Crown Point's 20-point 1st Quarter shocks Brickies in 26-0 shutout at home

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

8-27-2005

Friday, Aug. 26, 2005,  81 degrees, mostly sunny/clear at Crown Point

1st Qtr:  CP (6-0) Tommy Isailovich, 72-yard option pass from Ryan Forney. 78-yard drive, 2 plays -kick wide - 11:37 left.

CP (13-0) Donny Keiser, 7-yard run (2^nd TD). 7-yard drive, 1 play - Brad Mallers kick - 11:12 left.

CP (20-0) Donny Keiser, 59-yard run (3^rd TD). 59-yard drive, 1 play - Brad Mallers kick - 2:05.

2nd Qtr:  CP (23-0) Keiser, 30-yard field goal. 54-yard drive, 10 plays - 2:21 left.
3rd Qtr:  No scoring.
4th Qtr:  CP (26-0) Keiser, 27-yard field goal. 25-yard drive. 6 plays 3:50 left.

GAME TOTALS (Unofficial Numbers)

1^st DOWNS:  Crown Point (7); HOBART (3)

TURNOVERS: Crown Point (2) ; HOBART (4)

PENALTIES: Crown Point 5-45 yards; HOBART 3-15 yards

RUSHING: 

(CP) 26-127 yards 2 TDs, fumble

(HOBART) 31-35 yards, 0 fumbles, 0 TDs

PASSING: 

Blake Mascarello (CP) 3-8, 39 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs

Ryan Forney (CP) 1-1, 72 yards, TD

Josh Miracle (HOBART) 6-21, 43 yards, 4 interceptions

RECEIVING:

CP: Tom Isailovich 1-72, TD; Jon Sertich 1-21; Ryan Walsh 1-1;

Tommy Parks 1-7 yards;

HOBART: Mike Brown 3-21; Richard Mitchell 1-11; Bill Crew 1-4, Bobby James 1-7

PUNTS:

Donny Keiser (CP) 3-108 (36.0), one blocked; Brett Rayner (H) 5-133 (26.6)

CROWN POINT (8-26-2005) - It did not seem possible that Crown Point, which held defending 4A Sectional 9 champion Lowell to 208 yards and six points in week one of the 2005 football season, could do better in week two.

They did.

In a defensive show that was even more dominating than the win at Lowell, Crown Point held Hobart's defending Lake Athletic Conference (LAC) champions to just 84 yards and no points.

And again, this is a team that will play until mid-October at least without injured (knee) senior quarterback Matt Jansen, who passed for almost 2,000 yards last year and injured (broken collarbone) wide receiver / defensive back Matt Ernest, who had 47 receptions (1,031 yards) and five pass interceptions last season.

Hobart won their first game 50-6. Lowell came back from the loss to CP to crush Calumet 61-14. Lowell and Hobart are not bad teams.

How is this happening?

“Everybody on this team is putting in the hard work,” said running back-place kicker-punter Donny Keiser, who epitomizes his team's ability and willingness to be versatile. “Everybody is putting out the effort. Even if they have to fill in at a position they've never played before. They've got the heart for it.”

Coach Chip Pettit gives all praise to a quick and experienced defense which has shut down two of the traditionally elite small school running attacks in the state.

“We didn't think they could score on us,” said Pettit. “We thought the only way they'd score was if their defense did.  Our defense accepted the challenge and rose to it.”

“We run a bunch of different looks defensively. Sometimes three down (linemen), sometimes four and sometimes five. The 3-5 is our base. Every scheme out there has strengths and weaknesses. We've got about nine seniors that are very experienced and very good athletes and I think they would play well in any scheme. Our personnel is pretty good on that side of the ball.”

Crown Point went deep into the trick bag to jump to an early lead.

On the first play of the game, sophomore quarterback Blake Mascarello handed off to halfback Jon Sertich on what looked like an innocent sweep to the short side of the field. But Sertich lateraled the ball to junior receiver Ryan Forney, who was running towards the wide side of the field. Forney tucked the ball away and took about four strides, before he raised his arm and fired a pass of about 35 yards to senior receiver Tommy Isailovoich who was wide open near the visitors' sidelines.

