Crown Point wins DAC battle of unbeatens, 35-14 over LaPorte

A USA-365.com report by Mark Smith

9-30-2005

Friday, Sept. 30, 2005,  68 degrees, clear, DAC at Crown Point

1st Qtr:  CROWN POINT (7-0)  Ryan Forney, 11-yard run. Brad Mallers kick. 49-yard drive, 4 plays.  9:49 left.
CP (14-0) Jon Sertich 16-yard screen pass from Matt Jansen. Mallers kick  16-yard drive, 2 plays (after Forney's 55-yard punt return.)  8:01 left.
CP (21-0) Jon Sertich, 78-yard run. Mallers kick. 4:35 left.
LaPORTE (7-21) Nolan Weeks, 7-yard pass from Lance Juergensen. Nick Ford kick. 69-yard drive, 8 plays. 1:43 left.
2nd Qtr:  LaPORTE  (14-21) Airrence Shark, 1-yard run.  Nick Ford kick. 75 yards, 9 plays. 0:11 left.
3rd Qtr:  No scoring.

4th Qtr:  CP (28-14) Matt Jansen, 70-yard run. Mallers kick. 72-yard drive, 3 plays. 10:41 left
CP (35-14) Jordan Rhye, 60-yard interception return. Mallers kick.

PASSING:
Lance Juergensen (LP) 19-35, 196 yards, one TD, -0 INTs
Adam Creed (LP) 3-7, 30 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs
Matt Jansen (CP) 9-14, 101 yards, one TD, 0 INT
Ryan Forney (CP) 0-1, 0 yards

RECEIVING:
Kris Staats (LP) 7-81 yards
Chase Coburn (L) 6-54 yards
Mike Walls (LP) 5-53 yards
Nolan Weeks (LP) 3-30 yards, TD
Airrence Shark (LP) 1-8 yards
Jon Sertich (CP) 4-62 yards, TD
Tommy Parks (CP) 2-22 yards
Tommy Isailovich (CP) 1-14 yards
Ryan Forney (CP) 1-3 yards
Zach Cecich (CP) 1-0 yards

RUSHING:

LaPorte: (Team: 17-43 yards)
Airrrence Shark (LP) 15-52 yards, one TD
Adam Creed (LP) 1 (-7 yards)
Lance Juergensen (LP) 1 (-2 yards)

CROWN POINT  (Team: 35- 313 yards)
Jon Sertich (CP) 16-144 yards, one TD
Matt Jansen (CP) 5-73 yards, TD
Donny Keiser (CP) 9-62 yards,
Ryan  Forney (CP) 2-19 yards, TD
Danny Byrd (CP) 1-5 yards
Blake Mascarello (CP) 2-0

TOTAL YARDS: 

LaPorte (226-43=269)
CP (101-313=414)

FIRST DOWNS: 

LaPorte (19), CP (18)

PUNTS: 

Kris Staats (4-140, 35.0 avg.)
Donny Keiser (2-58, 29.0 avg.)

TURNOVERS:

LaPorte 3  (all interceptions)
CP – 1 ( one fumble)

CROWN POINT (9-30-2005) - Crown Point coach Chip Pettit gathered his team at the north end of the field after their 35-14 win over undefeated LaPorte Friday and asked them the overriding question.

“What have you won?” One of the players said, “Nothing, yet.”

That's the answer that most teams that are new to winning have a lot of trouble with. But the Bulldogs may be a new team, at least on offense.  I'm sure LaPorte came west to Crown Point Friday night confident they could defend the attack they'd seen on film. But the Bulldogs no longer operated within those boundaries.

Any question of whether senior Crown Point quarterback Matt Jansen, injured and out for seven weeks, could come back, start immediately and play effectively, was answered on a perfect fall night, much to the dismay of the undefeated visitors.

Jansen sparked the slumping CP offense and the top-ranked Bulldog scoring defense also experienced a revival as the Bulldogs moved to within two wins of the school's first undisputed Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) football title .

With over 4,000 fans looking in on Homecoming night at Crown Point, Jansen flipped a 21-yard swing pass to Jon Sertich on the sixth play of the game before Ryan Forney's 11-yard sweep put the Bulldogs ahead 7-0 after just 2:01.

