10-16-2010

Friday, October 15, 2010,  54 degrees, Duneland Athletic Conference in MICHIGAN CITY, IN

1st Qtr: MICHIGAN CITY (7-0) Dwayne Brown, 8-yard run. 28-yard drive, 5 plays. 0:51 min TOP. Dustin Rivich kick. 6:39 left.
CROWN POINT (7-7) Austin Atherton, 44-yard pass from Joe Hopman. 0:59 min. TOP. Brett Bayer kick. 5:34 left.
CROWN POINT (14-7) Cody Bacon, 8-yard run. 58 yards, 3 plays. Brett Bayer kick. 1:33 left.
2nd Qtr: CROWN POINT (17-7) Brett Bayer, 19-yard field goal. 69-yard drive, 11 plays. 4:40 min. TOP. 7:04 left.
CROWN POINT (24-7) Joe Hopman, 4-yard run. 31 yards, 6 plays after interception by Logan McRae. 2:06 min. TOP. Brett Bayer kick. 4:34 left.
CROWN POINT (31-7) Cody Bacon, 18-yard run. 63-yard drive, 3 plays. 1:00 min. TOP. Brett Bayer kick. 2:10 left.
CROWN POINT (38-7) Austin Atherton, 36-yard pass from Joe Hopman. 36-yard drive, one play drive after Atherton's 35-yard punt return.  0:08 sec. TOP. Brett Bayer kick. 1:06 left.
3rd Qtr: CROWN POINT (45-7) Joe Hopman, 4-yard run. 65-yard drive, 9 plays. 4:30 min. TOP. Brett Bayer kick. 7:23 left.
CROWN POINT (52-7) Tyler Smith, 24-yard pass from Joe Hopman. 42-yard drive, 5 plays. 1:28 min. TOP. Brett Bayer kick.
4th Qtr: MICHIGAN CITY (15-52) Rodney Washington, 4-yard run. 63-yard drive, 9 plays. 3:18 min. TOP. Brock Moore, 2-point pass from Rodney Washington. 6:38 left.
 

GAME STATISTICS

RUSHING:
CROWN POINT (33 carries, 219 yards, 3 TDs) Cody Bacon (HB) 14-128 yards, 2 TDs; Jake Lindeman (HB) 2-23 yards; Joe Hopman (QB) 8-18 yards (one sack-3) Jamie Johnston (HB) 4-11; Tristan Peterson (HB) 5-39 yards.
MICHIGAN CITY (27 carries 78 yards, TD) Dwayne Brown (HB) 6-60 yards, TD; Rodney Washington (QB) 16-23 (one sack-14 yards); Giorgio Karallas (HB) 3-10 yards; CJ Sanders (HB) 1 (minus-4 yards); Trevor Woodlum (TE) 1 (minus-2) 8 yards.

PASSING:
CROWN POINT: Joe Hopman (QB) 11-18, 267 yards, 2 TDs; Jake Jatis (QB) 1-1, 28 yards, TD; Austin Solis (QB) 0-1;
MICHIGAN CITY: Rodney Washington (QB) 8-18, 73 yards, 2 interceptions.

RECEIVING:
CROWN POINT: Austin Atherton (WR) 8-242 yards, 2 TDs; Jake Lindeman (HB) 1-7 yards; Clay Emory (TE) 1-22 yards; Tyler Smith (WR) 2-24 yards.
MICHIGAN CITY: Kevin Kreighbaum (WR) 3-25 yards; Kyle Neulib (WR) 1-36 yards; Trevor Woolum (WR) 2-3 yards; Anthony Leffler (WR) 1-4 yards;Jordan Callahan (WR) 1-5 yards.

TOTALS YARDS:
CROWN POINT: 514 total yards, 19 first downs, no turnovers;
MICHIGAN CITY: 151 yards, 10 first downs, 2 turnovers (interceptions)

MICHIGAN CITY, IN (10-16-2010) Crown Point may never know what happened to them in the 45-20 home loss to Chesterton on Oct. 8. With all due respect to the Trojans, Crown Point could not do anything right, falling behind 38-0 before losing 45-20. But after topping Michigan City 52-15 Friday in the regular season finale, the hope is that, even though they don't have an explanation for the week-eight meltdown, that it was a one-night-only thing.

"I don't know," said senior receiver Austin Atherton, who grabbed eight passes for 242 yards against Michigan City. "I don't even know. We were a little shaky coming out because last Fiday was so bad. We had six or seven penalties and on the first drive, we had four. We were better against the option. But sometimes everbody tried to do too much. We all tried to make every play."