Isailovich raced to the end zone and Crown Point led 6-0 after just 23 seconds of play.

“It was play we were going to run on either the first or the second play of the game,” revealed Pettit. “We thought it would work.”

Before Hobart could recover, they were down 14-0. Donny Keiser's kickoff went into the end zone for a touch back and on 2nd-and-2 from the Hobart 28, Brickie junior Josh Miracle threw a pass to the wide side of the field that deflected off the intended receiver to defensive back Jeremy Plummer, who returned the ball 36 yards to the Hobart 7-yard-line. Keiser ran it into the end zone on the next play and the Bulldogs led by two touchdown after less than a minute.

That took away a little of Hobart's game, which is rushing the ball between the tackles behind an offensive line led by Adam Bailey (6-3, 340) and John Boyd (6-0, 265) and Don Brown (6-0, 265).

“We heard they were big and powerful up from,” said CP defensive tackle Nick Conway. “And they were. We just tried to stay low and play football. To score two touchdowns in 48 seconds. It was just crazy.”

“Defensively we were pretty good at times,” said Hobart coach Wally McCormack. “But we never got anything going offensively. We could have survived 6-0 but then the pass goes off our receiver and its 13-0 and we were in the hole. Stupid penalties. Blocked punts. Those are not things good football teams do. And I have to take the blame for that.”

Hobart punted three times in the first quarter and Sertich returned the third one seven yards to the Crown Point 42-yard-line. On the next play, Kesier ran around right tackle to the wide side of the field. In a play that spoke volumes, Keiser outran the entire Hobart defense to the goal line, a 58-yard score.

Keiser (6-0, 205), who showed no effects from a shoulder injury late in the 16-6 victory over Lowell on Aug 19, is not a sprinter but he looked like one on this play. It was a combination of the CP player feeling good and fast and the Hobart defenders being a step slow. Either way it was 23-0 with 2:05 left in the first quarter and you're rarely going to make that deficit up no matter who you are.

“We got rattled,” said coach Wally McCormack, “We dropped punts. We've got a young team. We got guys hurt and we started subbing guys in who didn't know what to do. And then we started to make a lot of mistakes.”

Mascarello, CP's sophomore starting quarterback for the immediate future, completed 3-of-8 passes for 54 yards. He did lose a fumble and the left-handed baseball pitcher's ball-handling was not as good as it was against Lowell. But he did what he had to do. Since the Bulldogs didn't throw much, they didn't miss Ernest on offense and CP's front eight rarely allowed Hobart QB Josh Miracle time to throw. Plummer grabbed three of CP's four interceptions (Forney got the other one) and Crown Point was never in danger of losing this game.

“It's been crazy at practice to have people filling in every week,” said Conway, who is the key lineman in the 3-5 defense because he has to be active enough to occupy two blockers. “We've had sophomores filling in. People stepping up. When (Matt) Ernest got hurt, we were kind of used to it. Somebody else had to fill in. It was just a another bump in the road.”

“That's the nature of the game,” said Pettit, who didn't get too 'down' after the injuries and wasn't overjoyed Friday night. “We've had some kids step up. I thought our offensive line played well and our defensive line was outstanding. What did they have, 79 yards?” Defensively, we are putting our offense in great position. Offensively, we're still having a little bit of trouble staying out of our own way at times. As our offensive line goes is how we'll go.”

Hobart was jolted but McCormack realized that they won't see an odd defense like Crown Point's again and the Brickies certainly hope they won't run into a similar game-opening scenario again where they were in a double digit hole after 48 seconds.

“I told the kids, this game has nothing to do with whether we will be league champions and it has nothing to do with whether we will be sectional champions,” he said. 'We have a lot of inexperienced kids. Our goal is to be playing our best week in week 10.”

“I told the kids, 'When the season is over, your legacy to Hobart football will not be measured by tonight. It will be measured by what you do starting tomorrow.'”

