Lowell comes back to beat Crown Point 23-14 in season opener

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

8-19-2007

Friday, Aug. 17, 2007,  71 degrees, clear & dry, season opener at Lowell, IN

1st Qtr:  CP ( 7-0) Russell Chick, 56-yard run. 1 play, 55-yard drive. Michael Lipton kick.  9:54 left.
CP (14-0) Russell Chick, 2-yard run. 5 plays, 63-yard drive. Lipton kick. 1:18 left.
2nd Qtr:  LOWELL  (3-14) David Lang, 20-yard field goal. 13 plays, 82-yard drive. 7:39 left.
3rd Qtr:  LOWELL  (10-14) Steffan Peck, 1-yard run. 10 plays, 37-yard drive. Lang kick. 5:03 left.
LOWELL (17-14) Brandon Grubbe, 68-yard run. 1 play, 68-yard drive. Lang kick. 3:20 left.
4th Qtr:  LOWELL (23-14) Brandon Grubbe, 2-yard run. 6 plays, 54-yard drive. Kick blocked. 4:27 left.

RUSHING:
LOWELL (47 carries, 211 yards, 3 TDs, one fumble) Steffan Peck (TB) 30-106 yards, TDs, fumble; Brandon Grubbe (TB) 6-91, TDs;
Johnny Black (FB) 6-20 yards; Kurt Monix (QB) 4-8 yards (1 sack-minus-14 yards).
  CROWN POINT (24 carries, 93 yards, 2 TDs) Russell Chick (TB) 18-114 yards, 2 TDs; Blake Mascarello (QB) 1-6 yards (4 sacks - minus-27 yards) Evan Nikrin (FB) 1-0.

PASSING:
LOWELL - Kurt Monix (QB) 4-4, 63 yards, TD; CROWN POINT - Blake Mascarello (QB) 3-10, 69 yards.

RECEIVING:
LOWELL - Jeff Barker (TE) 2-45 yards; Jacob Belt (WR) 1-8 yards; Eric Roadruck (WR) 1-10 yards;
CROWN POINT - Zach Cecich (TE) 2-58 yards, Ron Burton (WR) 1-11 yards..

TURNOVERS:  LOWELL (1); CROWN POINT (1). CP lost the ball on downs after a dropped punt snap.
 

LOWELL (8-17-2007) - I'm not shocked that Lowell beat Crown Point 23-14 in the season opener last Friday night.  I am very surprised in how they did it.  Spotting the bigger Bulldogs a 14-0 first quarter lead, Lowell dominated the remainder of the game, scoring 23 unanswered points and writing another page in their recent history of comebacks, beating 4A No. 6 Crown Point 23-14 in the 2007 season opener in front of a standing room only crowd on a perfect weather night out behind Lowell high school.

The Devils, who were shut down on offense against CP in season opening losses in 2005 and 2006, showcased a quick-hitting running game and a demoralizing pass rush to take out the two-time defending Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) champions and break CP's 18-game regular season winning streak.

"That's a good team over there," said Crown Point coach Chip Pettit as he headed for the bus home.  "They (Lowell) were a step quicker than us all night long.  Even at 14-0, we really hadn't established anything.  It was a frustrating night for us offensively.  But give them credit."

When you're ahead 14-0, you should win that game.  But when you score 23 unanswered points in a game, you will win.  Lowell has painted the last two post-seasons with improbable come-from-behind victories and this one won't have to take a back seat to any of them.

"We didn't quit," said coach Kirk Kennedy, obviously proud.  "We took their best punch, but we regrouped and we started punching back.  We captured momentum.  We captured confidence.  I can't speak for what happened to them.  I don't know.  But for us to come back against what you'd have to consider a superior team?  You have to give our kids a lot of credit."

I'm not sure Lowell will have a better team than Crown Point in a month, but on Friday, the Bulldog, 23-2 over the last two seasons, roared to a two-TD edge.  New halfback Russell Chick, broke a 56-yard touchdown run off left guard on his first carry of the season with 9:45 still left in the first quarter.

Lowell, a four-time defending sectional champion, was shut down on its first three possessions and Crown Point drove 63 yards in six plays to make the score 14-0 on a two-yard run by Chick (5-9, 180) with 1:18 left in the opening quarter.

The Devils' comeback began in the second quarter.  Lowell pushed 69 yards in 11 plays before new QB Kurt Monix slipped and fell on 3rd-and-goal at the 3-yard-line and David Lang kicked a 20-yard field goal with 7:39 left in the half.  Lowell defensive end Jeff Barker sacked CP quarterback Blake Mascarello to force another Bulldog punt and a 12-yard return by Steffan Peck put the ball at the Crown Point 39-yard-line.  Lowell drove to the 9-yard-line, but Peck fumbled and CP held an 11-point lead at the half.

'We saw them on film," said Barker, who finished with 3 1/2 or four sacks.  "We knew they weren't going to be as good as last year, but once they broke that first touchdown, we were hanging our heads a little.  At halftime, coaches really got our heads back in it."