In a battle of unbeatens, the Bulldogs (7-0, 5-0 DAC) then left LaPorte at the starting line. After the Slicers' second 3-and-out first quarter possession, Forney manufactured a cross field cut back 55-yard punt return to set CP up for a second score. After two Bulldog 5-yard penalties, Jansen, the 6-foot-2 baseball pitcher, beat the pass rush with another swing pass to Sertich who ran to the flag to make it 14-0 with 7:53 left in the opening quarter.

After a third LaPorte punt, Sertich broke loose on a misdirection hand off out of the shotgun formation and rambled 70 yards to make it 21-0 with 4:35 still left in the first quarter.

LaPorte (6-1, 4-1) would make an extended comeback but in the next two hours, they never totally recovered from the first eight minutes.  It was almost as if LaPorte had not seen some of the shotgun and misdirection plays Crown Point was using.  Certainly they hadn't seen Jansen running them.

“I was a little nervous coming into the game because I hadn't taken a hit,” Jansen said. “But the first time I got hit, it felt good so I wasn't too nervous after that.”

“We knew they'd blitz a lot of guys so we put in a lot of screens this week. So we wanted to capitalize on that. They worked pretty well tonight.”

LaPorte rallied by using four and five wide receiver formations and producing pass-happy drives of 69 and 75 yards to close to within 21-14 at the half. Airrence Shark's 1-yard run with 11 seconds left in the second quarter appeared to put the Slicers competitively back in the game.

But Crown Point allowed LaPorte, which came in averaging 35 points a game, only one possession in the third period, stopping the Slicers on a 4th-and-3 from the 23-yard line with 6:20 left in the third quarter.

LaPorte QB Lance Juergensen, who completed 19 of 35 passes before leaving with a rib injury on the final quarter, threw a misguided pass that Jon Sertich intercepted at the Crown Point 28.

“Sure, we thought about it (a field goal attempt from all-stater Nick Ford),” said LaPorte coach Bob Schellinger. “But there were two things. We needed two scores to win. If they scored again., we'd be down 11.  We had a 3rd-and-1 (before the penalty). We've got to be disciplined enough to get that.”

“Plus, we only had one possession in that quarter and we had to wonder how many possessions we were going to get. We thought we had to go for it at that point.”

Two plays after Sertich's interception,  on a 3rd-and-8, Jansen dropped back to pass and ducked under the rush, zipping down the middle of the field as some of the LaPorte defenders had their backs turned.  Even with his left knee in a brace, Jansen was able to beat the Slicers to the goal line to make it 28-14 with 9:42 left in the game.

“If you look at that play,” said Schellinger, who was  disappointed that his boys didn't stop Jansen on hjis long TD run, “we had two or three missed tackles. That was a big play.”

Jansen, who used to have  better than average speed , was not running  100% but he made it to the goal line.

“I got a little tired on that run,” Jansen said later. “I ran out of breath towards the end I just wanted to get into the end zone. Ryan Forney made a great block on that play. That really paved the way for me.”

It's hard to say this delicately without disrespecting sophomore quarterback Blake Mascarello, who led the offense in six consecutive victories but the Crown Point offense that contributed to six wins in a row was not effective enough to enter the second season, the IHSAA state tournament which begins on Oct. 21.

With senior Matt Jansen, a veteran on 11 games in 2004, a sectional championship is a possibility.  As long as nothing happens to the running attack.

Sertich, who set a school record of 273 yards gained in last year's 37-23 CP loss at LaPorte, carried 16 times for 144 yards this time. Combining with senior Donny Keiser (9 carries, 62 yards) in back of CP's improving offensive line, the Bulldogs controlled the second half against a team that some had rated in the top-5 state wide.

“Our O-Line (offensive line) is doing a great job,” said Jansen, who had an unobstructed view of the first six games. “If we need to, we can just run the clock.  That's what we did in the third quarter and it really helped us. It kept our defense off the field.”

The Bulldogs pounded a LaPorte weakness. The Slicers came in allowing almost 200 rushing yards a game and CP ran for 300 yards behind center Andrew Krumweid, guards Marcus Robinson and Brian Gertsch and sophomore tackles Zach Brumm and Kurt Wermers and tight end Zach Cecich.

With Jansen's return causing a stir, Pettit was in the unusual position of reminding reporters, don't forget about the defense, as if anybody has this season.

