Bulldogs impressive in football scrimmage at Highland
A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
8-13-2007

2007 Crown Point Football

Championships
SECTIONALS (3) 1988, 1991, 2006
REGIONALS (1) 1988

Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC)  Varsity coach: Chip Pettit (41-26, 6 seasons)

Aug. 17 (F) at Lowell (7-6)
Aug. 24 (F) Hobart  (10-2)
Aug. 31 (F) MERRILLVILLE (7-5)
Sep. 7 (F) at LAKE CENTRAL (4-6)
Sep. 14 (F) at Portage (6-5)
Sep. 21 (F) Valparaiso (4-6)
Sep. 28 (F) LaPorte (10-4)
Oct. 5  (F) at Chesterton (5-6)
Oct. 12 (F) Michigan City (1-9)

2006 SEASON (12-1)
Aug. 18 (W) 17-0 Lowell
Aug. 25 (W) 34-20 at Hobart
Sep. 1 (W) 17-2 at Merrillville
Sep. 8 (W) 31-14 Lake Central
Sep. 15 (W) 17-10 Portage
Sep. 22 (W) 35-21 at Valparaiso
Sep. 29 (W) 42-41 at LaPorte
Oct. 6 (W) 41-21 Chesterton
Oct. 13 (W) 45-13 at Michigan City
5A Sectional One
Oct. 20 (W) 49-0 at Lake Central
Oct. 27 (W) 14-13 (OT) Portage
Nov. 3 (W) 28-7 Merrillville
5A Regional championship
Nov. 10 (L) 21-28 (OT) at LaPorte

2005 SEASON (11-1)
Aug. 19 (W) 16-6 at Lowell
Aug. 26 (W) 26-0 Hobart
Sep. 2 (W) 13-0 Merrillville
Sep. 9 (W) 23-0 at Lake Central
Sep. 16 (W) 31-21 at Portage
Sep. 23 (W) 13-10 Valparaiso
Sep. 30 (W) 35-14 LaPorte
Oct. 7 (W) 34-17 at Chesterton
Oct. 14 (W) 47-7 Michigan City
5A Sectional one
Oct. 21 (W) 45-20 at Valparaiso
Oct. 28 (W) 34-0 Chesterton
Nov. 4 (L) 13-16 at Merrillville

HIGHLAND (8-10-2007)  Scrimmages are tough to rate.  Nobody can be that bad and no one can be that great.  The atmosphere of Friday night's CP-Highland scrimmage was such that there were no numbers on the yard lines.  Penalties were called, but not marked off.  A small crowd applauded sometimes as if they were at the theater and largely just sat and chatted among themselves.  The whole scene screamed, 'This does not count.'

With that as the scale, Crown Point seemed to get much of what they wanted to out of the two hours of preseason football in a warm, humid, mid-summer night away from home.

CP outscored Highland 10 touchdowns to four.  But at one point, CP scored four TDs in eight plays.  QB Blake Mascarello, one of five CP quarterbacks to get on the field, tossed TD passes to seniors Zach Cecich, Joe Maginot and Joe Baker plus Boone Grove transfer Ron Burton.

The Bulldogs' defense allowed a few too many broken tackles, but with the frequent substitutions to allow everyone to play, it was difficult to see which of the sloppier grabs came from boys who will are on the junior varsity.  CP had almost 100 kids in uniform and they seemed to try to do their best to get them all in for a few plays.

"Obviously it's not a game situation because you're not keeping score," said CP's seventh year coach Chip Pettit.  "But for the kids who have not experienced a Friday night where they'd had a major role in it, this was a good experience for them.  Nobody got hurt so it was good all around."

Senior tailback Russell Chick (5-10, 180) ran for two TDs, one a 35 to 40 yard run on which he showed enough speed to impress anyone who wanted to know if CP had a another running back in the pipeline to replace 1,000-yard rushers Donny Keiser (2005) and Jon Sertich (2006).

"I think Russell will continue to get better as he gets more carries.  In his catching, running the ball and blocking, he's a pretty complete player.  We don't have any questions about Russell Chick's ability."

Highland scored first on a pass from QB Jordan Graf to junior wide receiver Mark Fentress.  CP then scored four times on a series of plays from the 10-yard line on the next possession with Mascarello, the left-hander who completed 133 of 255 passes for 2,080 yards and 26 TDs last year, threw a TD to Maginot (6-3, 220), the Bulldogs tight end who will get more time this year in two TE sets with Cecich.

Mascarello also found Burton (6-2, 180), the 2005 Andrean starter who attended Boone in 2006, for two TDs.  The big CP offensive line which included Kurt Wermers (6-5, 270), Jason Hulen (6-2, 255), Zach Henderson (6-2, 295), Mark Polus (6-2, 255) and Mark Seip (6-0, 245) early, gave the quarterback a lot of time to throw.  It was impressive the ease at which the Bulldogs scored once they got started.

"I thought all of our kids who had an opportunity to catch the ball, did that," said Pettit.  "There were a couple of drops later on. but for the most part everybody caught the ball."

Highand was overpowered defensively, but on offense, they were not bad with Graf and starting QB Adam Musielak (6-1, 193) throwing the ball well.

"We played without four or five guys," said Highland coach Eric Miller.  "Emilio Covarrubias (5-9, 190) is our top running back and he just had knee surgery.  He'll be back pretty soon.  I thought Johnny Tyler (5-9, 174) did a good job out there."

"I thought we held our own out there," Miller added.  "You can look at the TDs we scored and see we moved the ball.  But they (CP) are big and they are good.  We scrimmage them every year now and it's good, because we know that coach Pettit does a good job and they are always going to have a lot of depth and a quality team."

SCRIMMAGE NOTES:  CP's defensive front appeared to have Cody Blue (6-3, 230) at noseguard with Matt Childress (6-2, 260) and Nick Hladek (5-9, 195) at ends early on.
There were many different combinations on offense and defense.  There was no kicking and punting in the scrimmage.

Among the five quarterbacks who played from Crown Point were starter Blake Mascarello and backup Marcus Shrewsbury.  Two other QBs were two of CP's state championship Babe Ruth baseball all-stars, Beau LaSalle and Spencer Rapchak.  Rapchak scrambled 20 yards for a late touchdown.  Freshman Joel Johnson (5-10, 150) was the fifth CP quarterback.

Those who watched closely in the late going saw offensive tackle Jared Smoot (6-7, 210), an incoming freshman make his CPHS debut.

"He played at the Middle School last year," said Pettit, who could not say how big Smoot would eventually be.  "His dad's a big man."

Word is that CP varsity basketball coach Clint Swan, who has plenty of talent for this season, is well aware that Smoot is joining the freshman class.

Quarterbacks in the scrimmage wore a different shirt from any of the other offensive players and the play was whistled dead when anyone touched either QB.

Crown Point players ran laps across the field for 10 minutes after the scrimmage. Turns out it wasn't a penalty for poor play.

"No, its just been so hot during the day," explained Pettit.  "We finally have some weather we can condition in.  We're giving them two days off after this so we just thought we could get some conditioning in."