Merrillville dominates Bulldogs in 38-14 DAC victory at Crown Point

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

9-06-2009

Friday, Sept. 4, 2009,  65 degrees, Duneland Athletic Conference opener at CROWN POINT, IN

1st Qtr:  MERRILLVILLE (7-0) Denzel Pierce , 39-yard run.  61 yards, 6 plays.  Mike Enghofer kick.  8:35 left.
MERRILLVILLE (13-0) Denzel Pierce, 5-yard run.  20 yards, 5 plays.  Kick blocked. 1:30 left.
2nd Qtr:  MERRILLVILLE (19-0) Byron Ferrell, 21-yard pass from Zach Raspopovich. 79 yards, 12 plays. Kick failed. 7:32 left.
MERRILLVILLE (25-0) Zach Raspopovich, 2-yard option run.  80 yards, 14 plays.  2 point run failed.  0:45 left.
3rd Qtr:  MERRILLVILLE (32-0) Zach Raspopovich, 10-yard run.  67 yard drive, 7 plays.  Mike Enghofer kick.  6:48 left.
4th Qtr:  CROWN POINT (7-32) Travis Woosley, 25-yard pass from Joe Hopman.  83 yards, 12 plays.  Brett Bayer kick. 1:11 left.
MERRILLVILLE (38-7) Terry Thomas, 2-yard run. 80-yard drive, 14 plays.  Kick blocked.  3:47 left.
CROWN POINT (38-14) Tyler Wells, 22-yard pass from Joe Hopman.  66 yards, 7 plays.  Brett Bayer kick.  1:36 left.

RUSHING:
MERRILLVILLE (36 carries/210 yards, 5 TDs): Denzel Pierce (HB) 13 carries, 93 yards, 2 TDs; Darryl Peppers (HB) 8-57 yards;
Zach Raspopovich (QB) 12-39 yards, 2 TDs; Terry Thomas (HB) 4-15 yards, Tyler Kepchar (QB) 1-6 yards.

CROWN POINT (21 carries, 75 yards): Chris Klein (HB) 8-32 yards; Mason Popovich (HB) 7-43 yards, Spencer Rapchak (FB) 1-5 yards,
Travis Woosley (WR) 2-3 yards, Joe Hopman (QB) 3-(minus-8 yards)

PASSING:
MERRILLVILLE: Zach Raspopovich (QB) 15 of 24, 193 yards, TD, no interceptions;
CROWN POINT: Joe Hopman (QB) 14 of 29, 134 yards, 2 TDs, one interception.

RECEIVING:
MERRILLVILLE: Darryl Peppers (HB) 3-26 yards; Louis Craig (WR) 3-36 yards; Byron Ferrell (WR) 7-84 yards, TD; Christian Matthews (WR) 2-40 yards;
CROWN POINT: Nate Haase (WR) 2-16 yards; Spencer Rapchak (TE) 2-18 yards; Travis Woosley (WR) 6-52 yards, TD;
Conrad Kats (TE) 1-10 yards, Chris Klein (HB) 1-6 yards, Tyler Wells (WR) 2-26 yards, TD.
 

CROWN POINT (9-04-2009) The 14 points Crown Point put up in the fourth quarter Friday indicated that it's far too early in the season to quit and that the Bulldogs have a potentially dangerous passing attack.  Of course, the 38 points Merrillville scored indicates who the better team was.

The Pirates took advantage of a very shaky Crown Point offensive unit and scored 25 first half points to bury the Bulldogs 38-14 on opening night of the 2009 Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) season.

It's not hard to imagine the Pirates defeating Crown Point since they eliminated CP from the playoffs 42-6 last fall.  But Merrillville seemed to intimidate the Bulldogs, who committed four illegal procedure penalties on their first 10 offensive plays in the first quarter, virtually donating the purple clad visitors their first 13 points.  Merrillville took the cue and mounted second quarter drives of 79 and 90 yards to put the game away in front of a 'Senior Night' crowd of  about 3,500 in perfect weather conditions.

"I thought our kids played well, said Pirates head coach Zac Wells.  "We talked about being consistent.  We had some lapses in the first couple of games and we played a much better game tonight.  Our guys blocked well tonight.  We had a solid all-around performance."

Crown Point has potential for the future, but Merrillville appears to have boys who can make plays now.  CP has about eight weeks to turn potential into play-making, while Merrillville may just be scratching the surface of what they can do.

The quarterbacks displayed that.
 

Crown Point's Joe Hopman, who was a JV freshman last year, hit 14 of 29 for two TDs and just one interception, all the while trying to avoid the Pirate pass rush led by senior wrestling star James Travis (6-0, 245).

Meanwhile, Merrillville junior Zach Raspopovich (6-2, 160), who played in a half dozen 'apprentice' games in 2008 and took some serious punishment in DAC play, looked like he was all-conference on this night with 15 of 24 for 193 yards passing inside a 400-yard night operating the Pirates' four-wide receiver attack.