Crown Point's seniors know that, while the first two wins have been great triumphs, the 'real' season has not yet begun. Next up is next Friday's Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) opener at home against Class 5A No. 3 Merrillville, a team CP has defeated in each of the last three years.  But the Pirates field a vastly superior team talent-wise and a squad that has leveled East Chicago 82-0 and Highland 47-0 in the first two weeks of the season.

“They have a lot of weapons,” said Conway, who found out before CP's game ended that the Pirates had won by 47 points.

“Yeah, I heard. It's going to be another great game here. I played both games against them last year. The first time, everybody was so so excited because we were beating them (7-3). The second game, we came out a little flat and they beat us (34-19).”

“It should be great. We'll just play the same defense.”

BULLDOG NOTES:  The last time Crown Point was 2-0 was in 2002 when they were 4-0 and finished at 8-3. CP was 3-0 in 1997 and also finished 8-3. Of course, the Bulldogs were 2-0 in 1998 and ended up at 4-6.

The DAC might be undergoing a power shift. Cellar-dwellers Michigan City and Lake Central are both 2-0 while Chesterton is 0-2.

These early results are inconclusive. Valparaiso starts the season with superpower Penn and weak Gary Roosevelt so they always begin at 1-1. Things change quickly when league play begins.

Injured CP stars Matt Jansen and Matt Ernest both expect to come back this season. Jansen, who was injured on Aug. 12, wants to return in October for the state tournament, which begins on Oct. 21. Ernest, who was hurt on Aug. 19, is said to be out for six weeks and hopes to be back for the Chesterton game on Oct. 7.

Players are notoriously optimistic. Jansen's knee simply requires re-habilitation so it is likely he could play in two months. Ernest's recovery from a broken collarbone to the point where he can take hits or make tackles is less likely but not at all impossible. Jansen does not play a winter sport. Ernest is expected to start for CP in basketball this winter.

The crowd at Crown Point Friday appeared to be near capacity in CP's 5,000-seat stadium but athletic director Jerry Caravana said, “About 3,300. That (5,000) is based on everybody squeezing together side by size. Nobody does that. But it's a good crowd. Hobart brought a good crowd.”

Obviously, Crown Point spends a lot of time working on multiple offensive sets. Although early this season, with a new quarterback, the Bulldogs really haven't thrown the ball much at all.

“The days of us throwing 20-25 times a game are probably over for a while,” admits coach Chip Pettit.

But the opposition can't count on that. If anyone at Crown Point wonders what are the advantages of all the multiple formations that Crown Point shows listen to Hobart coach Wally McCormack.

“We watched what they were doing in the scrimmage,” said McCormack, “and you've got to prepare for what they do in the scrimmage with (Matt) Jansen. Even though they're probably not going to be able to do that anymore. But you can't show up for a game and the other team lines up in five wide outs (wide receivers) and then you have to call a time out.”

“They simplified a lot of things last week but we knew they would give him (sub QB Blake Mascarello) more of the offense this week. We spent so much time preparing, lining up against different things, that we didn't come out and execute.”

CROWN POINT (2-0) 

Season Statistics to Date

Passing

(QB) Blake Mascarello 7-14, 110 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs

(WR) Rtyan Forney 1-1, 72 yards, 1 TD

Receiving

(WR) Tom Isailovich 1-72 yards, TD

(WR) Matt Ernest 1-31 yards,

(WR) Ryan Forney 1-25 yards,

(HB) Jon Sertich 1-18 yards

(TE) Ryan Walsh 1-11 yards

(FB) Tommy Parks 3-25 yards

Rushing

(HB) Jon Sertich 34-158 yards (5.6) 1 TD

(FB) Donny Keiser 19-150 yards (7.9) 2 TDs

(FB) Tommy Parks 6-37 yards (6.2)

(HB) Russell Chick 6-34 yards (5.7)

Tackles

(LB) Vince Lewis - 17

(LB) Chris Wilson - 12

(LB) Jordan Rhye - 12

(LB) Nick Ciochina - 11

(SS) Jon Sertich - 9

(DT) Nick Conway - 9

(LB) Chris Schillo - 8

Kickoffs: Donny Keiser (11-57.9 avg)

Punts: Donny Keiser (8-35.1 avg.)

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Revised: August 30, 2005 .