Class 6A No. 4 Ben Davis will host Class 6A No. 5 Warren Central Friday night in one of the highlight football games in the state.

Ben Davis beat Warren Central last year 6-3 when the Giants kicked a game-winning field goal in the closing seconds. As usual, this year’s game could go a long way in determining the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference championship. The Giants are the defending conference champions and are 1-0 in the conference, as is Warren Central.

Ben Davis opened the season with a 26-20 win over Cathedral in Lucas Oil Stadiuum. The following weekend Warren beat Cathedral 42-28.

The Warren Central game always bring back memories of rivalries.

Bob Britt coached the Giants from 1970-72 and later was a longtime athletic director when his BD classmate Bob Wilbur was the coach. Britt’s son Kevin played football for the Giants and also was a longtime athletic director. Kevin is now an assistant principal in the Ninth Grade Center.

Bob, a 1953 BD grad,  answered a few questions about rivalries

Who were BD’s biggest rivals when you coached here?   Warren Central and Washington.

Did you do anything differently to prepare for big rivalry games and did you notice a difference in practices those weeks?   Yes, both the coaches and players seem to all work a little harder.  More focus.

What did you like best about rivalry games?  The build up of excitement.  It gave the team something to work towards.

Kevin Britt’s sidenote: Warren Central was a turning point for our first state championship in 1987.  We had lost to Cathedral in the opener and we were  losing to WC at halftime.  We made a quarterback change at half and had a fourth down defensive stand towards the end of the game, which allowed us to score and beat them.  That was when our team started to believe in itself.  The rest is history. (Kevin was in his first year as an assistant coach in 1987.)