Crown Point overcomes key injuries to win on road 16-6 over Lowell Red Devils

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

8-20-2005

Friday, Aug. 19, 2005,  85 degrees, sunny/clear, season opener in Lowell

1st Qtr:  CP (3-0) Donny Keiser, 21-yard field goal,  55-yard drive, 7 plays - 9:22 left.

CP (6-0) Donny Keiser, 21-yard field goal, 50 yard drive, 8 plays - 2:35 left.

2nd Qtr:  CP (13-0) Jon Sertich, 6-yard run, 30-yard drive, 3 plays. Brad Mallers kick - 5:36 left.
3rd Qtr:  CP (16-0) Donny Keiser, 41-yard field goal, 6-yard drive, 3 plays - 10:21 left.
4th Qtr:  LOWELL (16-6) Jimmy Ritter, 10-yard run, 75-yard drive, 10 plays. (Run failed) - 1:48 left.

GAME TOTALS (Unofficial Numbers)

1^st DOWNS: Crown Point (9); LOWELL (8)

TURNOVERS: Crown Point (1) ; LOWELL (4)

PENALTIES: Crown Point 3-25 yards; LOWELL 4-20 yards

RUSHING: 

(CP) 40-177 yards TD, fumble;  (LOWELL) 25-82 yards, TD, 3 fumbles

PASSING: 

Blake Mascarello (CP) 4-6, 75 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs
Jimmy Ritter (LOWELL) 9-16, 127 yards, 1 INT
Jeff Clemens (LOWELL) 1-2, 0 yards

RECEIVING:
Matt Ernest (CP) 1-28 yards; Brian Forney (CP) 1-25 yards;  Tommy Parks (CP) 2-22 yards;
Jeff Clemens (LOWELL) 7-99 yards; Chris Lampa (LOWELL) 2-28;  Jim Wojcik (LOWELL) 1-0 yards

PUNTS:
Donny Keiser (CP) 5-171 (34.2); Jordan Rhye (CP) 1-32.0;
Jeff Clemens (LOWELL) 7-263 (37.5)

LOWELL (8-19-2005) - Sometimes when team 'A' can't play its best player, team 'B' doesn't play its best.  But what if team 'A' can't play two of its best players?  Crown Point lost quarterback Matt Jansen to a knee injury one week before Friday night's season opener against Lowell. Then they lost all-NW Indiana wide receiver Matt Ernest to an injury late in the first quarter.

But the Bulldogs were the 'A team' Friday night, riding a nearly mistake-free offense and attacking defense to come away with the biggest opening night victory of any in Northwest Indiana, a 16-6 upset of two-time defending 4A Sectional 9 champion Lowell in front of a sellout crowd down on Route 2.

There's no logical way to explain how the Bulldogs, who had lost to Lowell in five of the last six seasons, playing without two potential all-state players, could dominate a sectional championship team with 14 returning starters.

“I thought we just wanted it more than they did,” said three-year starting linebacker Vince Lewis, who played in CP losses to Lowell in 2003 and 2004.

“We just got outplayed,” said Lowell coach Kirk Kennedy. “We got beat at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. And you can't beat anybody else when you're busy beating yourself.”

The final score was not indicative of how this game was played. Crown Point settled for very short Donny Keiser field goals on its first two possessions or the score could have been 21-0 at the half.

Crown Point's defense forced Lowell to punt seven times and the Red Devils, who rushed for 3,000 yards in 13 games in 2004, gained an unofficial 82 yards on 25 carries. The Bulldogs didn't wear down in the August heat as some have suggested they do annually against the traditionally smaller and quicker Lowell players.

“We knew they'd run 25, 30 times a game,” said junior strong safety Jon Sertich. “Our defense really picked it up. We put in some blitz packages and just tried to stuff them. It worked out.”

Sertich agreed that when sophomore left-handed second string quarterback Blake Mascarello hit a couple of short passes in the first quarter, CP knew they could win.

