Lipton's 39-yard FG seals comeback win over Hobart 22-20

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

8-27-2007

Friday, Aug. 25, 2007,  68 degrees, clear & dry at CROWN POINT, IN

1st Qtr:  HOBART (7-0) Andrew Jackson, 2-yard run. 74 yards, 10 plays (including 8 runs by Andrew Jackson). Mike Josifovski kick. 7:18 left.
CROWN POINT (3-7) Michael Lipton, 19-yard field goal. 78 yards, 12 plays. 2:06 left.
2nd Qtr: HOBART (3-13) Andrew Jackson, 2-yard run. 52 yards, 14 plays. Mike Josifovski kick failed (ball hit the goal post). 2:21 left.
CROWN POINT (13-5) Lance LaMere knocked down Jeremy Coons in the Hobart end zone.  0:55 left.
CROWN POINT (13-13) Russell Chick, 3-yard run. 63 yards, 7 plays. 2-point pass from Blake Mascarello to Joe Maginot. 0:01 left.
3rd Qtr: CROWN POINT (19-13) Russell Chick, 7-yard run. 63 yards, 9 plays (all runs by Russell Chick). Michael Lipton kick was blocked (bad snap). 7:30 left.
4th Qtr: HOBART (20-19) Andrew Jackson, 1-yard run. 77 yards, 13 plays. Mike Josifovski kick hit the goal post. 2:02 left.
CROWN POINT (20-22) Michael Lipton, 39-yard field goal. 52-yard drive in 13 plays. 0:08 left.

RUSHING:
HOBART (44 carries, 161 yards, 3 TDs, one fumble)  Andrew Jackson (TB) 36-117 yards, 3 TDs;  
Jeremy Coons (FB) 2-1 yards; Matt Barras (QB) 6 carries, 43 yards (1 sack - 6)
  CROWN POINT (32 carries, 237 yards, 2 TDs) Russell Chick (TB) 26-179 yards, 2 TDs; Blake Mascarello (QB)  4 carries, 50 yards);  Nick Bruno (WB) 2 carries, 8 yards)

PASSING:

Hobart - Matt Barras (QB) 10-14, 133 yards, 0 TDs. 0 INTs;   
Crown Point - Blake Mascarello (QB) 10-22, 114 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs.

RECEIVING:

HOBART - Joey Aleman (WR) 1-33; Jeremy Coons (FB) 2-30;  Bobby James (WR) 6-70;

CROWN POINT - Zach Cecich (TE) 1-11 yards, Ron Burton (WR) 2-28 yards; Mike Kozlowski (FB) 2-12, Joe Maginot (TE) 1-15, Russell Chick (HB) 4-48.

TOTAL YARDS:

HOBART (294 yards, 19 first downs and 3 turnovers)
CROWN POINT (351 yards, 22 first downs and one turnover)

TURNOVERS:

HOBART (1) fumble;

CROWN POINT (3) 2 interceptions.
 

CROWN POINT (8-25-2007) - The Crown Point Bulldogs waited 24 hours for a chance to snatch their first win of the season.  CP's Michael Lipton waited almost 10 months.  Crown Point needed redemption from last week's 23-14 road loss at Lowell.  The CP boys had to listen to the 'What's wrong with Crown Point?' questions after losing on the road to the Class 4A No. 7 Red Devils.  Michael Lipton had a little more to erase.

In the 5A regional championship game last November in the rain and mud at LaPorte, Lipton missed a short kick at the end of regulation time which would have given CP the game and a berth in the semistate.  LaPorte won 28-21 in overtime.  The way life is for a kicker, Lipton, a three-sport athlete, hears more about that one missed kick, than he does about everything he does in three sports.

But it was different this time.  After a two-hour entertainment spectacular in front of a capacity crowd, the Bulldogs walked off with a roller-coaster, last second 22-20 win on a 39-yard field goal by Lipton with eight seconds left.

