the state for the majority of the season,” Logan coach Bucky Kramer said. “I give our kids a lot of credit. It was a two-score ballgame all the way through until the end of the third quarter when it got a little haywire. Our kids showed they could play with great teams. That’s what I like about these guys. They didn’t back down to anybody, and that’s been a mark of our program.”

The Berries had 21 seniors on the team this year.

“This was a pretty special group for me,” Kramer said. “It’s been the first group of seniors that I’ve been [head coach] of for four years. They were a fun group to be around for four years. They did whatever I asked them to do to the best of their ability. They all came to be program kids; you’ve got to love that.”

The Berries finished 6-4 this season. It was their fourth winning season in the last five years — they went .500 last year. They haven’t won a sectional game since 2005, which was the year they went undefeated during the regular season before losing at Fort Wayne Dwenger 23-20 in a sectional semifinal game.

Winamac

The Class A No. 7-ranked Warriors suffered the lone true upset loss of the area teams with a 27-14 loss at Triton.

Although the Trojans entered with just a 3-6 record, they were a two-time defending sectional champion with athletes who’ve helped them be a state power in basketball in recent years.

Winamac jumped to a 14-7 lead at halftime but was outscored 20-0 in the second half. Warrior coach Tim Roth said torrential rainfall and questionable officiating contributed to the loss.

“It was just one of those things where it was Murphy’s Law: everything that could go wrong did go wrong,” Roth said. “That night we weren’t good enough to rebound from it. It was not from a lack of effort on our part. … Watching the film, we were just a man short on a missed block here or a tackle there. It’s just frustrating.”

The Warriors’ eight wins this season were their most since their 13 wins during their semistate season of 2000. Winamac had 14 seniors on this year’s team.

“They were a great group of guys — very coachable, very team-oriented,” Roth said. “We’ll not only miss their ability on the football field, we’ll miss their actions and chemistry, their preparation and everything else. They had a really good chemistry and were a lot of fun to be around.”

• Beau Wicker is the sports editor of the Pharos-Tribune. He can be reached at (574) 732-5113 or beau.wicker@pharostribune.com