Fishers and Hamilton Southeastern football fans have finally found something to agree on: the Hoosier Crossroads Conference championship.

The two teams enter the final week of the regular season with identical 7-1 records and will share the league title if Fishers wins at Brownsburg (6-2) and Hamilton Southeastern defeats McCutcheon (3-5) at home. It would be the fourth consecutive championship for the Royals, the first for Fishers in its fourth season of existence.

“A lot has been said about whether they should have divided the schools or not,” said Fishers coach Rick Wimmer, whose team defeated Hamilton Southeastern 10-6 in Week 2 but lost to Zionsville 39-35 on Oct. 2. “You look at the number of kids that have gotten the opportunity to play and the success (both teams are) having, and it’s been a pretty good thing for this school system.”

Fishers is the most successful football community in the state. Of towns with more than one team, Fishers’ combined mark of 14-2 (an .875 winning percentage) is the best, ahead of Mishawaka (Mishawaka, Penn, Marian, 20-4, .833), Merrillville (Merrillville, Andrean, 13-3, .813) and Columbus (East, North, 13-3, .813).

“Our youth program does a phenomenal job,” Hamilton Southeastern coach Scott May said. “In this short period of time they’re produced two (Class) 5A teams with one loss in the regular season. That says a lot (about football in the town of Fishers).”

Wimmer added: “Our youth football people have done a good job of getting kids excited about football. They’re getting that done in the junior highs, too.”

Unlike a program that is starting from scratch, Fishers has benefited from the feeder system that had long been established for Hamilton Southeastern. The junior high school programs, however, continue to run the Royals’ 50 defense. (The varsity teams run similar offenses.) According to Wimmer, he and May are interested in creating separate elementary school travel teams in place of the current single team.

Fishers, however, has caught up to its in-town rival in just four years, and not because Hamilton Southeastern fell back after having a portion of its student body shifted to the new school.

“Traditionally this is a conference that anybody can knock anybody off,” Wimmer said. “We’re fortunate to get to the final game (of the regular season) with one loss but, at the same time, I feel like our kids have earned that and deserve to be where we are. I’m pleased with where we’re at and, hopefully, we’ll take advantage.”

Hamilton Southeastern’s loss to the Tigers meant that it doesn’t control its own destiny for the HCC title for the first time since the end of the 2005 season. (Hamilton Southeastern lost to Brownsburg in Week 3 in 2007 but still had the only remaining undefeated team in the league — Lafayette Jeff — on its schedule.)

The Royals fell behind 13-0 to Brownsburg the week after losing to Fishers but rallied to win, 41-20. Since that deficit, they have outscored their opponents, 192-34, to put themselves in position to win a share of the championship after Fishers’ loss to Zionsville.