A crowd of about 4,000 saw new Hobart QB Matt Barras lead his team 77 yards in 13 plays to give Hobart a 20-19 lead on a run by all-state tailback Andrew Jackson (36 carries, 117 yards, 3 TDs) with 2:02 to play.  Faced with a second consecutive loss, CP responded with a 14-play drive covering 52 yards, which led to the deciding kick.

After senior halfback Russell Chick (26 carries, 179 yards) gained three yards on a first down play to put the ball at the Hobart 17, Mascarello threw an intentional incompletion to stop the clock. Then the controversy.

With the play clocks at both ends of the field not running, CP was called for a delay of-game penalty.  CP coach Chip Pettit vigorously protested the call, but game referees marked off five yards back to the Hobart 22-yard-line.  The Brickies then called time out even though the scoreboard said they didn't have any.  As the home crowd howled, refs ruled that the scoreboard was incorrect and Hobart did have that one last time out.  During all the whooping and hollering, Lipton, a varsity soccer forward, an up-and-coming JV basketball point guard and CP's veteran place-kicker, stood in the middle of the green grass field at 9:00 p.m. on Saturday night.

"All I thought about was last year's LaPorte game," said Lipton.  "I'm tired of hearing about it.  I'm tired of hearing people talk about it.  I needed to change it.  I heard about it a lot (last year) and I needed to prove that I wanted the pressure situations."

"I hit it and I saw it going left a little.  But I knew it had enough."

The surprising thing isn't that Lipton made the kick.  He's pretty strong from 40 yards in.  The big deal was that he was able to ignore the penalty turmoil and the time out.

"We called a time out to ice him," said Hobart's seventh-year coach Wally McCormack.  "And then he waits a minute and knocks it right through.  You have to give him credit."

"I focused," said Lipton.  "I kept doing practice kicks.  I didn't pay any attention to it.  (Justin) Cope took an extra half second on the hold.  I think he just wanted to make sure."

Both sides came out of this nonconference offensive showcase with a lot to be happy about.  Hobart coach Wally McCormack thought his team got the best of the physical play against the two-time Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) champions on their home field.  Crown Point badly needed a win after the opening loss at Lowell (2-0) and prior to the DAC opener on Labor Day weekend against Merrillville (2-0).

Hobart clearly dominated most of the first half.  Jackson (6-2, 235), Hobart's big tailback, carried on eight of Hobart's first 10 plays.  Junior quarterback Matt Barras tossed a play-action pass down the home sideline to Joey Aleman who was pulled down at the Crown Point 2-yard-line.  Jackson scored on the next play with 7:18 left in the first period.

CP responded with a 78-yard drive that stalled out at the Hobart 2-yard-line.  Lipton's first field goal of the game cut the Brickie lead to 7-3.

After an exchange of possessions, Hobart drove 52 yards to make it 13-3 with Jackson, who gained over 1,700 yards last season, scoring on a 2-yard run with 2:21 to go in the half. Even with Mike Josifovski's extra point attempt hitting a goal post and bouncing away, the Brickies held a 13-3 lead.  After Chris Fussell intercepted CP's Blake Mascarello at the Hobart 1-yard-line with 58 seconds left before halftime, Hobart seemed to be in control of the situation.  But on the next play, CP linebacker Lance LaMere blitzed through the Hobart line and downed Hobart fullback Jeremy Coons in the end zone for a two-point safety.  Crown Point was then able to drive 63 yards in seven plays including three pass completions by Mascarello and a 1-yard run by Chick with a second left in the half.

The Bulldogs converted a two-point conversion pass from Mascarello to tight end Joe Maginot, and instead of trailing by 10 at the half, the game was tied 13-13.

Hobart dominated most of the first half and the first half of the fourth quarter, running the big back Jackson behind the offensive line of Zack Knox (6-0, 230), Roy Hall (6-0, 245), Andrew Walsdorf (6-3, 215), Korey Rinas (6-0, 250) and Kevin Koselke (6-4, 250).  But Crown Point dominated the third quarter running the much smaller Chick behind Matt Polus (6-2, 255), Zach Brumm (5-11, 220), Nick Colonna (5-11, 240), Jason Hulen (6-2, 255) and Kurt Wermers (6-5, 270).