"We hadn't had any turnovers all year," said coach Chip Pettit of the surprising 25-point loss to Chesterton. "And we had three early. And our defense, which has been good all year, had a bad night."

"It was one of those games where everything that could go wrong did, and I thought it really shook us up. And I think that showed on the first possession tonight defensively. Two offside penalties. We had a face mark penalty. It was like there was carry-over from last week. But in the end, they're 18, 19 year old kids."

Playing at Michigan City against the last place team in the Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) on a near perfect 54-degree night, turned out to be a quick cure for any offensive problems. The Bulldogs (6-3, 4-3 DAC) rolled up 500 yards of total offense. Atherton grabbed a career high in receiving yards and senior halfback Cody Bacon became CP's first 1,000-yard rusher since 2007 when he broke a 33-yard run in the third quarter. Bacon (5-10, 180), gained an unofficial 128 yards on 14 carries, giving him 1,032 yards on 181 carries.

Trailing 7-0, CP quickly went 76 yards in three plays including a 44-yard pass from Joe Hopman to Atherton for the tying TD with 5:34 left in the first quarter. Later in the first quarter, Hopman found Atherton, who was single-covered much of the first half, for a 53-yard gain to the Michigan City 15 yard line. Two plays later Bacon swept right end for an eight-yard TD to give the Bulldogs a 14-7 lead after one quarter.

Crown Point drove the ball to the Michigan City one-yard-line on their next possession, but the drive stalled out at the one-yard-line when Bacon was hit and fumbled. CP did recover and Brett Bayer lifted his sixth field goal of the season to make it 17-7 with 7:04 left in the half.

On Michigan City's next possession a pass by big senior QB Rodney Washington was intercepted by Logan McRae at the Michigan City 31. Hopman scored on a 4-yard-run seven plays later for a 24-7 lead.

Three plays and a punt later, Hopman hit Atherton for 37 yards to the Michigan City 20 and Bacon ran it in the last 18 yards for a 31-7 Crown Point lead. Three more plays and another short punt led to a 36-yard TD pass from Hopman to Atherton with 1:06 left in the second quarter. The game was effectively over at halftime and a lot of underclassmen then saw the field in the second half.

"Me and Joe are just in sync," said Atherton. "We've been throwing to each other all last year. All summer. They left the middle of the field open a little. They didn't double me that much."

Atherton may get a little more attention this coming Friday when the Bulldogs host Portage (5-4) to start Class 5A Sectional One play. Portage star Jake Dixon could be assigned to slow him down.

"He didn't cover me last time," Atherton said. "They played a lot further off me last time. It might be different this time."

"We're glad to be playing at home."

CROWN POINT 1,000-yard rushers (since 1980)
Russell Chick (2007) 294 carries, 1,810 yards
Brian Parker (1997) 258 carries, 1,702 yards
Jon Sertich (2006) 235 carries, 1,492 yards
John Young (1987) 215 carries, 1,480 yards
Cody Bacon (2010) 181 carries, 1,032 yards*
Geremy Milner (1995) 226 caries, 1,059 yards
Donny Keiser (2005) 198 carries, 1,046 yards
Mark Minch (1989) 194 carries, 1,013 yards

* season incomplete

DOG NOTERS: Austin Atherton's eight catches for 242 yards also put him near the 1,000-yard mark for the year. Atherton finished the regular season with an unofficial total of 45 catches for 924 yards. Matt Ernest (2005) and David Warne (1996) are the only two players to go over 1,000 yards in pass receptions in a single season.

Warne, who caught 45 passes for 1,123 yards in 1995, is listed in the CPHS football program as the record holder although all Crown Point records are incomplete. Although some of the 1958 scoring and rushing leaders have been included, actual year-by-year records have been kept only going back to the days of coach Brad Smith (1978-1993) and Crown Pont high school football goes back to the start of the 20th century. It's likely that Warne is the school record holder but nobody knows for sure.

The single-game pass receiving record isn't listed in the CPHS program and may not have been kept at all.

Cody Bacon won't catch 2008-graduate Russell Chick on CP' rushing list. Chick carried 294 times for 1,810 yards in 2007, which is the most in the time that CPHS records have been kept. Joe Hopman's three TD passes give him 18 for the season. The 'listed' CPHS record is 26 by Blake Mascarello in 2006.

Senior Crown Point starting lineman Alex Zagrocki and senior outside linebacker Jordan Jurasevich both did not play at Michigan City.

"They'll both be back for the sectional," said coach Chip Pettit.

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Revised: October 18, 2010 .