“You might looks at the yards and the 14 points, but we stopped the run and we eliminated the big play. They're a talented group. You can't take away everything. We go to the quarterback in the third and fourth quarters and put some pressure on him. I thought both of our lines controlled the line of scrimmage.”

CP held the opposition under 100 yards rushing for the sixth time in seven games and 35 points was a season high and encouraging for a squad that had averaged only 20 points a game. 

“The hype this week was so exciting,” said Gertsch, who is right in the middle of one of the more unlikely seasons in recent NW Indiana prep history. “We came out and saw the crowd tonight and we were fired up.  It was magnificent.  But you've got to take it a week at a time. We'll probably take the weekend of and then it's back to work on Monday.”

“Senior year. You can't take a week off.”

BULLDOG NOTES:  LaPorte coach Bob Schellinger believes in the five wide receiver set the Slicers use and he thought Crown Point didn't totally stop it.

“No, they didn't,” he said. “We went back to it in the second half one time but it's hard when they're blitzing people and we've got to get some protection for Lance. And then he got hurt. He might have broken ribs, I don't know.”

The changes in CP's rush in the second half were subtle, according to third year defensive coordinator Kevin Enright.

“We just wanted to put more stress on one guy,” he said. “We changed our pressure points. We brought a guy (a pass rusher) off the edge to try to get an overload. In doing that. we exposed ourselves in other areas but they didn't find an answer for it.

“Very seldom will you see a high school team that can consistently go 12 plays down the field.  We'll eventually make a play. At the upper college levels, they can do that.  The second half, we just brought four (rushers) and they blocked five so we tried to create a matchup problem. We didn't find a weakness up front. We just wanted to create a situation where they had to communicate very well to block us.”

Enright says it's not as much the 3-5-3 formation and its variations, but the boys who are now in those 11 roles.

“We didn't re-invent the wheel,” he said. “It's the guys. Next year. What we did defensively, we're not going to change that. And our program has gotten to the point where we have enough guys to choose from, we're going to find guys to fit the roles.”

“Plus, we ask guys to do things on the fly. A 'no-huddle' attack won't have any effect on us because we call things from the sidelines anyway.  We work on that.  Also, in practice, we have all our guys together and we can get more practice in. If guys go both ways, you are not getting as many reps and you probably won't do as well.”

Senior guard Brian Gertsch smartly declined to name an opponent he'd want to face in the first round of the state tournament but, in light of near sellout crowds for every home game in 2005, Gertsch did have one request.

“I'd like to play at home,” he said. “The home game is always nice because we have such a great crowd.  We've had great weather all year and the crowds have been great.”

Gertsch and Marcus Robinson are the only seniors on the line.

“We have been learning to learn how to play together and stick together and get comfortable with each other,” added Gertsch. 

Crown Point has had two undefeated regular seasons in 1984 and 1987.  The school has never won more than 10 varsity football games in the same season. LaPorte's 6-0 start was the best for the school since 1946.

As time passes, the amazing thing about Crown Point's victory over LaPorte is that the Bulldogs stayed with a 3-5 defense which only has three defensive backs. They beat LaPorte, which used five wide receivers on many plays. Think about that.

Sertich added, “And our tallest DB is 5-9. (LaPorte's 6-3 wide receiver Kris) Staats is pretty quick. We just tried to keep them in front of us and make the tackle.”

LaPorte completed 22 passes for 226 yards but starting QB Lance Juergensen (19-35, 196 yards) was injured when he was hit by CP defensive end Chris Damjanovic with eight minutes left and the Slicers trailing 28-14.  Four plays later Jordan Rhye intercepted backup QB Adam Creed and ran 70 yards for the game's final touchdown. The Bulldogs' pass rush, which was nothing special before halftime, was a major factor in the final two quarters.

The crowd appeared to be the largest of the season although the bench-style seating and season ticket purchases make it difficult to determine exactly how many people are present at any game.

The new Bulldog stadium is listed as having a capacity of 5,000 but it probably comfortably seats about 4,000. With the band taking up a large segment of the stands that should be for paying customers, the true capacity is about 3,500.  A better barometer is the parking lot, and there were still parking spaces available in the distant regions of the lot at 6:45 p.m. for a 7 p.m. start.  St Matthias Church, directly west of the school, had a parking lot full of cars, even though the school discourages football fans parking there. With the fans who were standing, a good guess at Friday night's crowd would be around 4,500.

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Revised: October 02, 2005 .