“We'd worked on that all week,” he said. “Just trying to make it easy on him. Just hit the flat routes. (Brian) Forney made a great catch when he laid out (dived) on one to put us in position for the touchdown.”

Mascarello, was 3-for-3 on a first quarter drive that led to Keiser's second field goal. The Bulldogs scored three after receiving the opening kickoff as well.

Lowell fumbled away two first half possessions and a short punt set the Bulldogs up at the Lowell 30-yard-line. Mascarello threw a play-action pass to Forney, who made a diving catch at the Red Devil 5-yard-line. Sertich scored from the 6-yard-line one play later to make it 13-0 with 5:36 left in the half.

Lowell got going late in the first half when Jimmy Ritter threw a 32-yard pass to Jeff Clemens near the home sidelines and CP's Jeremy Plummer was called for a personal foul.

Ritter, who struggled early in his first varsity start but improved as the game progressed, tossed a roll-out 18-yard pass-run play to Clemens at the CP 12-yard-line with 35 seconds left in the second quarter.

But Ritter then threw an ill-advised pass towards the goal line that Sertich intercepted to keep the home team scoreless at halftime.

The third quarter would go no better for Lowell as halfback Scott Gray fumbled on the first play from scrimmage at the Red Devils' 30-yard-line. Lowell's defense, which played well considering the field position CP had, stopped the Bulldogs. But Keiser, who booted four field goals including a 43-yarder in the first half of the 2004 season (he was injured after that) easily cleared the crossbar from 41 yards out to make it 16-0 just 99 seconds into the second half.

Lowell's basic running plays were ineffective against CP's three linemen, five linebacker defense which messed up the Devils' blocking. Lowell did not get a chance to wear down the CP defense in humid, 80-plus degree conditions because of constant turnovers.

There was a thought after the game that the injury to Jansen, who completed 133 of 242 passes last year for 1,976 yards, inspired CP and hurt Lowell's emotional preparation.

“After he got hurt,” said Sertich, “a lot of us went over to his house last weekend. We just sat around with him eating pizza and playing Nintendo. I felt bad for him, it being his senior year and all. This was big for us to win this game like this.”

Lowell quarterback Jimmy Ritter started very slowly, but finished with a decent 9-of-16 for 127 yards and a 10-yard TD run with 1:48 left in the final quarter. Kennedy acknowledged that Ritter improved as the game went on but if Lowell throws the ball 16 times, it means they're losing.

“This was Jimmy's first start,” the coach summed up. “Probably something he's been looking forward to his whole life. We tried to do some things we've worked on all through two-a-days (pre-season practice) but we had people mis-aligned. People running the wrong routes and blaming each other. We didn't have a response. Then, we panicked a little bit. We weren't focused on the game. Just a bad night all around.”

“We knew what we had to do,” said Chris Schillo, another one of the five linebacker formation (Sertich, Nick Ciochina and Jordan Rhye) that keyed the defense. “We just had to come in here and be tough and we did it.”

Senior three-year starting linebacker Vince Lewis said, “Everybody on defense did a great job all- around. Jon Sertich made a big play at the end of the half to keep them from scoring.”

“Blake (Mascarello) did a great job,” said Schillo. “No mistakes. That's what we needed.”

In some respects, it's a compliment to Lowell that CP valued a victory over the Devils so highly. But there's no doubt that Crown Point has felt that they should beat a school half their size. The Bulldogs have been embarrassed by Lowell's success against them and they were overjoyed to win a game that most observers (present company included) did not think they would win.

While Lowell can lose to Crown Point and still have a great season, it's hard for CP (enrollment 2,190) to lose to Lowell (1,100 kids) and not feel they have to win several games to make up for it.

“We knew we had to come in here and break their spirit,” said Schillo. “Hit harder than they did. Coach (Chip) Pettit brought someone in every day this week. Somebody who played in the past. To tell us how big this rivalry is and pump us up. We knew we had to do it for everybody who played in the past.”

