Back-and-forth game goes to Pirates on late TD for 24-21 win over Crown Point

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

9-06-2010

Friday, September 3, 2010,  67 degrees, Duneland Athletic Conference opener at MERRILLVILLE, IN

1st Qtr: CROWN POINT (7-0) Joe Hopman, 8-yard run. 63-yard drive, 7 plays. 3:05 min. Time of Possession (TOP). Brett Bayer kick. 6:06 left.
2nd Qtr: MERRILLVILLE (3-7) Matt Warren, 28-yard field goal. 81-yard drive, 10 plays. 4:34 TOP. 8:41 left.
MERRILLVILLE (10-7) Payton Parker, 70-yard run with a blocked field goal. 0:49 left.
3rd Qtr: CROWN POINT (14-10) Pete Parks, 28-yard pass from Joe Hopman. 64 yards drive, 9 plays. 3:22 TOP. Brett Bayer kick. 8:33 left.
MERRILLVILLE (17-14) Denzel Pierce, 80-yard pass from Zach Raspopovich. 0:13 TOP. Mat Warren kick 8:20 left.
CROWN POINT (21-17) Cody Bacon, 1-yard run. 53-yard drive, 10 plays. 3:28 TOP. Brett Bayer kick. 4:23 left.
4th Qtr: MERRILLVILLE (24-21) Anton Redmon, 16-yard pass from Zach Raspopovich. 1:07 TOP. Matt Warren kick. 0:20 left.
 

GAME STATISTICS

RUSHING:
CROWN POINT (44 carries, 180 yards, 2 TDs) Cody Bacon (HB) 31 caries, 153 yards, TD, Joe Hopman (QB) 8 carries, 1 yard (2 sacks - minus-18), Jake Lineman (HB) 3-14 yards; Pete Parks (FB) 2-14 yards.

MERRILLVILLE (20 carries, 37 yards, one fumble) Denzel Pierce (HB) 6-10 yards; Zach Raspopovich (QB) 6 carries, 10 yards (one sack minus-4 yards).

PASSING:
CROWN POINT - Joe Hopman (QB) 6 of 12, 103 yards, TD.
MERRILLVILLE - Zach Raspopovich (QB) 16 of 30, 273 yards, 2 TDs.

RECEIVING:
CROWN POINT - Austin Atherton (WR) 2-44 yards; Pete Parks (FB) 3-48 yards; Braxton Rice (WR) 1-18 yards.;

MERRILLVILLE - Jake Raspopovich (WR) 3-30 yards; Payton Parker (WR) 4-94 yards; Denzel Pierce (HB) 5-95 yards, TD; Anton Redmon (WR) 4-62 yards, TD.

TOTAL YARDS:

CROWN POINT - 283 yards, 14 first downs, 0 turnovers
MERRILLVILLE - 310 yards, 12 first downs, one turnover.

Click Here for Game 3 Photo Gallery.

MERRILLVILLE (9-03-2010) There are very few great high school football games. This Merrillville-Crown Point match up Friday night was one of them. Four second half lead changes, few turnovers, 70 and 80 yard touchdowns, blocked kicks and a last minute game-winning touchdown.

Merrillville's 24-21 win over Crown Point on a fall-like opening night of the 2010 Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) season will go down as one of the Pirates' greatest victories in recent history. Every time the 4,500 fans at Merrillville's giant Demraee Stadium thought Crown Point was winning, Merrillville came back. Even after CP's Cameron Tanner recovered Denzel Pierce's fumble at the Bulldog 14-yard-line with CP leading 21-17 and just 4:08 left in the game.

The drama grew as Merrillville forced a punt and drove 67 yards in nine plays. When the Pirates' Anton Redmon leaped up over CP defensive back Austin Stanley in the purple Pirate end zone to 'rebound' a high arching 16-yard TD pass from Zach Raspopovich with 20 seconds to play, Merrillville had a win worth celebrating. And just like in all the great games, you head for the parking lot wondering which school you just saw had the better team.

"I don't think we played very well, to be honest," said Zac Wells, who watched his team top CP for the second year in a row. "We knew we had to throw the ball to beat those guys. We played well enough to win. But, obviously, we had some things to work on."

"We'll be alright," said CP coach Chip Pettit, who was more disappointed in Merrillville's TD before halftime than he was the game-winning touchdown. "We were ahead 7-3 and down there near the goal line," he recalled. "Then we get an off-sides (penalty) and a sack. You can't be jumping the snap count down there and you cant take sack inside the 20-yard-line. Then they block the kick and instead of 14-3, its 10-7 for them."

Redmon's winning TD was the highlight on a windy, 65-degree Lake County evening, but the second quarter field goal block was the play of the game. After the two misplays stalled their drive, CP sent out sure-footed Brett Bayer to try a 37-yard field goal that would have given a CP a 10-3 edge at the half. But Merrillville senior LaChapelle Bradley blocked the kick and speedy Payton Parker picked it up on two hops and outran the CP field goal unit 70 yards for the score that gace the Pirates a 10-7 lead 49 seconds before halftime. CP regrouped in the locker room and took the second half kickoff 64 yards in nine plays. Joe Hopman fired a 28-yard TD pass to a wide open Pete Parks in the middle of the field to give the Bulldogs a 14-10 lead with 8:53 left in the third period.

