9-25-2010

Friday, September 24, 2010,  65 degrees, Duneland Athletic Conference at VALPARAISO, IN

1st Qtr: VALPARAISO (3-0) Sam Ficken, 47-yard field goal. 35-yard drive, 8 plays. 2:27 TOP. 6:14 left.

CROWN POINT (7-3) Cody Bacon, 1-yard run. 80-yard drive, 8 plays. 3:11 TOP. Brett Bayer kick. 3:03 left.
2nd Qtr: VALPARAISO (10-7) Bryon Duncan, 7-yard run. 85 yards, 11 plays. 5:24 TOP. Sam Ficken kick. 9:39 left.
3rd Qtr: No scoring.
4th Qtr: No scoring.
 

GAME STATISTICS

RUSHING:
CROWN POINT (28 carries, 77 yards, one TD) Cody Bacon (HB) 22-70 yards, TD; Austin Atherton (WR) 2-9 yards; Pete Parks (FB) 1-3 yards; Joe Hopman (3 (minus-5) 2 sacks - minus- 10.
VALPARAISO (41 carries, 148 yards, one TD, one fumble) Bryon Duncan (HB) 20-82 yards, TD; Andrew Kittridge (HB) 14-42 yards; Paul Andrie (QB) 4-13 yards; Greg Simms (FB) 1-5 yards.

PASSING:
Joe Hopman (CP) 8-of-17, 105 yards, 2 interceptions;
Paul Andrie (V) 5-of-11, 69 yards.

RECEIVING:
CROWN POINT: Austin Atherton (WR) 6-79 yards; Jordan Jurasevich (TE) 1-11 yards, Pete Parks (FB) 1-15 yards;
VALPARAISO: Bryon Duncan (HB) 1-8 yards, Ryan Nix (WR) 2-22 yards; Dan Hummel (WR) 2-39 yards.

TOTAL YARDS:
CROWN POINT: 182 yards, 10 first downs, 2 turnovers (both interceptions);
VALPARAISO: 217 yards, 10 first downs, 2 turnovers (both fumbles).

VALPARAISO (9-24-2010) Sometimes a matchup of two strong, big school football teams lives up to all the great expectations. Friday night in Porter County, Crown Point at Valparaiso. This just wasn't one of those times. After a flurry of early action left the home team ahead 10-7 with 9:33 to go in the second quarter, both sides swung and missed on every other pitch the rest of the night, leaving the fifth-ranked Vikings with a three-point win in the annual battle for the County Seat Trophy.

Valpo 34-year veteran coach Mark Hoffman was in a generous mood after his second 10-7 win over a quality foe this year.

"Their (CP's) defense is tenacious," Hoffman commented, standing on the artificial turf after the pivotal Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) game. "We thought they were more athletic than Penn. Offensively, their backs are like Penn. Their line is as big as Penn. They use a one back. But he runs hard up in there. Their quarterback is better than Penn's. The kicking game is a wash (even). We had some disasters on the kicking game tonight. Almost cost us a ball game."

Both teams had a lot of things they'd probably like to 'do over'.  The second half was a series of Crown Point defensive stops and offensive failures. Valpo had just five first downs in the second half and the undefeated Vikings never advanced the ball inside the CP 40-yard-line until Andrew Kittridge's 11-yard run with 50 seconds to play in the game. Crown Point, rated ninth in the state coaches poll but unranked in the weekly media poll, had first downs at the Valparaiso 16, the 29 and the 44 in the second half, but obviously produced nothing on the scoreboard.

Crown Point almost pulled out a dramatic victory when Pete Parks blocked a punt and the Bulldogs took over at the Valparaiso 44-yard line with 4:37 left in the fourth quarter. Cody Bacon, who went over 850 yards rushing for the season, gained seven yards on first down but he was stopped for no gain on second down. On a third down roll out, Valpo's Dominic Coatsolonia (6-0, 167), coming from behind the quarterback, sacked Hopman for a three-yard loss. On 4th-and 6, Hopman's roll out pass to tight end Tyler Kral was deflected by the Vikings' defense and fell incomplete. CP could not get the ball back as the Vikings, lining up in the 'Wildcat' formation, got two first downs with track star Andrew Kittridge (5-11, 186) pushing ahead for two game-clinching first downs.

"We were hoping to kick a field goal there at the end," said CP coach Chip Pettit. "Because we still had time to run the ball. But then we lost two yards and its 3rd-and-5. "We had plenty of opportunities. Our defense did a nice job. But our offensive line got pushed around a little. Give their defense credit. They stopped us."

The first 15 minutes were a picture postcard for DAC football. Over 4,000 fans. Cool weather. Bright red and green clad boys moving the ball and scoring in front of enthusiastic fans. Valparaiso stopped CP on the Bulldogs' first possession and picked up two first downs to set a 47-yard field goal by Sam Ficken. Crown Point then drove 80 yards to take a 7-3 lead as quarterback Joe Hopman was 3-for-3 passing and Cody Bacon scored on a one-yard run.

