Andrean advances to state finals with 34-21 Class 3A Semistate win

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

11-20-2004

Northern 3A Semistate Championship - Friday, Nov. 19, 2004,  45 degrees, light rain in New Carlisle, IN

1st Q: ANDREAN (7-0) Joaquin Rodriguez, 2-yard run. 85-yard drive, 7 plays, Jake Kocal kick. 8:42 left.

ANDREAN (14-0) Joaquin Rodriguez, 45-yard run. Kocal kick. 73-yard drive, 4 plays. 5:14 left.

NEW PRAIRIE (14-7) Keith Gadacz, 28-yard run. Katlyn Reyes kick. 63-yard drive. 2 plays. 4:35 left.

2nd Q: No scoring.

3rd Q: ANDREAN (21-7) Ty Harangody (10^th TD pass), 5-yard pass from Tommy Finn (32^nd TD pass). 72-yard drive, 8 plays. Kocal kick.

NEW PRAIRIE (21-14) Tim Hein, 90-yard kickoff return. Reyes kick. 2:36 left.

ANDREAN (28-14) Jake Kocal (18^th TD catch), 37-yard pass from Tommy Finn (33^rd TD pass). 73-yard drive, 4 plays. Kocal kick.

4th Q:  NEW PRAIRIE (28-21) Tim Hein, 1-yard run. Reyes kick. 58-yard drive, 8 plays. Reyes kick. 9:26 left.

ANDREAN (34-21) Jake Kocal (19^th TD catch), 20-yard pass from Tommy Finn (34^th TD pass). 34 yards, 7 plays. 3:39 left.

NEW CARLISLE (11-19-2004) Until the final five minutes, you never thought Andrean had it locked up. But there was never a moment when you believed the 59ers would lose. Even with New Prairie at home with a 12-game winning streak and a 40 point per game offense, this was and should have been an Andrean victory.

High-scoring. Rain falling. The debate was entertaining. New Prairie ran a good campaign but the polls again proved true. Andrean's 34-21 victory over Northern Lakes Conference champion New Prairie was within the margin of error. What everybody said would happen did indeed occur.

The Cougars (12-2), playing in their first semistate game in the 32-year history of the state tournament, ran the ball hard and did some damage on special teams. But Andrean (12-2) ran and passed at will, rolling up 485 total yards to advance to the state finals for the fourth time in eight years.

“This is great,” said the 59ers Ty Harangody, who had a lot to do with the 59ers fifth consecutive victory. “I'm so happy It's not even funny.”

It certainly wasn't funny to New Prairie, the LaPorte County school that has never beaten Andrean (in three tries) and has still never been to the state finals. After falling behind 14-0, the Cougars, playing before a standing room only crowd of about 3,000, made a considerable effort to get back into the game, only to be turned away repeatedly by Andrean's great skill and good fortune.

The 59ers started strong, scoring on their first two possessions. Using three wide receivers, Ty Harangody at tight end and Joaquin Rodriguez at tailback next to QB Tommy Finn, the 59ers drove 85 yards in seven plays following the opening kickoff to score on a two-yard run by Rodriguez, who went over 1,000 yards for the year. After three New Prairie plays and a punt, the 59ers went 73 yards in four plays with Rodriguez breaking a tackle just beyond the line of scrimmage on a 45-yard scoring run.

But New Prairie, operating out of a double wing formation with an option offense, broke consecutive long runs before guard Garrett Curless (5-9, 235) and John Haggard (6-4, 290). Senior halfback Keith Gadacz (5-11, 185) broke runs of 35 and 28 yards on consecutive plays to cut the lead to 14-7.

The Cougars hit a play action pass from QB Jacob Findley to senior end Joe Sosinski, carrying to the Andrean 20-yard-line with eight minutes left in the first half but Findley's option pitchout to 1,000-yard rusher Tim Hein was fumbled and Matt Ryan recovered to stop the drive.