Chick carried the ball on nine consecutive plays starting the second half as the Bulldogs went 63 yards to score the TD (a 7-yard Chick run) that made it 19-13.  When Nick Hladek and Andrew Szymborski forced Barras to fumble at the CP 38 with 1:15 left in the third quarter, CP could have taken control of the game.  But Nathan Pope intercepted Mascarello at the Hobart 5-yard-line and ran it back to the 22 to start the drive for Hobart's final TD.

McCormack was very proud of his team, including Barras (5-10, 165), who was 15-2-1 as Hobart's JV quarterback the past two seasons.

"Last week, I would have liked to get Matt some more throwing in," McCormack said.  "I thought for his first varsity start, he did a very admirable job.  If you ask him, he'd be upset because No. 93 made a heckuva play and stripped him of the ball.  Hladek's a helluva player."

McCormack was clearly upset because Hobart almost certainly wins this game if they do not give up the safety in the final minute of the first half.  After Chris Fussell intercepted Mascarello at the one yard line, Hobart had to line up with the backs in their own end zone and try to run a play to run out the clock.

"The safety hurt us," McCormack admitted.  "They had gone into their '4-4' look (CP usually lines up in a 3-5-3 formation) and LaMere was coming downhill like a ton of bricks.  We tried to offset to get our guys closer to the line of scrimmage.  We tried to call a time out, but we were told we didn't have any.  Later, they said we did have a time out.  But those are the kind of things that it would have been nice to experience last week."

CP's Szymborski said that he got in the back field on the safety but it wasn't him.

"That was mostly Lance," said Szymborksi, a state finalist wrestler.  "We all got penetration, but it was Lance who got him."

This was an excellent game that cannot help but help both sides.

"You've got to applaud them, said McCormcak who gave Crown Point a lot of credit for the rallies.  "This was a very good game.  We've got a bunch of guys weighing 210 pounds who aren't D-1 guys.  How many yards did we go for tonight?"

The reality was that CP outgained Hobart unofficially 351-294, but McCormack's point was that his guys were tough, too, and they proved that.

Everybody had to wait as the threat of bad weather postponed the Crown Point 2007 season home opener 24 hours from Friday to Saturday night.  But it was worth waiting for.  Hobart's offense might be the best in NW Indiana.  Barras looked very good in his first real game (the Brickies won 63-0 over Gary West Side in the season opener).  Josifovski is an excellent kicker and the Brickies' offensive line is solid.  Add to that the two best offensive players in NW Indiana in Jackson and WR Bobby James, who made several difficult catches Saturday, and Hobart's offense is top flight.

The Brickie defense gave up a lot of yards, but Hobart won't see many balanced offenses like CP's with three-year starters in the offensive line and at quarterback.  The Hobart coach repeated the same phrase he used after his team followed up last year's loss to CP with nine consecutive victories.

"We've got a lot of goals for this team," McCormack, a state finalist coach of Andrean (2002) said, "and none of them have anything to do with week two."

Crown Point also must know they will see bigger and faster teams than Hobart, but Pettit did not say anything like that.

"You've been around us for a long time," he said, "so you can believe what I'm saying when I tell you that we try not to get too low after a loss or too high after any win."

This might have been the best game of Blake Mascarello's career.  In a lot of CP games in the past two seasons, the Bulldogs have been dominant and Blake had been plenty good enough.  His numbers from 2006 (133 of 225, 2,080 yards, 26 TDs) were very impressive but almost every Bulldogs' numbers were.

On Saturday night, Mascarello's numbers were not great.  But he led his team down the field at the end of the second quarter to tie the game and at the end of the fourth quarter to win a game they appeared to be losing several times.  The left-handed varsity baseball pitcher threw two interceptions that could have been costly, but he also picked up crucial yardage running the football and converted fourth down plays to keep drives alive.

