Once again, Lowell has a top-notch defense.

It might be a surprise to some people, but it’s not necessarily a surprise for Red Devils coach Keith Kilmer.

Lowell had Blake Jansky, Chandler Austgen and Michael Langen, all seniors, returning from the defensive line.

Defense was stellar last season for the Red Devils, who totaled with 99 1/2 tackles for losses, 22 sacks and 18 interceptions. Lowell shut out five teams en route to the Class 4A state championship game, a 14-7 loss to East Central.

This season, Lowell already has 36 1/2 tackles for loss and 11 sacks. Considering the stats from last season covered 15 games, the Red Devils (4-1) are the same type of big-play machine as a year ago.

Jansky, a 6-foot-1, 200-pound defensive end, is the heart of the line. A three-year starter, he has 9 1/2 tackles for loss and 5 1/2 sacks. He also has 11 quarterback hurries.

“He wreaks a lot of havoc out there,” Kilmer said.

Jansky wasn’t always a defensive end. He started out as a linebacker.

During his sophomore year, a defensive linemen got hurt and Jansky was too good to keep off the field.

Jansky has no intention of ever going back to linebacker.

“I just love it,” he said of playing defensive end. “I don’t think I could play linebacker now.”

Kilmer said the key for Jansky is he has a linebacker’s mentality.

“He’s just relentless when he comes off the ball,” Kilmer said of Jansky. “He has that motor and it never stops.”

The 6-2, 285-pound Austgen plays tackle, with Langen moving to linebacker. Austgen has 6 1/2 tackles for loss and Langen has three sacks.

Jansky said the defense is playing to its capabilities.

“I had a lot of high expectations for us, especially since we had three of us back on the line,” he said.

On the rise: Bowman knows how to score. Offensively, the Eagles (3-1) are averaging 440 yards and 31 points. They beat Roosevelt 42-24 last week.

Bowman’s two headline players are junior quarterback George Johnson and junior running back Jontae Hurt.

Johnson has completed 35 of 62 passes for 865 yards. He has thrown 11 touchdown passes without an interception, and he’s averaging 173 yards a game.

Hurt, a 5-foot-9, 175-pound junior, has rushed for 622 yards with seven TDs. He’s averaging 7.6 yards per carry.

Bowman coach David Nelson said Johnson and Hurt are three-year starters. That experience has helped.

“They have been steady,” he said.

Nelson said he’s trying to clean up some of the small stuff.

“We’ve had some minor mistakes,” he said. “We’ve dropped too many passes.”

In general, though, Nelson said the team has stayed “pretty focused and picked up from where they left off last year.”

Bowman finished 6-3 in 2017.

The Eagles are eligible for the playoffs this season after they were suspended last year because of infractions that occurred under former Bowman basketball coach Migel Nunnery.

Honors roll in: Andrean coach Chris Skinner was named the Region I Coach of the Week by the Indianapolis Colts for the 59ers’ 41-7 victory over Hobart.

Region I consists of schools from the Duneland Athletic, the Northwest Crossroads, the Great Lakes Athletic and the Greater South Shore conferences. The win against Hobart was the largest margin of victory over the Brickies since Andrean won 48-0 in 2011.

The statewide winner was Fort Wayne North’s Mike Brevard. North beat Fort Wayne Luers 52-49. That snapped Luers’ 20-game winning streak.

mhutton@post-trib.com

Twitter @MikeHuttonPT