New Prairie drive to the Andrean 28-yard-line to start the third quarter but, on a 4^th-and-2 play, Findley slipped on an option run and was stopped short of a first down. Andrean then drove 72 yards to make it 21-7 with Finn sprinting away from New Prairie's pass rush and tossing a 5-yard TD score to Harangody, who'd faked a block and slipped off the line.

The game competitively could have been over at that point except thaT Hein picked up the bouncing kickoff and rambled 90 yards down the home sidelines to make it 21-14. With the crowd in an uproar, the 59ers drOve 73 yards in just four plays. Finn faked to Rodriguez and fired a long ball down the middle of the field that Kocal ran away with to make it 28-14 in the final minute of the third quarter.

Again New Prairie rallied, going 58 yards in eight plays after a short kickoff. Findley's 15-yard pass to fullback Katlyn Reyes on 4^th-and-2 at the Andrean 17-yard-line preceded Hein's one-yard run making the score 28-21 with 9:26 left.

Andrean, which had successfully run a fake punt earlier, tried another one with 7:05 to play. Finn's pass to Harangody was well-defended and New Prairie took over at the 59ers' 29-yard-line with 7:05 to go in the game.

But on the very next play, Hein fumbled a handoff from Findley and the Cougars had lost their last chance to win. Andrean went 71 yards in eight plays to ice the game. Finn hit a 31-yard pass on which Harangody made a finger tip catch. Rodriguez broke a 12-yard run. And Finn hit Kocal with a high lob down the visitors sidelines to make it 34-21 (the extra point hit the crossbar) with 3:39 left in the game.

When Harangody intercepted a Findley pass moments later, the celebration began for the only Lake County school other than Hobart to reach the football state finals more than once in the 32-year history of the tournament.

But coach... Two fake punts?

“We allow the kids to make a lot of decisions on the field,” St. Germain said. “Neither of those fake punts were my call. They have the freedom to call them if they think they'll work. We have a lot of freedom on offense and sometimes that freedom extends to special teams. Some of those freedoms were extended a bit tonight. But you live or die with that. That freedom is what makes us good.

Sometimes it looked like a bad move.”

“But you put the ball in the hands of kids and let them play. Sometimes the call is not what I would call in that situation. But that's our style. We give them that freedom.”

Finn, who called both fake punts, has the ultimate freedom and his teammates have a lot of faith in him because of that.

“You can definitely say we had some doubts,” Harangody said of the week after back-to-back losses to Hobart and Griffith in October. “But we solved them and we all came together. We're clicking at the right time.”

They will have to be. This was the sixth straight game where the 59ers had scored 34 points or more but it's also the third consecutive game where they've allowed three TDs or more. Going into the match with top-ranked Heritage Hills, no team had scored 20 points against Chatard this season.

St. German was willing to discuss the expected matchup with seven-time state champion Bishop Chatard (11-2), even though Chatard had not yet beaten top-ranked Heritage Hills (13-0) in Saturday's Southern Semistate title game in Indianapolis.

“If you want to go locked and loaded, we've got a pretty good package to go against them with,” the second year coach said. “If it does turn out to be Chatard, they're the three-time defending state champ trying to make history. You can't go there and be timid. You've got to go in with gun's a blazing. We're glad to have the opportunity.”

But there's no way that Andrean didn't expect to be here. Most high school teams, whether they admit it or not, are surprised to reach the state finals. Andrean is never one of those schools.

“Six or seven weeks ago we were as low as we've been since I've been here,” St. Germain said. “Our season had not gone the way we wanted but there was still everything in front of us that we wanted to achieve. Somebody asked me if we were worried about playing (noncompetitive) Hammond and Gavit in the first two rounds of the playoffs, And I said no, because we were still working on things. It was a process that was on-going and you have to give the kids credit.”

