Brooke’s Frank Sisinni - Michael D. McElwain

The annual Brooke-Indian Creek game is one of those such games, going back to when it was the Bruins taking on Mingo and Wintersville.

The latest meeting will take place Friday night in Wintersville as Creek puts its unbeaten record on the line against a Bruins team that is riding the momentum of getting its first win.

“It’s been a great game on each team’s schedule,” Indian Creek head coach Andrew Connor said. “I think we’ve brought out the best in each of us. I think they’ve been great games. Last year was a great football game between our schools and we were able to hang on and win the game, so I expect the same effort out of both teams again this year.”

Creek held on for a one-score win in last year’s game on the way to a 9-1 season and a playoff trip. The strong showing helped Brooke have a strong second half, too.

Indian Creek’s Andrew Connor - Michael D. McElwain

This time, the Bruins have a new coach leading them into the match up, but he’s far from a newcomer to the rivalry as Frank Sisinni played in the games as a player and now guides his alma mater.

“It’s really cool to have the rivalry opened up again that goes back to the day of Brooke playing Mingo and Wintersville,” Sisinni said. “I got to play against Wintersville High School in 1987, 88 and 89. Any time you’re going against those kids over there you know they’re going to be tough. A lot of those guys I played against back then are probably all coaches now like me.

“We always knew anytime we would go over there to Kettlewell stadium and play in that environment, it was going to be a challenge.

“Now I get to do it now as a coach and to go over to Wintersville and try to get the win. It is gonna be challenging, but our kids are up to that task.”

Getting in the win column has been a boost to Brooke following a hard-fought road win at Cambridge, who Creek also holds a victory over.

“We’ve had a lot of upbeat uptempo practices because of the win in Cambridge, which was a difficult win for us to go on the road and play out there, it’s always a challenge,” Sisinni said. “Any time you do that for the first time during the year it’s big and it’s a big win for what we’re trying to build here. We’re definitely excited about coming back and getting a week of work in. There’s always a definite upbeat tempo after a win.

“For the program, for the coaching staff and the kids, it was a big part of our moving forward when it comes to progressing in this 2025 season.”

While the coaching staff is different this year, Connor expects the Bruins to be a formidable foe once again.

“They do a lot of different things on both sides of the ball, but I think they play hard,” Connor said. “Offensively. I think it starts with their quarterback Ty Sperringer. He’s a lot like our quarterback (Ian Starkey). He runs the ball, he can throw the ball, he puts a lot of pressure on us defensively to try to keep him in check and try to make sure that he’s not either beating you with a good throw down field or a good run off tackle. So we’re going to have to really concentrate on trying to stop him and get the ball out of his hands.”

Having faced Sisinni-coached teams at Weir High the last several years, there’s familiarity between the grid bosses.

“He always had his teams prepared at Weir and I’m sure he’s going to have his team prepared to play us,” Connor said of Sisinni.

“There’s definitely a familiarity with the coaching staffs, considering that we had played them when I was at Weir. And now we’re a Buckeye 8 school here at Brooke, so we know we’re gonna have a lot of these battles to come,” Sisinni said.

Sisinni knows that Creek is going to be a big test for his club.

“We’re gonna have a tall task to go over to Kettlewell Stadium, which is a hard place to go play, and take on a group that returns 14 starters from last year’s playoff team and seven of them on each side of the ball,” Sisinni said. “Then you go through the fact that their O-line is all returning veterans that have probably over 100 starts between them.

“We see a group that’s just playing well for their coaching staff, we know that that’s gonna be a tough task for us. But our kids are excited about the challenge. We’re excited about going into another scenario where we get to see where we’re at as we work towards the midpoint season.”

For Creek, it’s an exciting week as it’s just their second home game and it’s homecoming night, though the players are keeping the focus on winning the football game to make the night even more enjoyable.

“We always tell the kids homecoming’s for everybody but us,” Connor said. “Homecoming’s for the student body, it’s for the girls on the court, it’s for everybody else. We’re supposed to focus on the fact we have a football game, and we have a very good opponent in Brooke, If we’re not focused on what we should do, then we’re going to have trouble on Friday night.

“We’ve stressed as we go through the week that we have to have another good week of practice and be focused on Friday night. We have to concentrate on what we have to do, put in our prep time, make sure we’re watching film, make sure that we’re doing all the little things so that we come out and we’re successful again on Friday night.”