Lewis added, “He also said at the start of the week that we weren't going to change anything (on offense). That got our minds set up the way they should be. Most everybody picked against us. You picked against us. This is just a great feeling.”

“The possibilities are endless now.”

CP-LOWELL NOTES:  Lowell coach Kirk Kennedy was very surprised at how badly his team played.

“We didn't set any tempo,” he said. “We kept putting our defense in bad field position with turnovers. We couldn't hold onto the ball. In order to move the ball at all, we had to throw the ball. As bad as we played, I'm surprised the score wasn't worse.”

“If this is our effort, we were very ill-prepared tonight. They smacked us in the mouth and we didn't have an answer.”

The Bulldogs took the 'Leather Helmet' trophy (the award given to the Lowell-CP winner) and quickly loaded it onto the bus afterwards. “I think (Vince) Lewis has it,” said CP's Jon Sertich. Crown Point left the field quickly, seemingly not wanting to rub the victory in Lowell's face.

CP did dig up a motivational nugget from last year's game. The Bulldogs remembered that Lowell scored in the final minute of the 25-15 Lowell win in Crown Point in 2004. Some players thought Lowell should have fallen on the ball and taken an 18-15 win. No mention was publicly made of that at the time but the Bulldogs obviously recalled it.

“We remember that they scored in the last minute,” said CP's Vince Lewis. “We were saying all week '40.5, 40.5'. That's when they scored. But we just got it done tonight on both sides of the ball.”

Chris Schillo added, “That was a slap in the face to us.”

CP was not allowed to totally enjoy the victory due to the injury to Matt Ernest, a pre-season all-state candidate.

Ernest (6-2, 170), who caught 47 passes for 1,041 yards last season along with four interceptions on defense, suffered what was feared to be a broken collarbone in a collision with Lowell's Jeff Clemens in the first period. He will certainly miss the next Bulldog game with Hobart and his return this season is uncertain. The Bulldogs have a lot of receivers, although none as gifted as Ernest. Where CP will miss Ernest most is on defense at corner back. The five linebacker set CP showed against Lowell (and Merrillville last year) is some thing they can't use against pass-heavy teams. When CP must go to four and five defensive backs, Ernest will be sorely missed.

Next CP foe Hobart has new quarterback Josh Miracle who threw for four TDs Friday in a 50-6 win over Gary West Side.

There was talk on the Crown Point side that Matt Jansen, injured in the pre-season scrimmage against Hobart, might attempt to return in late October for the sectional but that seems improbable. Jansen was on the sidelines cheering his team on Friday night with his knee in a plastic cast. He has not yet had knee surgery.

Junior Jon Sertich played linebacker in 2004 and switched to free safety in 2005. But he's been all over the place.

“Freshman year, I started out at middle linebacker,” Sertich explained. “When (Jordan) Rhye went out last year, I had to fill in for him at the 'Will' (outside linebacker). Now, I'm at free safety. Wherever they have to put me I'm just trying to do the job.

The crowd at Lowell was over 3,000 with fans standing behind the fences all around the football field. On a hot weather night, some Lowell fans began to leave midway through the fourth quarter with the home team trailing 16-0.

The Lowell high school renovation has progressed to the point where the parking lot in front of the school can be used for football games. That made a noticeable difference in the organization of the crowd. Cars are still parked on the grass practice field behind the visitors stands but as late as 6:45 p.m. (for a 7 p.m. start) there were parking spaces on school grounds in front of the high school.

Lowell rushed for over 225 yards in each of the last two meetings, both Lowell victories. The Devils were not held below 100 yards rushing in any game either of the last two seasons. Seven of the eight Duneland Athletic Conference teams won in week one of 2005, the only loser being Chesterton, which fell 17-14 at Andrean.

In the LAC Black division, only Lowell and Kankakee Valley were defeated and KV feel to fellow league member Munster.

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Revised: August 20, 2005 .