“I've only been here two years. But every sports program (at Andrean), if you ask what their expectations are, their expectations are to get to Indianapolis. That's good, there are some trappings that go with that. Maybe our kids got complacent this year. But those expectations are also why we fought back. Those expectations are one of the reasons we're here.”

NINER NOTES:  Ty Harangody is probably the only Andrean player who was a starter two years ago in the 31-12 loss to Chatard in the 2002 3A state title game. What does he remember?

“Everything,” Harangody said Friday. “I played and I scored a touchdown. It was unbelievable. I remember the game but the thing I'll never forget was watching the game the night before. We walked through the doors onto the field and the team that was playing made a big play and the place just exploded. My heart stopped. It's a great place. I am so excited to go back. I'm already telling some of our guys (2004 teammates who did not play in that game) what it's like. I've already told them.”

There is a sense of urgency surrounding Andrean. With all their skill position players on offense in their senior years, the 59ers sense that this run of four consecutive sectional and three semistate titles in four years may be interrupted. Andrean has won 87 of the 59ers last 107 games going back eight years.

“We cant replace them,” said one 59er sideline watcher of QB Tommy Finn and all-state tight end linebacker Ty Harangody. “We've had a real good run for a while here with some pretty good players. But it does have to end sometime.”

Andrean became the only team in NW Indiana history that is known to have a 3,000-yard passer (Tommy Finn – 214-350, 3,216 yards, 34 TDs, 6 INTs), two 1,000-yard receivers (Jake Kocal – 70 catches – 1,145 yards and Ty Harangody – 76 catches – 1,238 yards) and a 1,000-yard rusher ( Joaquin Rodriguez – 164 carries – 1,052 yards).

“We've always felt that Joaquin Rodriguez in another style of offense would be a 1300, 1400 yard rusher. We just don't feature him that much. He's the strongest kid on our team pound for pound. He's a good baseball player. A fine athlete. It's just that running backs need eight or nine touches to get started and we just don't do that. A lot of big pass plays we make, he has to check off on pass protection. He's come a long way in the passing game.”

This was the first state finals berth for St. Germain, who is 24-3 in his first coaching assignment.

“It means a lot to me obviously,” he said. “I never really try to make things about myself. It's more about the kids. What they have done. Personally, I'm satisfied because the amount of time and hours I've put in has been successful but I try not to talk about that.”

“We were down and everyone counted us out,” said Finn, who will be playing in his first state championship game next week. As a freshman, Finn never got into the 59ers 3-0 loss to Chatard and he suffered a concussion and was not allowed to play in Chatard's 31-12 win over Andrean two years ago.”

This time, he will play. “It feels good. Knock on wood.”

Finn said they had to restart their season in a way after falling to 6-2 with a 48-12 loss to Griffith in September.

“We went back to work on little things,” he said. “We got back to outworking people. We concentrated on ourselves.”

Finn shouldn't have any worries about facing Chatard and he doesn't.

"They're good and we know it. But we're ready.”

Andrean - 476, New Prairie - 291

Tommy Finn (A) 17-25, 256 yards, 3 TDs , 0 INTs

Jacob Findley (NP) 3-4, 61 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT

Katlyn Reyes (NP) 1-15, Joe Sosnowski (NP) 1-35, Tim Hein (NP) 1-11; Jake Kocal (A) 7-136, 2 TDs; 

Ty Harangody (A) 5-81 yards; Joaquin Rodriguez (A) 3-21; Duke LaMere (A) 1-7 yards; Chris Skinner (A) 1-7 yards.

Katlyn Reyes (NP) 14-112 yards, Keith Gadacz (NP) 9-111 yards, TD, Tim Hein (NP) 6-7 yards, TD; Jacob Findley (NP) 5-(minus-2); Alex Kadish (A) 1-1 yard; Joaquin Rodriguez (A) 18-142 yards, 2 TDs; Tommy Finn (A) 13-79 yards.

ANDREAN – 19, New Prairie - 11

ANDREAN – 0, New Prairie – 3