Valparaiso (6-0) responded with an 85-yard drive climaxing in the game's most controversial play. On 3rd-and goal form the 12-yard line, a pass by Valpo's left-handed quarterback Paul Andrie was far out of reach of tight end Adam Thoma in the southwest corner of the end zone on the home sideline. A late penalty flag gave Valpo a first down and Bryon Duncan scored on the next play with 9:39 to go in the half.

At that point, either the defenses clamped down or the offenses shut down, whichever way you want to look at it. Crown Point did not score the rest of the half, even though Valpo fumbled a punt (the ball hit Viking sophomore Danny Stewart in kick coverage) at the Valparaiso 27-yard-line. On a 4th-and-7 at the Valparaiso 24-yard line, Pettit chose not to ask kicker Brett Bayer to attempt what would have been a career-longest 41-yard field goal and tried to pick up the yardage from scrimmage. Joe Hopman's rollout pass was incomplete with 2:38 to go in the half. CP forced a quick punt and moved the ball to the Valpo 48 in the final minute of the first half. But Hopman's first down pass was intercepted by Valpo linebacker Johnny Pacurib.

Valparaiso kept the ball away from CP receiving star Austin Atherton after the halftime breaks. Atherton caught five passes for 59 yards in the first and but only one 23-yard toss in the second half.

The key play of the game was a third quarter interception by Coatsolonia in the end zone of an under thrown Hopman pass to Atherton on 3rd-and 10 from the VHS 13 yard line.

"I knew the ball was coming to him," said Valparaiso co-captain and defensive back Dominic Coatsolonia, who was playing just his third game of the season due to injury. "They were throwing to him the whole night. I certainly didn't expect the ball to go the other way. I was ready. He's a great receiver. I was just in the in the right position at the right time. That interception. It was all the defensive line. Adam Peterka, Wil Fortson, Nate Jorden, Ian Watson. All of them. That's the reason I made the play was because if them."

Valpo's defense has been good all year. The Vikings also defeated Penn 10-7 and they held high scoring Chesterton to 14 points in a 21-14 triumph. Considering the quality of the opposition, this was probably CP's best defensive game of the season as well. Linebacker Billy Van Cleef had a QB sack and Reed Stofko had at least three tackles at the line of scrimmage or for losses. CP defensive backs Austin Stanley and Joel Johnson recovered fumbles.

Valparaiso punted three times in the second half and fumbled away a fourth possession. The Vikings never came close to scoring after the first series of the second quarter.

"Defensively, I thought we were pretty good," said Pettit. "But you have to give their defense credit, too. Hey, they were missing 42 (linebacker Jake Grossnickle) tonight. He's a stud. It was a good game."

It was a good defensive game. Valpo is now 6-0 with two wins by three points and CP's 4-2 with two losses by three points. You didn't see the kind of offense that's going to win anything in the post-season. When both teams go scoreless in prefect conditions for the final 33 minutes, you want to pull the plug, re-boot the whole thing and start the whole thing over again. In November, maybe that will happen.

DOG NOTES: Crown Point watchers questioned the pass interference penalty that set up Valpo's second quarter touchdown, but none of us saw it. The play was in the east corner of the north end zone. The visitors stands are on the west side. The ball was overthrown and not at all catchable. But whatever contact or holding that was called was not visible from 50 yards away.

Both coaches said they were not surprised by the defensive nature of this match up, even though Valparaiso averaged 29 points a game in the first five weeks and CP averaged 35 points a game.

"I didn't think it was going to be high scoring," said Coatsolonia who, as a defensive player, had to think that way. "We held Penn to seven points," said Valpo coach Mark Hoffman.
Hoffman said he wasn't surprised that CP didn't go for a 41-yard field goal to try to tie the game 10-10 late in the second quarter.

"They had a field goal blocked and run back for a touchdown against Merrillville," he reminded. "That cost them that game. He (Bayer) is a low trajectory kicker. I think Merrillville blocked it two yards back. Chip knows that."

Hoffman paid tribute to Dominic Coastsolonia, who was the defensive MVP on this night.

"He is our captain," said Hoffman. "Our leader. He only played eight plays in the Penn game (Aug. 20) and he didn't play in the Griffith game (Aug. 27) but he's back at full tilt now and he's a great player for us."

Valparaiso drops Griffith from the schedule and plays Carmel beginning next August. "We wanted to drop (long time week two foe) Gary Roosevelt for years," he said. But we could not find anyone to play us. Russ (Griffith coach Russ Radtke) was man enough to play us and his boys play hard."

Hoffman said the Valpo-Carmel games would not be played on Saturday night, as Merrilville's games with Warren Central are.

Valparaiso improved to 6-0 for the first time since 1975.

"We'd always opened the season with Hobart," explained Hoffman of the early losses in the 70s and 80s. "Now we open with Penn."

The interceptions of Joe Hopman were his third and fourth of the season. The Bulldogs still have not lost a fumble all year. Such records are not kept, but it is believed that no CP team in the state tournament era (1973 to present) has played a complete regular season without losing at least one fumble.

Crown Point people did notice the score from LaPorte, where Merrillville had to go to overtime to defeat the home team 42-41. CP plays at LaPorte next week. Word is that 1,000-yard rusher Nick Latchford was injured in that game and may not be able to go against CP.

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Revised: September 25, 2010 .