"Blake did what you would hope a senior with his experience would be able to do," said Pettit.  "He played very well at the end of the half and at the end of the game."

Mascarello, who completed a 13-yard pass to senior Ron Burton on 4th-and-9 at the Crown Point 27-yard line with five minutes to play, now seemed to make the calm decisions of a veteran.

"I dont think we were thinking about last week," he said of the Lowell loss.  "You've got to learn from it and I think we did.  We played better tonight.  Even if we had not won, we'd played so much better tonight."

Mascarello said he really doesn't mind that followers of the team wondered what was wrong with the Bulldogs in the week after the nine-point loss at Lowell.  CP is coming off two consecutive undefeated seasons.

"You hear it," Blake said after Saturday's game.  "We all hear it.  But you can't take it too seriously.  It's not a bad thing.  You think about it, but it's in the back of your mind.  Tonight helps a lot.  We'll be all right."

DOG NOTES:  This was an unusual game because neither team punted.  There were only 14 offensive possessions and just six in the second half.  Usually each team gets the ball at least 10 times every game and both teams punt four or five times.

"You had to make the most of your possessions," said Pettit.  "Our offensive line made strides tonight.  We were not very good at Lowell."

This is the third consecutive season that Crown Point has defeated Hobart, which still leads the all-time series 45-11.  The Brickies were 10-2 last season, losing only to Crown Point 38-24 and Lowell 31-28.

Hobart coach Wally McCormack said that the Brickies did not give the ball to Andrew Jackson on a first down from their own one-yard-line in the final minute of the first half because of the basic formation the Brickies run out of.

"I didn't want to give the ball to Andrew Jackson seven yards deep in the end zone," McCormack explained.  "We moved the backs up near the line."

CP's Michael Lipton understands that place-kickers are not supposed to miss.  Lipton hit 39 of 42 extra points last year and he made four field goals as a sophomore.

But the last kick at LaPorte, a 19-yarder off a muddy field, is the one everyone remembers.

"That's true," he said Saturday.  "Everybody remembers LaPorte.  Nobody remembers Portage." 

Lipton's extra point kick in overtime on another bad weather night broke a 13-13 tie and gave CP a 14-13 sectional semifinal win over Portage last October.

Blake Mascarello said he wasn't happy with the Friday postponement after the night came up clear and dry.

"I stepped outside at 7 o'clock Friday night just to make sure and the sun was out," he said.  "I tried to relax.  It felt like last week when we didn't have school.  When you are in school, the routine is a lot easier for football."

Hobart's Brickie Bowl was under water last weekend due to heavy week-long rains.  The game, fortunately, was scheduled for Crown Point's five-year old field at the new high school.  The CP field was damp, but it did not affect the play.  The photo of the flooded Brickie Bowl that many of you may have seen in the Times newspaper Saturday was taken by Jessica Koscielniak, a former CP star golfer who is now a regular photographer for the daily Northwest Indiana paper.

Merrillville's defense held Griffith to 178 total yards in a 14-6 win over the 4A No. 9 Panthers Saturday night, in another game rain-delayed from Friday.  Ronneal Wiliams, one of Merrillville's twin running backs) gained 122 yards on 22 carries for the 5A No. 3 Pirtaes (2-0), who beat Warren Central 17-10 in week one.

Facing Merrillville means that ace kickers and soccer players Michael Lipton and Ryan Stokes match up.  The all-time series is tied 30-30.  Even coaches Chip Pettit and Zac Wells both played for the schools they now coach, are virtually the same age and played against each other.  Mascarello smiled when he thought about playing the Pirates on Aug. 30.

"Its Merrillville," he said.  "There's no other thing to say for us.  It's big.  I love Merrillville.  Everybody knows everybody.  I'm kinda friends with the twins.  I might hang out with them (Sunday)."

"Their defense is good.  They fly around and they get to the ball.  There's no getting around that.  I saw the Warren Central game.  That defense is good."

Many coaches don't like Saturday football because it creates a short preparation week.  But CP coach Chip Pettit said, "I'm not against doing it again."