Crown Point got the second half kickoff and could have buried Lowell with a touchdown, but they gave up the ball in three plays after a five-yard penalty on 3rd-and-1.  Lowell got an 11-yard-punt return from Peck and drove 37 yards in 10 plays.  Peck, who gained 995 yards last year, carried on nine of the 10 plays including a one-yard run to make the score 13-10 with 5:10 left in the third period.

Lowell, which had seven starters back on defense, stopped CP again on three plays and punted.  But Lowell's Peck, who had a big night running back kicks, pulled up lame and had to be helped off the field.  Lowell's backup tailback was a sophomore named Brandon Grubbe, who had never carried the ball in a varsity game.

In a moment that exists only in dreams, Grubbe took his first ever varsity handoff, zipped through left guard and pulled away from the CP secondary for a stunning 68-yard touchdown and a shockingly sudden 17-14 Lowell lead.

"He had a great year on the freshman team last year," Kennedy said of Grubbe, who would finish with 91 yards and two TDs on six carries in relief of Peck (30 carries, 106 yards), who returned to the game in the final minutes.

"We'd been giving him a lot of reps in camp.  It's great to see a kid like that have that kind of success in his first game.  But we're not surprised.  That's the kind of player he is.  Give him credit for the first time he carried the ball he didn't drop it."

"He's our secret weapon," said new Lowell quarterback Kurt Monix.  "In practice, he's got some speed around the outside.  The coaches were impressed.  Everybody was.  He's definitely going to be a big threat."

But Lowell knew they had running backs and pass rushing ends.  They didn't know if they had a quarterback and Monix answered that question, handling the Devil offense without a turnover.  The junior wrestler was sacked twice but he never fumbled and was 4-for-4 passing.

A play-action 40-yard pass to Barker on a 3rd-and-4 pushed the ball to the Crown Point 12-yard-line in the middle of the fourth quarter and Grubbe's two-yard run made it 23-14 with 5:30 left in the game.

CP had no answers for the speed of the Lowell defense.  Even when Lang dropped a punt snap, giving the Bulldogs a first down at the Lowell 27 with the score still 17-14, the Devil defense shut down CP in four plays.  On 4th-and-3 at the Lowell 28, Barker got outside the blocking protection and sacked Mascarello for an 18-yard loss and a fumble recovered by the Devils' Bryan DeSomer with 7:48 left in the game.

It would be inaccurate to say that Mascarello (3 of 10, 69 yards) and CP made a lot of critical mistakes.  The Bulldogs simply could not meet the intensity of the hometown Devils after halftime and CP's experienced offensive line just could not protect the passer.

"Once Grubbe broke that run, we knew we'd get it," said Barker.  "We were all fired up.  I knew this situation.  I just tried to use my speed on the corner.  We knew at that point what they had to do."

"Barker has great speed and quickness," said Pettit.  "It's not like he doesn't play hard because he does, but he just has great speed.  And at 6-foot-4, he's hard to handle.  I thought that Barker took over the game.  We were hoping he wouldn't get into a position where he could make all those plays but he did.  We didn't have a lot of first time starters.  We have first timers at the skills positions but our line only has one first time starter.  And I thought their line took it to us."

Pettit really didn't have any excuses.  It's not like CP didn't start the game well.

"We'll go back and we'll improve.  I think they (Lowell) are pretty good."

DEVIL/DOG NOTES:  Lowell junior QB Kurt Monix was not overwhelmed by his first start at home in front of a sellout crowd against a Top-10 team.

"It was a lot calmer than I thought it would be," he said after the game.  "When I came of the field, I was laughing.  Things seemed to move slowly.  It wasn't too fast at all."

This is the sixth Lowell victory over Crown Point in nine years, all season openers.  Usually, it's the speed of Lowell that troubles the size of CP, but usually the season opener is played on a very warm August night.  Temperatures were in the mid-60s in the second half.

"I was hoping it would be 90 degrees," admitted Lowell coach Kirk Kennedy.

Crown Point started junior Nick Jones (5-9, 245) and Nick Colonna (5-11, 240) at left tackle and guard moving former offensive starters Matt Childress (6-2 ,260) and Cody Blue (6-3, 230) to the three-man defensive line with Nick Hladek.  Zach Brumm (5-11, 220) appeared to play on both sides of the ball.  Crown Point lost Childress to an undetermined injury in the fourth quarter.  He did not return to the game.

The Bulldogs didn't have the ball very much as Lowell's offensive line, including center Josh Hayden (6-1, 210), guards David Lang (6-0, 206) and Nick Schultz (5-11, 231) plus tackles Eugene Wentworth (6-3, 240) and Brian DeMario (6-3, 222) got to work on 42 carries by the Devils backs.  If Lowell gets 40 carries and loses no fumbles, they're going to win most games.

The overflow crowd was a little subdued and some of the CP fans actually started to leave in the middle of the fourth quarter when the Devils forged a nine-point lead.  The crowd was about 3,000.  Capacity of the Lowell football field is about 2,500.  Many were standing around the south end of the field.

A moment of silence was observed for Lowell linebacker Dean Frigo, who was killed in a car accident last winter.  Frigo's number 33 was written on the field behind the Lowell bench.

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Revised: August 19, 2007 .