10-13-2009

Friday, October 09, 2009,  49 degrees, muddy field, Duneland Athletic Conference at Chesterton, IN.

1st Qtr:  CHESTERTON (7-0) Jon Watson, 22-yard run. 71-yard drive, 7 plays. Kyle Schmidt kick.  4:58 left.
CROWN POINT (3-7) Brett Bayer, 32-yard field goal.  3 plays after 75-yard kickoff return.  3:32 left.
2nd Qtr:  No scoring.
3rd Qtr:  No scoring.
4th Qtr:  CHESTERTON (14-0) Danny Nowak, 43-yard (4th and 1) run. 64-yard drive, 7 plays.
Kyle Schmidt kick. 2:31 left.

RUSHING:
CHESTERTON (39 carries, 143 yards, 2 TDs) Jon Watson (QB) 25-67 yards, TD; Danny Nowak (FB) 4-57 yards, TD;
Taylor Brown (WR) 6-8 yards; Sam Linquist (FB) 1-6 yards; Justin Jenks (HB) 1-3 yards; Frank Raudry (FB) 2-2 yards;

CROWN POINT (22 carries, 28 yards) Joe Hopman (QB) 9-5 yards; Mason Popovich (HB) 9-16 yards; Chris Klein (HB) 3-5 yards; Travis Woosley (WR) 1-2 yards.

PASSING:
CHESTERTON: Jon Watson (QB) 5-12, 73 yards, one interception;
CROWN POINT: Joe Hopman (QB) 1-13, 3 yards, one interception.

RECEIVING:
CHESTERTON: Danny Jensen (WR) 4-51 yards; Taylor Brown (WR) 1-22 yards;
CROWN POINT:  Evan Wilson (FB) 1-3 yards.

CROWN POINT (10-09-2009) Can a team win a varsity high school football game without ever registering a first down?

The answer is 'yes' and Crown Point almost did on a very muddy field Friday night in Chesterton.  But the Trojans got an early first quarter 22-yard touchdown run from quarterback Jon Watson and a late fourth-quarter 37-yard TD carry from Greg Nowak to defeat Crown Point 14-3 in a frustrating Duneland Athletic Conference match up Friday night.

Some call 50-degree temperatures, occasional rain and a thick, creamy playing surface 'real football conditions,' but those folks aren't playing.  You almost felt sorry for the real players who risked losing a shoe to the deep brown goo every time they took a hard step in the center of the rain-soaked gridiron Friday night.

"It was a competitive game played on a sloppy field," said CP coach Chip Pettit, who watched his team fail to gain even one first down on 12 possessions in the Porter County mud. "Unfortunately for us, they made a couple of plays and we didn't."

Conditions were extreme.  It rained all day Thursday and Friday, but stopped about 45 minutes before game time, returning only briefly in the fourth quarter.  But high schools have nothing to cover the football field with and two days of rain following a couple of rainy night Fridays took a tough toll on the natural grass Trojan home turf.  The field was reduced to mud between the hash marks at the north end especially.  Chesterton's offense, which features option runs by junior quarterback Watson (6-3, 195) didn't exactly thrive in these conditions.  But CP's I -formation, pro style attack was very limited.  The linemen slipped noticeably a lot and could not make effective blocks to make holes and the running backs could not get to the line quickly even if there were holes to run through.

"I thought our defense played about as well as they have all year," said CP coach Chip Pettit, who watched his team fail to gain a first down in 12 possessions.  "But everything broke down on offense.  It wasn't just one thing, it was everything."

Both sides knew that CP did not have a first down and the Trojan boys celebrated at the end of the game more so than a normal 14-3 victory.

"I've had some shutouts," said Chesterton defensive coordinator Dan McCoy, "and good defensive games, but nothing like this.  I've had games where at halftime, the other team did not have a first down.  I have never seen a game like that."

"We knew it at halftime.  Strange things can happen.  We could fumble, they could scoop it up and score and then they get the onside kick.  I'm worried until the last play.  In these conditions, when it was 7-3, anything could happen."

Something 'strange' almost occurred.  Late in the third quarter, CP linebacker Jordan Jurasevich blocked a punt by Chesterton's Alex Lydick.  Jurasevich picked up the ball and ran half the length of the field to the Chesterton 20-yard-line.  A Trojan penalty made it 1st-and-10 from the 15 but CP drew a key delay of game penalty and a fourth down pass from Hopman to Evan Wilson fell two yards shot of a first down at the 13 yard line.

That was Hopman's only completion of the night after seven games where he was 64-of-122 for 764 yards.  Crown Point gained an unofficial 31 total yards from scrimmage after gaining 2,128 yards in the first seven games (304 per game) of the season.

CP scored their only points on Brett Bayer's second field goal of the season, a 32-yard boot in the first quarter.  Junior Austin Atherton ran the kickoff back 75 yards after Watson's early TD and the Bulldogs had the ball at the Chesterton 15-yard line.  But CP did not gain a yard in three plays and Bayer's kick made the score 7-3, where it stayed virtually the rest of the game.

Crown Point didn't want to make excuses for this game because they were 3-4 before Friday and they did win on a natural grass field at Lake Central.  But when you play most of your games on artificial turf (5 of the 8 DAC schools have artificial turf) you may not be ready for the mud bowl.

"When you shot gun the ball," said Pettit, "and we use a lot of formations... it's a lot easier to line up and hand off.  It was a learning experience."

DOG NOTES:  Chesterton defensive coordinator Dan McCoy said that his side doesn't mind being one of the five DAC teams that can still play home games in the mud.

"We talked about that," he said.  "Everybody else has the 'field turf" (artificial turf).  So let's come here and play.  This could be our home field advantage.  If we draw Merrillville and we get to play them here.  We should practice on the field every day and tear it up.  We should water it before they get here."

It's hard to determine the last time Crown Point did not gain a first down.  Obviously, that's not a record the home team keeps.  In watching CP football for 20 years, I do not remember any game in which the Bulldogs or a team they were facing did not gain a first down.

There is some confusion about who, other than Crown Point, is in Class 5A Sectional One.  The teams include Valparaiso (4-4), Chesterton (6-2), Lake Central (1-7), Portage (4-4) and Merrillville (7-1) have been joined by Munster (6-2) and East Chicago (3-5).  Merrillville is 4-0 against sectional opponents.

The IHSAA state tourney draw was late this year.  It was held Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 5:00 p.m.  The long-awaited pairing results:
 

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Revised: October 13, 2009 .