"He's getting more and more comfortable," said Wells.  "He got to play last year.  You know that the more experience you get, the better you are."

That's the hope for Crown Point, which has a fleet of all new skill position payers on offense this year.  Again, it's not a shock that CP didn't dominate their neighbors to the north.  But the Bulldogs shouldn't be afraid of Merrillville and that's what it looked like on offense in the first quarter with a lot of fumbling and stumbling.

"Once they got going tonight," CP coach Chip Pettit said of the Pirates, "we couldn't stop them.  Take nothing away from them.  They've got a lot of weapons.  But we can't start the game like that.  That was ridiculous."

The Pirates' theory used four receivers on a lot of plays with seniors Louis Craig, Byron Ferrell, Eddie Deluna and Christian Mathews (6-2, 182) manning the flanks with pseudo running backs like Denzel Piece (5-9, 180), Darryl Peppers (5-6, 172) and Sanchez Tate (5-10, 182) in the slot.  Defensively you either come up with four man-to-man corner backs which most teams do not have, or play a zone and hope their play makers can't make plays.
 

They could. 
 

In comfortable 65-degree breezes, Merrillville  got a 39-yard TD run from Pierce, a 33-yard pass-run play from Matthews, a called-back (on a penalty) 52-yard TD catch from Craig, a 27-yard TD catch from Ferrell, who caught seven passes for 84 yards on the night.

"Ferrell is a heckuva athlete," said Wells, "This is just his second year playing football.  He went out for track last year and he was on the cusp of making it to state in the high jump."
 

"Matthews is really on the brink of having a big game for us.  He does a lot of things.  He returns kicks and we put him at tailback a couple of times.  We put him in a number of receiver spots.  As soon as he really grasps everything in the offense, he'll be very good.  He had a couple of big plays called back tonight or he'd have been well over 100 yards.  He plays hard and he blocks well.  A good all-around player."
 

Crown Point drew a penalty on its first posession and had to punt.  Then the Pirates went 61 yards in six plays as Pierce ran for 39 yards on a cut-back run.  CP had three illegal procedure penalties on the next possession and they understandably had to punt the next two times they had the ball, the second time from their own end zone.

The punt carried only to the 20-yard line and Merrillville scored in five plays, the last one a five-yard run by Pierce, who gained 1,000 yards last year.

CP was in shock at this point and again, they could not get a first down.  Merrillville went 79 yards in 12 plays with Zach Raspopovich firing a roll-out 21-yard TD pass to Ferrell for a 19-0 lead with 7:32 left in the half.
 

Crown Point's initial first down came with six minutes left in the second quarter on a 16-yard pass from Hopman to Spencer Rapchak.  But the Bulldogs gained only nine yards on a 4th-and-10 pass from Hopman to Travis Woosley and Merillville proceeded to go 90 yards on 14 plays to make the score 25-0.  Raspopovich, who was the QB n Merrillville's 10-7 loss to CP in Merrillville last season, scored on a two-yard run with 45 seconds left in the half.

Crown Point isn't anywhere near as bad as they looked, getting smoked 32-0 in the first 36 minutes of the game.  Senior halfback Mason Popovich gained 43 second half yards on seven carries in a search for more playing time.  Sophomore Tyler Wells (5-8, 155) made his varsity debut with a 22-yard TD catch in the final moments.  And Hopman finished the game strong against the Pirates' second stringers with two second half TD passes.

"Joe Hopman made some nice plays," Pettit said, trying to be positive.  He did some good things.  But the way we started the game is inexcusable."

DOG NOTES:  Bad news for linebacker Brad Pusateri, who may be out for the season with a shoulder injury.  Pusateri was introduced to the Crowd on 'Senior Night' but he has not played since the season began.

Junior Austin Atherton, who reportedly suffered a concussion last week against Hobart, should be back for week four against Lake Central.  Word is, he could have played against Merrillville, but the coaches wanted to be careful with the 140-pound receiver.

No word on what appeared to be hand or arm injuries to linebacker Steve Perillo and defensive back and kick returner Brian Holloway.  CP can't afford to lose either junior player as both have contributed noticeably in their rookie seasons on the varsity.  Holloway, who appeared to be the victim of a late hit when he was on the ground in the fourth quarter, returned three kickoffs for 67 yards against Merrillville.

Crown Point had won the last seven regular season meetings with Merrillville before last Friday, but that is as misleading a statistic as you can find.  Merrillville has eliminated CP from sectional play four times in the last five years.

At the Merrillville team's scrimmage, Darryl Peppers ran over a couple of his teammates, drawing some attention.

Coach Zac Wells said, "He's Okay.  You don't need to be talking about a sophomore."
 

But after Peppers gained 57 yards on eight carries and caught three passes for 26 yards his coach accepted that it's becoming harder and harder to hide him.

"He's very strong," said Wells.  "He's been a nice surprise for us.  We've got young guys coming on strong.  We just found a couple of spots for him tonight."

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Revised: September 06, 2009 .