But after Bayer put the kickoff in the end zone, Raspopovich tossed a first down swing pass to Denzel Pierce behind the line of scrimmage and the Pirate halfback broke through two CP defenders and broke into the clear. Pierce, a two-time 1,000-yard rusher, shouldered CP defensive back Joel Johnson out of his way at the 5-yard line and scored to complete an 80-yard scoring play that gave the Pirates a 17-14 lead.

CP (2-1), which ran right consistently behind tackle Stephen Hutchison (5-10, 260) and guard Mitch Kositzky (6-2, 255), quickly drove 53 yards in 10 plays to take a 21-17 lead on a 1-yard-run by Cody Bacon with 4:52 left in the third quarter. But that was the last time CP would score. They punted on their final four possessions of the night when one more TD could have iced the victory.

It seemed like Crown Point had the ball all night but the final yardage statistics were almost even. It seemed like Crown Point made all the key mistakes, but when you look at the box score, CP had no turnovers. But there was one more blocked kick. Punting from the CP 17-yard line, Bayer's punt was tipped by Merrillville defensive lineman Matt Neal and went out of bounds at the CP 38-yard-line.

Merrillville drove inside the 20 and Raspopovich gained two yards on a 4th-and-1 to give the Pirates a 1st-and-10 at the Bulldog 11-yard line with 4:30 to play. Pierce, who gained only 27 yards from scrimmage, was hit by CP's Scott Hannon and fumbled with Bulldog junior Cameron Tanner recovering the ball on the CP 14-yard-line with 4:08 left. When Cody Bacon, who had a career-best 153 yards on 31 carries, gained 22 on a 3rd-and 3 moments later, the game should have been over. But a CP holding penalty forced a punt with 1:27 to go and Merrillville took over at the Pirate 33-yard line.

Raspopovich, who was 4-for-8 on the final drive into the 15-20 MPH cross wind, gained 10 yards on a scrambling run to the Bulldog 28-yard-line and then found younger brother Jake Raspopovich (3 catches, 30 yards) for an 11-yard gain to the Crown Point 17 with 28 seconds left. Raspopovich then rolled to his right out of a 'shotgun' formation and lobbed a high toss into the home side corner of the south end zone when Redmon (6-0, 178) was battling Austin Stanley (5-9, 140) a CP reserve defender. Redmon stopped, leaped high in the air and took the ball in before Stanley could touch it, and the game was won for the home team.

One key to this play was the absence of CP's Austin Atherton, who was injured leaping for a pass in the end zone with six minutes left in the third quarter. Atherton, who leads CP with 12 catches and is a starting defensive back, never returned. He'd have been guarding Redmon on that play. But CP punted the ball three times in the final quarter ad went scoreless. They gave the Pirates a chance to win and Merrillville simply did what a good team does at home in the fourth quarter if you don't move the ball. The win was redemption of sort for the senior quarterback Raspopovich, who was intercepted four times as sophomore in a 10-7 CP win on this same field.

"At times, he was calmer than our coaches were," said Wells of Raspopovich, who was 8-of-22 for just 35 yards in the 2008 game. "He was very poised. He's been in those situations before. We got the ball down the field and he put it in some very tough spots. And Denzel. He was playing both ways for us tonight. And he fumbled, but we don't win if he doesn't break that (80-yard) play in the third quarter."

The Bulldogs, with the rest of their Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) schedule ahead of them, will have to forget about how they led Merrillville most of the night only to lose. Sometimes its harder to forget about the games you should have won.

"It's simple," Pettit said. "We just go back to work on Monday."

DOG NOTES: There are competing numbers on this issue but the CP record shows that the Merrillville win Friday pushed the all-time series to 34-32-1 in 67 games between the two schools.

Even though he really doesn't have to, Merrillville coach Zac Wells defended his team for losing the season opener on the road 49-14 to defending 5A state champion Warren Central.

"Warren Central is rated 23rd in the nation," Wells said. "They lost last week to the team rated No. 4 in the nation and they were ahead 23-21 with 14 seconds left. That's just a different level than anyone else in this state plays. Nobody's going to touch them. Bottom line. Nobody else plays a team like that. We're not where we need to be, but we gained valuable experience in that game because of the quality of that team."

The Pirates' four year contract with Warren Central ended with that game in August, but there's news on that front.

"We've got them for four more years," Wells said. "We'll play them here next year. Saturday night."

Lowell graduate Joe O'Connell, now a wide receivers coach at Merrillville, could not have been happier over the game-wining touchdown, the 16-yard TD pass from Zach Raspopovich to senior Anton Redmon.

"This is his first year of football," O'Connell explained. "We saw in the summer workouts that he could do that. He's a basketball player and he can go up and get the ball."

Zac Wells added, "He's made some mistakes in the first weeks, but that's to be expected from someone who has never played even Pop Warner Football. "He's worked very hard with Denzel (Pierce) and they've made huge improvements."

CP still had not lost a fumble or an interception all season. Officially, they have no turnovers in three games. Merrillville did block a kick and run it back for a TD but having a kick blocked for a TD is not a turnover, it's just a very bad play.

The crowd of about 4,500 was a disappointment since the weather was pleasant and both teams were coming off victories. But Andrean also had a home game 10 blocks away. Hobart, Highland, River Forest and Lowell were also home Friday. Schools are very stubborn (except Merrillville) about playing all games on Friday night at exactly the same time, but there were 10 games played in Lake County last Friday, which diminishes attendance for everyone.