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A
USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
9-20-2014
Team |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
F |
PORTAGE (0-5) |
7 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
CROWN POINT (4-1) |
0 |
7 |
14 |
0 |
21 |
Friday, September 19, 2014 -
63 degrees, cloudy at CROWN POINT, Ind.
1st
Qtr: PORTAGE (7-0)
Taylor Sebben, 21-yard pass from Nate
Cherry. 73-yard drive, seven plays. (1st possession) Josh Gonzalez
kick. 6:08 left.
2nd Qtr: CROWN POINT (7-7)
Morgan Kral, 19-yard pass from Artie
Equihua. 49-yard drive, 10 plays. James Priddy kick. 0:29 left.
3rd Qtr: CROWN POINT (14-7)
Artie Equihua, 13-yard run. 69-yard drive, nine plays. James Priddy
kick. 2:27 left.
CROWN POINT (21-7) Jesse Martin
21-yard run. 28-yard drive, 3 plays (after fumble recovery). 0:21
left.
4th Qtr: No
scoring.
STATISTICS
RUSHING:
PORTAGE (25
carries, 85 yards, 0 TD, one fumble): Nate Cherry (QB) 20
carries, 73 yards; Avery Sanders (HB) 5-12 yards.
CROWN POINT (43
carries, 206 yards, 2 TDs, 0 fumbles): Troy Grady (HB) 9
carries, 17 yards; Artie Equihua (QB) 22 carries, 121 yards, TD;
Luke Polus (HB) 7-23 yards; Jesse Martin (HB) 4-37 yards, TD;
Patrick Messer (WR) 1-8 yards.
PASSING:
PORTAGE: Nate Cherry (QB) 4-7, 73 yards; Ian Collier (QB) 1-7, 10
yards.
CROWN POINT: Artie
Equihua (QB) 3 of 12, 73 yards, one TD, one interception.
RECEIVING:
PORTAGE : Marquis
White (WR) 2-16 yards, Taylor Sebben (WR) 3-67, TD. CROWN POINT:
Morgan Kral (TE) 2-39 yards, TD; Dax Jones (WR) 1-34 yards.
TOTAL YARDS:
PORTAGE: 168; CROWN
POINT: 279.
TURNOVERS:
PORTAGE (1) fumble.
CROWN POINT (1) interception.
Click Here for free MP3 Podcast
CROWN
POINT
(9-12-2014)
There's two truths about facing a
team that hasn't won a game at mid-season.
One: Every close game is a big deal to them because it could be that
first victory. Two: there are reasons they haven't won, and facing
the winless team, you have to find those reasons.
When the Indians scored on their first possession at Crown Point
last Friday night, that first "truth" came into play. Portage (0-5,
0-3 Duneland Athletic Conference) led most of the first half.
But the second truth also became self evident after halftime. Crown
Point (4-1, 2-1 DAC) contained the limited Portage offense, scored
two third quarter TDs and ended the first half of the season with a
21-7 victory.
The Bulldogs held the shorthanded Indians to just 38 yards in the
final two quarters to remain one game behind Lake Central (4-1, 3-0
DAC) and Chesterton (3-2, 3-0) in pursuit of their conference title
with four games remaining.
Portage was playing without junior quarterback Ahmad Harris (32 of
58, 313 yards) and wide receiver/kick returner Jared Nieves (10
catches, 134 yards), but they took the lead the first time they had
the ball. On a third-and-7 play at the Portage 47, all-purpose
senior Nate Cherry, filling in at QB, tossed a high-arching 25 yard
pass to Taylor Sebben at the CP 28-yard-line. One play later, Cherry
tossed a similar pass to Sebben for a 21-yard touchdown and a 7-0
lead.
Most evenly matched games come down to a half dozen key plays and
CP's biggest plays of this night came on the last four first half
possessions. The Bulldogs had moved the ball to the Portage 39, but
it was 4th-and-9 and the Bulldogs, trailing by seven points were
much too far away for a field goal attempt with less than one minute
left till halftime.
Junior QB Artie Equihua, who had missed badly on some earlier
passes, rolled to his left and fired an accurate ball to 6-foot-6
tight end Morgan Kral, who grabbed it despite close defense at the
Indians' 19 yard line.
One play later, the left-handed Equihua again rolled left and fired
the ball to Kral who broke a tackle at the 5-yard-line and stepped
into the end zone to tie the game just 11 seconds before halftime.
The Bulldogs scored two third quarter TDs and held Portage to one
second half first down but a lot of that might not happen if they
didn't tie the game right before the half.
"I thought I should have had it," said Kral of a pass he missed
before catching the final two in the half. "But I guess things
happen for a reason and to turned out right. Got to give my team
credit on that. We had a rough first quarter, but we didn't give up
on ourselves."
In the third period, Equihua led a 69-yard drive (running 7 times
for 46 yards) to put his side ahead 14-7, scoring on a 13-yard run.
Then Portage's Nate Cherry fumbled with Jon Dietrich getting credit
for the recovery at the Portage 28 yard line.
Two plays later, CP ran a mis-direction counter play to junior Jesse
Martin, who broke loose on a 21-yard run to create what would be the
final score.
Kral didn't disagree that it might have been the Bulldog's best half
of the season.
"We stepped it up," he said. "Finally got into it at the half and we
played a real good second half of football. Played as a team. Won as
a team."
Crown Point only gained 279 yards, but they only allowed 168. They
haven't dominated anybody, but they have survived what traditionally
is the more difficult part of the schedule with excellent results.
"I feel great about where we are," said Kral, who played tight end
and defensive end.
"Guaranteed five more games. This was the first half (of the season)
and we're ready to go from here."
DOG NOTES: Crown Point is 4-1
for the first time since 2010. That team ended the season with an
8-4 record. All four teams that Crown Point had previously played
this season (Lowell, Mishawaka, Merrillville and Lake Central) all
won last Friday night.
The Bulldogs play three of their final four games on the road. The
final regularly scheduled home game is the Oct. 10 Homecoming game
with Chesterton. CP could host a Class 6A Sectional 1 playoff game
on Oct. 24.
There are concerns about the "shelf life" of quarterback Artie
Equihua, who finished game five with 621 yards on 96 carries. The
small, but speedy junior takes a lot of punishment every game and
the backup QB, sophomore Grayson Lynk, is untested. Equihua (5-11,
185) seemed to be injured and about to leave the game prior to his
TD pass to Morgan Kral.
The starting QB didn't miss a play
until the game was decided, but it was notable that Lynk got to play
the final series Friday. CP may need Lynk to play a few snaps or
more in a key game at some time before the season ends.
With 621 yards rushing, Artie Equihua is on the way to being the
first CP quarterback in modern times to rush for 1,000 yards. The CP
football program and roster book shows ten players rushing for 1,000
yards including Tristan Peterson, who gained 1,002 yards on 211
carries.
Russell Chick's 1,810 yards on 294 carries is the standing school
record, although records before the 1980s are sketchy, if not
nonexistant.
Equihua's 93-yard TD run against Lake Central was the second longest
run in CPHS recorded history. John Young, who ran for 1,480 yards in
1987 had a 94-yard TD run against LC on Sept. 3, 1987. Mark Minch,
who rushed for 1,013 yards in 1989, had a 90-yard run scoring run,
also against Lake Central on Nov. 4, 1988.
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2014 USA-365.com and Meyer
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Revised: September 21, 2014
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